MEMPHIS, Tennessee – After the Crucifixion, Christians “gathered for Mass in secret” because they knew they could not live without the Eucharist, retired Archbishop J. Peter Sartain of Seattle told a Memphis audience.
Just like the early Christians needed the Eucharist in their grief-filled days following the Crucifixion, he said, modern-day Catholics have a continuing need for the Eucharist.
Mass was celebrated in secret “and in violation of the Roman edict against such worship,” Archbishop Sartain said, “because even then they realized that we cannot live without the Eucharist, and for that belief many of them were martyred.”
“Without the Eucharist, we would lack the faith to face our daily problems, and life would be very difficult for us all,” he said.
The archbishop made the comments in a session during the October 8–9 Memphis eucharistic congress, which was a first for the diocese.
After praying the Hail Mary with audience members, Archbishop Sartain began his address, titled “Go in Peace and Announce the Presence of the Lord.”
“I am not a professional speaker,” Archbishop Sartain said modestly, but his gentle words seemed to give a spiritual lift to his listeners.
He put Catholics’ need for the Real Presence in the Eucharist simply: “We cannot live without you [Christ], nor you without us; this simple truth is how the Eucharist leads us to inner peace.”
Three main points he made in his talk were:
— Jesus is peace: “He breaks the power of sin over us by dying,” Archbishop Sartain said. “He came to ransom us; to pay a ransom that we could not pay on our own. … Through the Eucharist, Jesus is sharing with us the fruits of his resurrection.”
— The Eucharist is peace: “He sets us free as debtors, which is how we came to him.”
— Faithfulness is peace: “We were not made for sin, we were made for God,” he said. “Christ himself is peace.”
To illustrate these points, Archbishop Sartain shared a painting of Jesus asleep in a boat on the Sea of Galilee, while his apostles pondered their fate in the storm-tossed waters.
“I have experienced great calm when looking at this picture, because Jesus was at peace — not just sleeping,” he explained. “He knew that all was well, when he rested with his Father.”
The eucharistic congress was a homecoming for Archbishop Sartain.
“I was born, raised and ordained right here in Memphis, and my favorite [assignment] was to be in a parish,” he told Catholic News Service.
Born in Memphis June 6, 1952, the youngest of five children and the only boy, he was ordained a priest of the Diocese of Memphis July 15, 1978.
“I served here for 22 years, and there are some people attending my talk today whom I’ve known all of their lives,” he said. “There have been marriages I performed where at least one person — either the bride or groom — was someone I had baptized as an infant.”
In addition to various parish assignments, then-Father Sartain served the Memphis Diocese as director of vocations, secretary for priests and deacons, vicar for temporal administration and for clergy personnel, chancellor and moderator of the curia, and vicar general.
He was serving as vicar general and pastor of St. Louis Church in Memphis when he was appointed bishop of Little Rock, Arkansas, in 2000. Six years later, he was named bishop of Joliet, Illinois, and in 2010, he was name Seattle’s archbishop.
He retired as head of the Archdiocese of Seattle in September 2019 for health reasons.
He had asked Pope Francis to appoint a coadjutor because of spinal problems he suffered that required several surgeries. In April of that year, Archbishop Paul D. Etienne of Anchorage, Alaska, was named coadjutor and he immediately succeeded Archbishop Sartain upon his retirement.
The retired prelate, 69, now resides in Hebrew Springs, Arkansas. “I am living life at a pace which fits my health,” he noted.
When asked if he was enjoying retirement, Archbishop Sartain said: “Very much so. It was a good decision that I made, and I can still do different things such as giving talks and spiritual direction to priests.”