“The Eucharist is my highway to heaven.”

– (Soon-to-Be) Saint Carlo Acutis

Eeeeek! Let me pause for a minute to do some backflips!!! A real-life saint. A saint who was alive only 18 years ago?!? Who owned a literal PlayStation?!?

I’ll admit, I can’t actually do a backflip, so let’s all just pause for a minute instead to picture the statues, paintings, or stained glass images of saints at our parishes. How many at yours show a teenager dressed like they’re ready to meet you at the park this afternoon? None? Well, it’s alright, my parish doesn’t have any either (yet!).

Later this month, someone who lived to about your and my age — and would only be twice the age of a teenager if he were alive today — is being canonized, or declared a saint, by the Catholic Church. This is huge because it means holiness is still possible in this crazy world we live in. It proves you and I can become saints, too.

Carlo Acutis was born on May 3rd, 1991. Sadly, he died from leukemia at age 15 on October 12th, 2006. Although his parents were not especially religious when he was born, Carlo was devoted to Jesus in the Eucharist from a young age. After his First Communion, he was committed to daily Mass. At only nine years old, he started researching and collecting information on Eucharistic Miracles, which he would compile to create a website and a traveling exhibition. He recorded over 150 occasions of Eucharistic Miracles. (As I was reading through them, this one that happened in Venezuela really stuck out to me… check it out!)

Carlo describes many miracles, including instances where Jesus’ sacred Blood suddenly drips from the consecrated Host, his face appears on the Host, or the Eucharist miraculously heals people of their illnesses. These powerful miracles uncover the truth that, at every Catholic Mass, bread and wine are transformed into Jesus’s Precious Body and Blood. Carlo certainly knew the gravity of this reality. It is nothing to be overlooked — the blessed moment when the Eucharist touches our tongue. It is the most remarkable miracle that God would desire to humble himself to be in communion with us and transform us — yet while we were still sinners! (See Romans 5:8.)

Providentially, Carlo Acutis will be canonized on April 27th, 2025, which is also the date of this year’s Divine Mercy Sunday. The truest and most beautiful place where Mercy is found is Christ on the cross — Christ in the Eucharist. Carlo dedicated his life to leading people to this “fountain of Mercy.” He questioned why he saw huge crowds of people lining up to get into concerts and football games but few people racing toward the Eucharist. 

In his mercy, even when we do not race toward Jesus, he still runs toward us, desiring so deeply to be with us. Just think of all the people who, on the way to work, or school, or the grocery store, have driven right past their local Catholic Church, right past Jesus in the Eucharist, without even realizing it. Unknowingly, they may have been a mere 20 feet from our loving God, Creator of the universe. What an act of love and mercy that our Lord pursues us and is near to us, even when we are unaware of his presence! Even for those who attend Mass regularly, it is near impossible to grasp the magnitude of what it means to receive Holy Communion. Jesus pours himself out in mercy anyway as we seek to comprehend the great mystery of his Death and Resurrection!

Carlo, the “Saint in Sneakers,” once said, “When we face the sun we get a tan… but when we stand before Jesus in the Eucharist we become saints.” We might be standing before Jesus wearing sneakers like Carlo, but that doesn’t matter. (If anything, it helps to have reliable footwear on the “highway to heaven,” don’t you think?) We must simply look upon Jesus in the Eucharist and receive his Body and Blood so that we can be completely united to him. His grace transforms us and makes us saints. He is so blessedly close to us, and he draws us ever closer to his merciful heart.

In the Eucharist, our Lord approaches us, gently saying, “Beloved, there is Mercy in store for you.” Might we continually grow in our love, awe, reverence, and appreciation for the Eucharist? For Jesus? This was Carlo’s “highway to heaven,” and it can surely be ours, too!

Saint Carlo Acutis, 

pray for us, each and every one of us,

that we may join you in heaven

and behold the face of God!