“The big challenge for the faith community is to welcome these young children who seek to be full members of the Church”, writes Fr Martin Delaney
Many parishes in Ireland will have already celebrated First Communion by now. In our parish we have two First Communion Masses, on the May and June bank holiday weekends. We want to have the celebration on Sunday but we also realise that children like to have a day off school after First Communion, hence the bank holiday weekends.
With the possible exception of Easter, this is my favourite time of year in the parish. We have journeyed with the children and their families over the last nine or 10 months as they prepare to receive the Eucharist for the first time and a palpable sense of excitement builds up in the homes of the First Communicants.
The old proverb that it takes a whole village to educate a child translates also to First Communion. It takes a whole parish community to prepare a child for First Communion even though I’m not sure that the whole community always takes that responsibility seriously or even realises that it has this responsibility.
Just as Baptism is considered a private family affair by many, so too, for many years, First Communion was considered to be something of a school event. Yes of course the school still plays a significant role in the preparation of children for the sacraments but increasingly it is accepted that there are three partners involved here: home, school and parish.
Through programmes like The Bridge and Do This in Memory, parents, priests and the wider parish community are encouraged and challenged to become involved in the months leading up to the First Communion celebration. In fact, these programmes do not see the First Communion day as the ‘point of arrival’ but rather a significant moment along a journey of growing in faith.
The big challenge for the faith community is to welcome these young children who seek to be full members of the Church. Sadly, some very faithful and faith-filled Catholics see a liturgical focus on the children preparing for First Communion, even once a month, as an ‘interference’ in their regular worship and even go to some lengths to avoid the ‘children’s Mass’. Others can become quite cynical about the presence of parents and children who only come for the monthly preparation Masses and then will never be seen after the big day.
Rites of passage
Personally I find this attitude very sad. Yes, like many priests I feel the frustration around families who treat the sacraments as secular ‘rites of passage’ and who show little sign of faith commitment or practice in the traditional sense.
I suspect that in the years ahead we may move away from the tradition of First Communion on one day and rather have a ‘Communion season’ where parents will present their child on a day and at a Mass of their choosing after the period of formal preparation has ended. This may well lead to some parents not bringing their children forward as the emphasis on the class group going through the ritual together will recede.
For the moment, our present practice will continue and this includes the vast majority of Irish Catholic parents presenting their children for First Communion. It is really difficult to accurately assess the ‘faith’ of those parents and families who come forward and besides, we have baptised these children, so they are entitled to the other sacraments.
Furthermore, and I think this is why I really like this time of year, every First Communion class signals for me that we as a faith community are keeping the promise Jesus asked of us at the Last Supper: “Do this in memory of me”.
Every group of First Communion children helps us to keep that promise and so long may the tradition continue.
On the right side of the law!
An Irish priest and a rabbi are involved a car accident. They both get out of the car and stumble to the other side of the road.
The rabbi says “Oh what a wreck”. The priest says, “Are you alright rabbi?”
The rabbi responds, “just a little shaken”. The priest pulls a flask of whiskey from his pocket and says, “here, drink some of this and it will calm your nerves”.
The rabbi drinks half of the flask of whiskey and then offers it back to the priest who puts the cap back on the flask. “Are you not going to drink the rest of the flask?” said the rabbi. “No,” said the priest. “I will wait until the police have made their report!”