Pastor on Eucharistic day of rest: ‘Jesus is real, powerful, trustworthy and here’
Late in life, when France’s once-wildly triumphant Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte was in exile, he was asked to talk about the happiest day of his life.
“Without missing a beat, he exclaimed, ‘The happiest day was the day I made my First Holy Communion!’” proclaimed Monsignor Robert A. Kurwicki, vicar general of the Jefferson City diocese and pastor of St. Peter Parish in Jefferson City.
Napoleon was who sold the 828,000-square-mile Louisiana Territory — today consisting of all or parts of 13 states, including Missouri — to U.S. President Thomas Jefferson, after whom the city and diocese are named.
The priest who gave Napoleon his First Communion remained a friend for life and was visited regularly by his inordinately influential communicant.
“There is the saying,” said Msgr. Kurwicki, “‘If we really understood what was going on at Mass, we would all die! Not out of fear, but out of love.”
For those who are privileged to receive Holy Communion often, it’s possible to become complacent or “receive by rote.”
“But what we are receiving is the Bread of Angels, the Bread of Life, our Lord and God, truly present!” said Msgr. Kurwicki.
“Heroes and heroines”
As part of a Day of Rest and Revival observed on Independence Day by pilgrims passing through the diocese on the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage, St. Peter Parish hosted all-day Adoration of the Most Blessed Sacrament, with hourly meditations and devotions.
The 11 o’clock hour brought an encapsulation of local Eucharistic history.
“I’m going to be talking here a bit as a historian and a bit as a priest and hopefully will not only give you some additional knowledge but also a little bit of edification into all that was accomplished by the forbears — those heroes and heroines of the past who did so much to build up the Catholic Church in our area,” said Msgr. Kurwicki.
He reiterated that the Eucharist is the source and summit of the Christian life, that it is truly the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ, and that Jesus instituted the Holy Eucharist as a perpetual institution at the Last Supper, commanding his Apostles to “do this in memory of me.”
“That clear directive was also given to every priest who came after that,” said Msgr. Kurwicki.
He noted that because transportation in early 19th century Missouri was mostly by rivers and their tributaries, the first priests came to the middle of the state by boat.
“The Jesuit missionaries would get into boats and travel with the fur traders, who knew where the villagers were, because the priests wanted to win souls for Christ,” said Msgr. Kurwicki.
Jesuit Father Ferdinand Helias D’Huddghem, a son of Belgian nobility, built Cole County’s first church, St. Francis Xavier in what is now known as Taos, in 1838.
He had begun visiting Jefferson City two years previously, offering the Capital City’s first Mass on record in the Upschulte House.
That home was moved in the 1980s from where the Truman State Office Building now stands to the site of the Cole County Historical Museum.
He named the new Catholic mission in honor of St. Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Jesuit order.
That mission later became St. Peter Parish.
“He only had Mass here on the second Sunday of each month,” said Msgr. Kurwicki, noting that it was part of Fr. Helias’s rotating mission circuit.
Diocesan priests began ministering in the Capital City long before Fr. Helias, known today as the “Apostle of Central Missouri,” died in Taos 150 years ago this August.
Father James Murphy, a diocesan priest from Ireland, in 1846 became Jefferson City’s first Catholic resident pastor, and St. Peter became the St. Louis archdiocese’s 59th parish.
“Two churches were built here before this one,” Msgr. Kurwicki noted. “By the time this one was completed in 1883, Fr. Helias had gone to meet God” — and St. Ignatius.
Msgr. Kurwicki is only the 20th pastor in the parish’s history. Several of his predecessors ministered there for decades at a time.
He surmised that the name St. Peter was chosen partially in honor of Archbishop Peter Richard Kenrick, the St. Louis archdiocese’s longest-serving archbishop.
“This is a sacred spot,” Msgr. Kurwicki declared. “Just think of all the many priests and many people who have encountered God here and received the Eucharist since the first church was built here!”
Beating heart
What is now known as St. Peter Proto-Cathedral became the focal point of the newly founded Diocese of Jefferson City on July 2, 1956, comprising areas that were once part of the St. Louis archdiocese and the former dioceses of Kansas City and St. Joseph.
“We became the center of the Church in the state,” Msgr. Kurwicki said.
The goal for having the see of a diocese in the same city as the seat of state government was to facilitate dialogue among Church and state officials.
“And those conversations have, in fact, taken place over the years,” he said. “Sometimes friendly, sometimes in opposition, depending on the topic. But we’ve always maintained a very good relationship with the State of Missouri.”
St. Peter served as the cathedral from 1956 until the Cathedral of St. Joseph was completed in 1968.
“In those dozen years, this was the beating heart of the diocese,” Msgr. Kurwicki said. “Our priests were ordained here to bring the Living Bread of Life to people throughout the 38 counties of this diocese. Our missionaries to Peru were sent from here.”
The first concelebrated Mass in the diocese was celebrated in St. Peter’s shortly after the close of the Second Vatican Council in 1965.
This took place nine years after Bishop Marling, who attended all four sessions of the Council, was installed as bishop of Jefferson City.
“Here with us”
Msgr. Kurwicki said the history of the Eucharist here becomes more momentous and inscrutable with each passing decade.
“When you come to an old parish like this, there is no way to fathom how many Masses have been said here, how many Confessions have been heard here, how many marriages have been blessed here, how many Holy Communions received here.
“What you do know is this: Jesus is real. Jesus is powerful. Jesus is here. And ‘Jesus, I trust in you!’” he said.
The priest suggested that every time the Body and Blood of Christ are raised up during the Eucharistic Prayer at Mass, the people should pray silently the words St. Thomas the Apostle exclaimed while kneeling before the resurrected Christ: “My Lord and my God.”
“My friends, that’s what Jesus is for us,” said Msgr. Kurwicki. “And he’s here with us.”
The priest urged everyone present to receive Holy Communion in a state of grace — having been absolved of all mortal sins in the Sacrament of Reconciliation — “and as many times as possible.”
“And when you do, take time to pray for all the people who want to be there at Mass with you but cannot,” he said.
He requested fervent prayers for God to call more men to be priests, and for those men to hear and act upon that call.
He urged everyone to pray and work to bring inactive Catholics back to the practice of their faith.
“Jesus is here with us today because he loves us and wants to feed us, and he wants us to be strong,” said Msgr. Kurwicki. “And the last thing he wants is for us to keep that to ourselves.”
