First Communion

The Easter Season overflows with blessings and celebrations. Beginning with the Great Vigil of Easter on Holy Saturday night our parish, like so many, begins a cycle of various rites of initiation. At that Great Vigil, adults were welcomed with the Sacraments of Initiation. Some celebrated all three sacraments: Baptism, Confirmation, and Eucharist. Others already baptized in other Christian churches were received into the Roman Catholic Church, confirmed, and then welcomed into full communion at the Lord’s Table.

Since that wonderful celebration of Easter, our Sundays have been filled with baptisms both during the Sunday Eucharists and on Sunday afternoon celebrations of Baptisms. Easter is a time, par excellence, for the community to remember the death and rising of the Lord for adults, young children, and for infants. In the Spirit-filled waters of Baptism, believers pass from death to life in Christ. Adults and older children proceed directly to the Lord’s Table. Infants in the Roman Church await communion at the Lord’s Table at a later time.

While First Communion is an important day and one which is remembered as significant for the rest of our lives, it is the Eucharist itself which is the “source and summit” of our Christian lives. While we may place emphasis on "first," a better accent could be placed on "Communion" or "Eucharist." Our life as a Church community and as individual believers within the Church is intensely experienced and shared at the Eucharist.

The communion which is celebrated at First Communion is a life-time experience of common or shared life in Christ every day into the future. We are in communion with Christ himself and in him with our heavenly Father. All of this is by the action of the Holy Spirit. As we receive the Body and Blood of Christ, we become the Body of Christ within the worship Assembly and for the world.

More Than Nostalgia
Three communities will celebrate First Communion in the days to come between now and Pentecost. The first two groups are children, who will come to the Lord’s Table for the first time. A third Spanish-language celebration on

Pentecost will celebrate Confirmation and First Communion. This weekend, our English-speaking children celebrate their First Communion with their families and friends. The following weekend our Spanish-speaking community will present their children for their First Communion. Special clothes, special music, decorations, and many guests, and family gatherings will mark this wonderful event in the lives of these children.

For the parents, godparents, and other adults, these celebrations bring back memories of our own First Communions. The Eucharist is more than First Communion. It is more than nostalgia. Eucharist, hopefully, is a way of life and a constant experience of finding the Lord in the broken bread and in the cup poured out for us. Year after year, Sunday after Sunday, day after day, Christians encounter the Lord in the intensity of their hearts and lives.

Often in speaking with parents of First Communion children, I ask them to think of how often they have received Holy Communion. I invite them to think about the occasions: weddings, baptism, funerals, anniversaries. The challenge is to remember who shared in receiving Holy Communion. The challenge of the Eucharist is to express and intensify our understanding of the mystery of death to life in Christ Jesus. In the broken bread and in the cup outpoured and in the Christ himself we learn to pass from death to life. Hopefully as the years pass and as adult believers we learn more of the mystery of the Eucharist.

Sacraments of the Whole Church
The Eucharist as the sacrament of the Church is not the possession of any one person. First Communion may, at first glance, appear to be a personal experience of the recipient. Parents may wish to possess it by nostalgic memories of white clothes and lovely flowers. The Eucharist is Christ himself acting within the Church, gathering his People, nurturing them for the journey from death to life. As we laugh and celebrate we come to know the joy of the Lord with us. As we weep and cry over our human sadness, the Eucharist brings us beyond death to life forever. Christ is the center of the Eucharist, his continued presence in the life of the Church. The Eucharist is the metaphor of walking from death to life.

CDH