This weekend and next, at the 5:00pm and 9:30am Masses, 71 of our parishioners will receive our Lord in Holy Communion for the first time! This is a very important event in their faith lives as they now join with the rest of the believing community in participating fully in the Celebration of the Eucharist. As the Catechism of the Catholic Church explains so clearly, Holy Communion is “our fellowship with Jesus and other baptized Christians in the Church, which has its source and summit in the celebration of the Eucharist. In this sense, Church as communion is the deepest vocation of the Church” (p. 871).
According to the Catechism, the “Mass is at the same time, and inseparably, the sacrificial memorial in which the sacrifice of the cross is perpetuated and the sacred banquet of communion with the Lord’s body and blood” (§ 1382). As we just celebrated a few weeks ago during the Easter Triduum, our Lord offered his sacred Body and Blood to us when he instituted the Eucharist at the Last Supper and then He offered His life for us to our Heavenly Father on the cross. The Eucharistic celebration involves us in both of these mysteries through which we are able to offer to God the only gift worthy of Himself – that is, Himself – as the Son of God offers Himself to God the Father. At the same time, we are invited into the heavenly banquet at which Christ offers us Himself for our spiritual nourishment. The Catechism explains, “the altar, around which the Church is gathered in the celebration of the Eucharist, represents the two aspects of the same mystery: the altar of sacrifice and the table of the Lord. This is all the more so since the Christian altar is the symbol of Christ himself, present in the midst of the assembly of his faithful, both as the victim offered for our reconciliation and as food from heaven who is giving himself to us” (§ 1383).
It is so important for us to receive our Lord in Holy Communion. The Catechism continues, “The Lord addresses an invitation to us, urging us to receive him in the sacrament of the Eucharist: ‘Truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you’” (§ 1384).
It is also important for us to receive the Eucharist worthily: “To respond to this invitation we must prepare ourselves for so great and so holy a moment. St. Paul urges us to examine our conscience: ‘whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of profaning the body and blood of the Lord’” (§ 1385).
Worthy reception of our Lord in the Eucharist brings us into union with Christ and his Body, the Church: “Those who receive the Eucharist are united more closely to Christ. Through it, Christ unites them to all the faithful in one body – the Church. Communion renews, strengthens, and deepens this incorporation into the Church, already achieved by Baptism. …‘The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ? Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread’” (§ 1396).
There are so many aspects involved in this sacred act of receiving Holy Communion that we do well to reflect on them often and receive our Lord frequently with gratitude and joy. Again, congratulation to our First Holy Communicants!