This incursion by the British invited a response on the part of the French from Quebec. The French expedition, sent under the command of Captain P. Claude de Contrecouer, arrived at the Point and established Fort Duquesne in 1754. The fort was to be their staging point to establish control over southwestern Pennsylvania and the rivers that ran through it.

With the French expeditionary forces was a chaplain, Father Denys Baron, who celebrated the sacraments and took care of their spiritual needs.

Assumption chapel

On April 17, 1754, Father Baron celebrated Mass at the forks of the three rivers. This weekend, we celebrate the 250th anniversary of that first Mass in what would become the city of Pittsburgh.

A small chapel was built at Fort Duquesne, named for the Assumption of the Blessed Mother because it was dedicated on the feast of the Assumption. The full title of the chapel was “The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary on the Beautiful River,” reflecting the Native American name for the Ohio.

There is a painting of that first Mass by Charles Hargens, done in 1954 for its 200th anniversary. It is reproduced on the front page of this week’s issue of the Pittsburgh Catholic. The painting portrays Father Baron celebrating Mass for the officers and men of the expeditionary force along with Native Americans. The river is in the background. Though it is a stylized painting, it is nonetheless a beautiful depiction of what happened 250 years ago and a reminder of the significance of the Eucharist.

The Eucharist is intimately tied to the death and resurrection of Christ. At the Last Supper, Jesus instituted the Eucharist. Ever since the Last Supper, year after year, century after century, the Eucharist has been celebrated.

Catholic record

From those first days when the church spread from what we call the Holy Land to Rome, and from Rome throughout the whole world, a priest would celebrate the Eucharist, the enduring presence of Christ with us. Our identity as God’s people is centered in the Eucharist, and the unity and life of the church are rooted in Jesus’ command to his apostles to “Do this in remembrance of me.”

That first Mass 250 years ago at the Point marked the beginnings of an established Catholic Church in southwestern Pennsylvania. From that day forward, there would be a visible, historical continuity to the life of the church here.

There is a record of what went on at that chapel in the very first years of the church in Pittsburgh. In the “Register of Fort Duquesne,” we find the record of the Catholic community in that short period of time from the first Mass in 1754 through 1758, when the British drove the French out of the area. In the register we find the burial of French soldiers and those who accompanied the French expeditionary force. It attests to their having received the sacrament of anointing of the sick, then called extreme unction, and that a proper Christian burial took place. We also find in the register the record of a few baptisms of Native Americans from the area.

The register is a physical reminder of that continuity that is the life of the church. It tells the story of the church serving Christ and his people, carrying on the spiritual works that are the life of the church and making present the Eucharist that Jesus commanded to be done in remembrance of him.

Not long after that first Mass and the events recorded in the register, we see the life of the church beginning to grow here as more and more Europeans arrived in the area. Less than a hundred years after those burials and baptisms in a small French outpost were recorded, Pope Gregory XVI established the Diocese of Pittsburgh.

Enduring presence

In 1993, we celebrated the 150th anniversary — the sesquicentennial — of the founding of the diocese. For that one day the Civic Arena, as it was then called, was turned into a cathedral as thousands and thousands of the faithful gathered to celebrate the Eucharist.

This weekend we will celebrate the anniversary of that first Mass by gathering at the table of the Lord, just as they gathered 250 years ago. Our historical celebration is not just a reflection on what happened in the past. The Eucharist is not just a recounting of what Jesus did two millennia ago. The Eucharist makes Christ truly, spiritually and sacramentally present for us right now.

So when we gather at the altar, when the priest takes the bread and wine and consecrates it, Jesus is present for us today as he was when we celebrated the Mass for the diocesan sesquicentennial, when the diocese was founded and when we celebrated Mass 250 years ago for the first time. Just as he was present at every celebration going back over the two millennia of the life of the church to the Last Supper.

Our celebration this weekend is a time to pause and reflect on our part in this living continuum that is Christ’s church. We are able to authenticate our living continuity with Jesus because we are part of this continuum that reaches from the apostles and their successors through every land, through every age, always present in the celebration of the Eucharist.

When the French expeditionary forces arrived here in southwestern Pennsylvania and Father Baron celebrated that first Eucharist, he placed our part of the world in direct, living continuity with Jesus, with the apostles, with the Last Supper, with the death and the resurrection of Christ as it has been sacramentally re-presented all of these centuries.

The church takes the time to say, “Look back, rejoice, thank God, celebrate.” That is what we will do on this anniversary. We will thank God for the wondrous gift that is his church, and, above all, for the Eucharist that constitutes his church and is our direct relationship with him.