As we celebrate first holy communion on Sunday morning it is worthwhile reminding ourselves of some eucharistic truths.
Firstly, that the bread and wine are transformed into the body and blood of Christ. This is a real presence, not symbolic or partial. He is here, and he gives himself completely to us, for us.
Secondly, that the eucharist is best understood as an event or an action, and not an object or a thing. The reservation of the consecrated host, the body of Christ, only became common after the 4th century but only obligatory in churches after the 16th century. The event which we remember is the sacred meal over which Jesus presided, which connected the events of the Jewish Passover to the event of his crucifixion. And we participate in that same sacred meal at each of our eucharistic meals.
Third, there are a number of different models which can help us gain a richer and deeper understanding of the Eucharist. They are not options between which we pick and choose but different faces of the same reality. A theologian called Kevin Irwin proposed the following models: the Church’s Eucharist; the effective Word of God; memorial of the Paschal Mystery; Covenant Renewal; the Lord’s supper; Food for the journey; sacramental sacrifice; active presence; and work of the Holy Spirit. This points to a richness in the
eucharist that we tend to overlook because we live in an either/or world and not a both/and.
Fourth, the passion death and resurrection of Christ cannot be separated from his incarnation. The very motivation for his birth for was for salvation and not condemnation. In other words, the fundamental cause of both incarnation and passion was love and not sin. Or put differently Christ came into the world to restore our relationship with both God and one another. To use both/and language in this situation is not a contradiction, but its where we put our priority that tells us something about our vision of God and what we think God thinks of us.
What is interesting in his models is that not of them presents the eucharist as a reward for being good. I think there is a fine line to tread between reverence for the eucharist, wanting to receive it in the right spirit, and an idolizing of some vision of perfection that becomes a barrier to our unity with Christ and a source of division rooted in a lack of charity.
There is one thing above all which I hope that the boys and girls making first holy communion will remember from today and it is this: that God loves them very much, and that he wants us to become more like him, which is why he gave us his son both in history and in this eucharistic celebration. The eucharistic prayer that we will use today in honor of the celebration is the First eucharistic prayer for children. In this prayer we will hear three
times, in various ways, that God loves them.
I think that’s an awesome message to leave the celebration of mass with.
