First Holy Communion
Last Sunday was a special day for my niece, Samaia, as well as for the other girls and boys at St. Matthew’s Parish. The little girls wore white dresses with either white ribbons or white veils on their heads. But they can’t put one over the little boys who also came in crisp white pants and long-sleeved dress shirts looking really spiffy. Excitement was evident in the children’s cherubic, rosy-cheeked faces. They were to have their First Holy Communion.
Looking at the kids made me reminisce about my first time to receive communion. I was in grade 2 then and I could still recall how the nuns and teachers in our school were very busy with the preparations. Sr. Celerina, the grade school principal at that time, even visited each classroom of the students in the second grade to further explain to us what the sacrament was all about. Back then, I didn’t completely understand the whole meaning of this spiritual exercise yet my classmates and I were just so thrilled at the thought that we will finally be able to join our families in the queue during Communion at every Eucharistic celebration. But of course, it was also inculcated in us that once we start receiving communion, we are also becoming closer to God. Father Scanlon, an American priest belonging to the Society of the Divine Word related to us how much Jesus loved little children. Decades after, it is slowly sinking in to me how much the sacrament has meant to my life.
To "commune" means "to unite or to bond." It is when we participate in the Holy Communion that we grow further in God’s love. We are made holy and receive the divine graces whenever we welcome the Lord with our hearts. Among the the things that the sacrament does for us, what strikes me most is that receiving communion heals us. As a sinner, it can be embarrassing to go the Father’s house, yet I know that God is forgiving. By reminiscing the big sacrifice His Son has done for us, it is only right to have a contrite heart. Before understanding better the meaning of the sacrament, I would sometimes skip receiving the Lord in my heart. But after my eldest brother explained to me the full importance of the Holy Communion, I didn’t fail to line up anymore every Sunday.
I am far from being a good Catholic because I still have a lot to do as a servant. But with daily interactions with people, I pray that I can commune with God by being a good example to others and by being able to pass on His great love for all of us to others. I pray too, that all the kids I saw at the Church last Sunday will be able to keep a close relationship with the Lord. I am confident that He will always keep them in His loving embrace. Lastly, it is my fervent wish that I can imbibe the purity of love that the children have for God, just as I have witnessed several days ago.
