First Communion
Many of us can still remember our First Communion Day. I know exactly on which bench I was kneeling, in St Bede’s Church, on my special day. The black and white photos I have show me wearing short trousers, white shirt and a school tie.
This weekend’s celebration of Mass, for thirty-five of our children, will be memorable and significant for them. They are receiving Jesus in communion for the first time. They have joyfully accepted the invitation of Jesus to eat his body and drink his blood. They share intimately in the life, death and resurrection of their friend. From now on they will receive nourishment that will sustain them, enabling them to love Jesus more deeply, know him intimately and follow him more closely, day by day. For them, he will always be their food of life.
I have just returned from Lourdes after a week’s pilgrimage and, this year, was struck by the story of Bernadette, who experienced the vision of the Our Lady at the grotto. At the time of these apparitions, she lived in one room with her parents and three siblings. The family were so poor and Bernadette so sickly, Bernadette’s mother sent her to live with her foster mother in Bartres, a village three miles away. The air was better — and there would be one less mouth to feed. Part of the agreement was that, as well as working on the farm, Bernadette would be able to go to catechism classes at the local church, in order to prepare for her First Holy Communion. Marie Laguo, the foster mother, didn’t want to let her off work to go to lessons and so she obtained a copy of the diocesan catechism — written in French, which Bernadette did not understand. She was forced to learn, by heart, phrases that were meaningless to her. The inevitable happened; her former nanny got angry and called Bernadette good for nothing, using these words: You are so stupid, you will never make your First Communion. The local priest, Father Ader, taught the catechism in the local dialect (Bigourdan), but he left the village to join a monastery: so there was no priest in the village.
Bernadette’s desire to make her First Communion was so strong that she made the decision to leave the Burg farm in January 1858, saying confidently, The priest wants me to make my First Holy Communion. Bernadette made her First Holy Communion on 3rd June 1858, the feast of Corpus Christi. It was during that time that our Lady appeared eighteen times to Bernadette at the grotto of Massabielle.
Our children — with the support of their families and the catechists — will be coming to the altar with a great desire to receive this wonderful gift of the Eucharist. May it be for them ‘the source and summit of the Christian life’ and may they know God’s love for them.
