Starting today, Holy Cross parish will celebrate First Communion Masses on three consecutive Saturdays. We congratulate the many children who will be joining us at the Table of the Lord for the first time. Also, we thank their catechists for sacrificing so much to teach them so well! Please keep our “candidates” and their teachers in your prayers.
Throughout the Gospels, many questions are raised and argued. Some of them are posed by Jesus Himself. Others are put to Him by various people who meet Him, whether as friends or opponents. On one occasion (in John 6), people asked: “How can this man give us His flesh to eat?” Responding to that scornful question, Jesus said that not only should people “eat” His flesh, but they should also “drink” His blood. The concept of eating the flesh of Jesus and drinking His blood is paradoxical and shocking; and even among Christians today there are varied theologies that seek to explain the form of Christ’s “presence” in the Eucharistic bread and wine.
At the heart of the Catholic experience of the Eucharist, however, is this: the same Jesus who gave His life for us on the Cross, gives Himself to us in sacramental form, as our food and drink in the Eucharist. He Himself says that He becomes food and drink so that we may draw life from Him: “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood will draw life from me.”
The life flowing from Jesus as He died upon the Cross, symbolized by the blood and water, is shared with each of us when we eat His body and drink His blood in Communion. Our children in our First Communion classes have heard this truth over and over: we receive the Holy Eucharist in order to draw life from Christ, as branches draw life from the vine. We are then sent out from the Eucharist with the mission to live by His example, to follow His way. We thank Him for such a precious gift and congratulate our children as they reach an important milestone on their journey.
Let us pray. “We give you thanks, O most merciful Lord and Redeemer of our souls, for this day you have made us worthy by means of your immortal and heavenly mysteries in the Eucharist. Direct our way; keep us in awe of you; guard our lives; and make our steps firm through the prayers and intercession of your glorious and holy Mother. Be exalted above the heavens, O God, and above all the earth, too. We give you honor and glory now and forever. Amen.” St. John Chrysostom
