Our Lady of Lourdes Church and School

In these days when about 90 of our young people are approaching the altar to share Eucharist with us for the first time, we continue to reflect on what it means for us to receive Eucharist, or to share in Communion together.

Perhaps not known by most of us, but from earliest times right up to the 13th century, first communion was most often administered to infants when they were baptized. This tradition is still observed in the Greek and Oriental Churches, though it has fallen into disuse in the Latin (Roman Catholic) Church. In 1215, the Fourth Lateran Council determined that those who reached the age of discretion were to participate in sacramental confession in preparation for reception of holy communion. In subsequent years, it seems that there arose the practice of determining one age of discretion for those making confession and another for those receiving communion. Understandably, that created a host of other problems and an array of pastoral responses to try to deal with those problems. Then in 1910, in the pontificate of Pope Pius X, the “age of discretion” was uniformly set at “about the seventh year, more or less.” Later, the 1983 Code of Canon Law reaffirmed this as the “age of reason”. This is why today, it is common for young people to be prepared to receive First Eucharist at this age. It’s surprising, perhaps, to think that this has been the practice of the church now for only a little more than 100 years of our existence as Church.

Through all these goings-on, it has always been the case that whoever is receiving Eucharist was to be appropriately and adequately prepared to receive the sacrament. In the case of children, this responsibility falls primarily to those entrusted with raising the children “in the practice of the faith.” The readiness of a child for receiving Eucharist is determined by the pastor/confessor. In large part, these responsibilities are fulfilled in our parish community in collaboration with catechists and teachers, and others who are involved in preparing young people for the sacrament. In the past, a lot of this happened organically in parishes, without need for much reflection. However, as our society has transitioned from the homogeneity it once enjoyed, It is important for a parish community such as ours here at Lourdes to be mindful of everything these responsibilities entail, and to work to ensure that teachers, catechists, parents and pastors have the resources necessary for each to discharge their responsibilities.

At the end of the day, the sacramental life of the Church is essentially about growing our discipleship of Jesus in our lives. If we lose sight of this, then sacraments can be trivialized or rendered insignificant for us. They become, at best, “rites of passage” for us. To avoid this, we do well to reflect on what it means for us to share in communion or to participate in Eucharist together.

First of all, to state the obvious, Eucharist is for Catholics the true presence of Jesus. When we receive Holy Communion we believe that we are receiving Jesus, “body and blood, soul and divinity.” It is most appropriate for us to esteem and value this most sacred self-gift of Jesus for us. We don’t approach the altar lightly, but with reverence for the reality of what it means to participate. We prepare ourselves and we open ourselves up to the reality of who Jesus is for us. Every time we receive Eucharist, we are affirming our desire to live lives that are more and more Christ-like. We resolve to leave the altar and to enter once more into the world as we strive to be for the world what we have received at the altar. To paraphrase St. Augustine: we become what we receive. We receive the Body of Christ so that we might become the Body of Christ for the world. While receiving communion may be an intensely personal encounter with the real presence of Jesus, it is an encounter that commits us to service of all God’s people. Communion, therefore, binds us to the community of believers, to the Church, to the Body of Christ. It is only within the Body of Christ, within the community of believers we call Church, that we can participate in Eucharist.