Dear Friends,
As our children receive their First Holy Communion in these days, my earnest hope is that they will always experience the genuine wonder of this Sacrament. Over the years, I’ve often quoted from St Augustine’s Sermons on the Eucharist but I realise that the depth of this extraordinary mystery is even greater. My prayer for our children today – indeed for us all – is that our love for, and understanding of, the Eucharist will continue to grow.
What surprises me is how simple this understanding can be expressed. Through receiving the Eucharist, we actually become Christ. This is why St Augustine takes the real presence of Christ in the consecrated bread and wine for granted but focuses on how the community is being transformed. Genuine community, wherever it is found, is actually a communion, ‘holy communion’ in fact. We may not describe our families this way but that is what we mean, what we strive for. Jesus’ gifts in Communion are ‘peace’ and ‘unity’, beautiful gifts when we discover them in our personal and family life and our friendships too.
Through baptism, Augustine taught us that we are to become the Body of Christ. Receiving the Eucharist often is a life choice because by the Eucharist in turn we are changed into the body of Christ, described in some detail in Sermon 228B:
And therefore receive and eat the body of Christ, yes, you that have become members of Christ in the body of Christ; receive and drink the blood of Christ. In order not to be scattered and separated, eat what binds you together; in order not to seem cheap in your own estimation, drink the price that was paid for you. Just as this turns into you when you eat and drink it, so you for your part turn into the body of Christ when you live devout and obedient lives.
On this Feast of the Body and Blood of Christ, we would benefit from sitting quietly with a couple of the Scripture passages from St Paul and from the Gospels that describe the simplicity of what Jesus did when he gave us the Eucharist:
‘The Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took a loaf of bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, “This is my body that is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way he took the cup also, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes’ (1 Cor 11:23-26).
The heart of the Eucharist is Jesus’ new commandment to love one another – also the heart of family life and life in the world too. As Jesus says,
“The bread which I shall give is my flesh for the life of the world… Unless people eat my flesh and drink my blood, they will not have life in themselves” (John 6:51,53).
Each member of the community is at a different stage in his/her faith journey and this includes children, parents, and families. I suggest that we include priests here as well! As we give thanks for this gift of ‘Holy Communion’, let us take the broad view of the power of the Eucharist and renew our faith that it’s okay to believe in Jesus, okay to pray, okay to be religious, okay to go to Mass, and definitely okay to live the Eucharist in our families – simply, to love one another!
Fr Dave