Our Lady of Lourdes Church and School

This Sunday sees Our Lady of Lourdes kicking into post-Easter “Sacrament Season”. Even as I write these words, I’m cringing a little inside, because the truth is that here in our parish, by the grace of God, we are constantly celebrating sacrament. Our parish community is very much alive. However, when we speak of “sacrament season” in our church, we are usually referring to that time of the year when some of our parishioners are celebrating particular sacraments for the first time. Most usually, we are talking about the reception of First Eucharist and Confirmation. For the next few weekends, we will be celebrating the fact that about 90 of our young people will be joining fully in Eucharist for the first time with their parish family.

We all have memories of our respective first communions, I’m sure. Often such memories evoke warm feelings and a certain hankering for a simpler time in our lives. I remember making my own first communion. There were two masses every Sunday in the parish, and First Communion was always celebrated at the earliest, the 8am mass. The reason it was at 8am was because it was a tradition. It was a tradition, because when my parents made their First Communion they had a tradition of fasting from midnight the night before. For us, the fast was just  an hour, but sometimes we do things (tradition) without thinking about why we do them. Nonetheless, it was an exciting time for us, and our 800+ seat church was always wedged solid with parishioners. Inevitably, someone fainted because of the lack of food, the excitement and the crush of warm bodies filling a church without air conditioning! The things we remember…

When we celebrate any of the Sacraments of Initiation, we are all called to remember what the sacrament means for us. Whenever we celebrate Baptism, Confirmation or Eucharist, we are invited to consider for ourselves what meaning or significance those sacraments actually have for us in  our own lives.

Moving beyond memories of how things once were, and of how we did things a generation ago, Recently I was involved in a conversation with some adults about the significance of Eucharist. We were chatting about different ideas that Eucharist raises for us… One single mom spoke about thanksgiving (literal meaning of word ‘eucharist’), and shared her gratitude for having a community of faith supporting her and encouraging her as she worked hard to raise her young family. A dad shared his initial reluctance about being made to participate in their parish’s preparation program for his son’s first communion. Then he went on to share how it led him to a conversion moment in his own life, and a desire to change some of his priorities, leading to a better family life and a better relationship with his spouse. Still another young single adult shared that they looked forward to participating in Sunday Eucharist every week because they felt it was the only place they were accepted completely for who they are in the world. They talked about overcoming a feeling of sometimes being judged by church-goers, until they came to realize their judgment was really self-judgment. It was the parishioners who made them feel welcome and who reminded them of how much Jesus truly loved them.

 “Sacraments 101” reminds us that a sacrament is the work of the Church, a concrete effort on the part of the believing community to make real the ministry of Jesus in our own lives. The Baltimore Catechism described it as “an outward sign of an inward grace”. When we celebrate sacrament as a parish family, what significance does it hold for us? And in these days, when we celebrate initiation sacraments, what significance do they hold for us? When we celebrate First Communion, into what communion/community do we initiate our young people? What significance does Eucharist really hold for us? Given the unbreakable link between Eucharist and service (Last Supper), into what kind of living does Eucharist initiate us? How well do we model a life of discipleship and service? How well do we model that life and then apprentice our youngest disciples for the living of that life? How might we do this better for the good of our young and for the good of our whole community?

Sacrament without life-reflection runs the risk of becoming a ritual emptied of significance or meaning. As we celebrate with these young members of our parish, we do well to let them prompt us to remember who we are and whose we are as a Eucharistic People.