Homily: 5th Sunday of Easter – Cycle A
First
Holy Communion
My
friends, I am very excited to be here with you to celebrate the first holy
communion of these shining young people!
Jesus promised his disciples at the Last Supper, “In my Father’s house
there are many dwelling places. If there were not, would I have told you that I
am going to prepare a place for you?” We
are filled with joy today that all of you are taking you place at this table in
the Father’s house! In this homily, I am
going to leave to the side the scriptures for this week in order to highlight a
couple of things to help our first communicants to enter into this experience a
little more deeply. Given that we are
not only in the Easter season, but also in this time of Eucharistic Revival, I
am hopeful that all of you gathered here will find some benefit from these
words today.
First,
let’s look at the crucifix. On it, what
do we see? We see an image of Jesus
during his crucifixion. We might ask
ourselves, “Wait, it’s Easter! Jesus is risen from the dead! Why are we looking
at an image of Jesus dead on the cross?”
This is a good and important question.
The answer is that it reminds us of the sacrifice that Jesus made for us
so that we could go to heaven someday.
Jesus, the Son of God, became one with us in our human nature and he
suffered and died for us. Without the
suffering and death, there would be no resurrection to celebrate! Therefore, we remember his death so that we
can remember ever more joyfully that he conquered death in his resurrection.
Now,
it is no mistake that the crucifix in this church hangs directly above the
altar. This is to remind us of something
important. The crucifix is a reminder of
the sacrifice that Jesus made for us, and the altar is the place where we
re-present the sacrifice of Jesus to God the Father, as an act of thanksgiving
to God. Therefore, the crucifix is above
the altar to remind us of the connection between what happened on the cross and
what happens in each Mass that we celebrate.
Now,
when we look at the altar, we see that it is shaped like a table, right? Why would the altar be shaped like a
table? Perhaps to remind us of a meal…
or maybe a supper? If the altar is
shaped like a table to remind us of a supper, of which supper would it remind
us? Yes, the Last Supper, of
course! The altar is shaped like a table
to remind us also of the Last Supper. We
even repeat some of the words that Jesus said at the Last Supper in order to
emphasize that we are also re-presenting what Jesus did at the Last
Supper. What did Jesus do at the Last
Supper? He changed bread and wine into
his Body and Blood so that his disciples could receive it and then gave them
the power to do the same “in memory of him” until he returns. This we still do today when, during Mass, a
priest takes the bread and wine and speaks the words of Jesus from the Last
Supper. The bread and wine become the Body
and Blood of Jesus so that we can receive it.
This
Body and Blood of Jesus is the same Body and Blood of Jesus that hung on the
cross, and the same Body and Blood that is now living, in its resurrected form,
for all eternity in heaven. Thus, the
crucifix hangs above the altar, and the altar is shaped like a table, to remind
us that what Jesus offered to his disciples at the Last Supper is what he
offered on the cross. This reminds us
that what we receive from the altar is the same Body and Blood of Jesus that
was offered on the cross and received by Jesus’ disciples at the Last
Supper. Does this make sense? Good!
Now
that we have understood that, we can understand even better the significance of
receiving holy communion for the first time.
You know, Jesus didn’t take on a human nature only to sacrifice himself
on the cross for us. He took on a human
nature so that he could be close to us.
Jesus desires to be so close to each of us that he literally wants to
live inside of us. Thus, he gave his first
disciples holy communion at the Last Supper, and then gave them the power to
produce the same for others. These
apostles then handed this power on to bishops and priests after them so that
Jesus, in his human nature, could be close to everyone in the world. You, my dear friends, have been invited to
this special closeness with Jesus today.
Jesus is so happy that you have said “yes” to receive him.
Receiving
holy communion is a sign of our friendship with Jesus (our communion with
him). Therefore, it’s important that we
maintain a good friendship with him.
When we sin, we hurt our friendship with Jesus. If the sin is serious enough, it could hurt
our friendship with Jesus so much that we should no longer receive holy
communion until we have “made up with him” in the sacrament of
reconciliation. But what a gift
reconciliation is! Jesus wants to be
close to us so much that he even gives us a way to make up with him after we’ve
hurt him by our sins. Better, though, if
we maintain a good relationship with Jesus by keeping free from sin, right? ///
Okay,
having reflected on all of this, let us turn now and continue our Mass to give
thanks to God for the great gift of Jesus and that we can receive him in holy
communion. Then, let us commit ourselves
to living in friendship with Jesus every day so as to please him and to prepare
ourselves to live forever with him in heaven.
Given in Spanish at Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Parish: Carmel,
IN
May 7th, 2023
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