Explore the Treasures - Part 5

     In this, the last segment of our series, we will look at how we should prepare ourselves to receive Our Lord in Holy Communion and after receiving Jesus, how we should treat so great a Guest.

     On the night before He died, Jesus gave Himself to us in the Eucharist. He wanted to be united with us in Holy Communion. The fact that our good God humbles Himself to become our food is almost beyond belief. His love for us is unfathomable! We must return love for love, and do our best to prepare our hearts and souls to receive Jesus.

     “Before so great a sacrament, the faithful can only echo humbly and with ardent faith the words of the Centurion: ‘Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof, but only say the word and my soul will be healed.’ And in the Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom the faithful pray in the same spirit: ‘O Son of God, bring me into communion today with Your mystical supper. I shall not tell your enemies the secret, nor kiss You with Judas’ kiss. But like the good thief I cry, ‘Jesus, remember me when You come into Your kingdom’” (CCC 1386).

     None of us is worthy to receive our dear sweet Jesus in Holy Communion, but the Church encourages us, if we have the required dispositions, to receive the Eucharist often, even daily. As a good mother, the Church gives her children guidelines to help in our preparation to receive Jesus.

     We are obliged to attend Mass on Sundays and holy days and when prepared by the sacrament of Reconciliation, to receive the Eucharist, at least once a year. When we love someone, why would we ever want to be with them only once a year? Our aim should be to strive to receive Our Lord as often as possible!

     Before receiving the Eucharist, we must fast from all food and drink for one hour, with the exception of water or medication. Yes, this means we must fast from coffee and tea for one full hour.
     We must be free from all mortal sin. If we have sinned mortally, we must go to Confession before we may receive Holy Communion.

     In the letter to the Corinthians, St. Paul tells us, “Whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of profaning the body and blood of Our Lord.”

     We need to take these words seriously! We must never go to Communion if have committed a mortal sin. Missing Mass on Sunday, without a serious reason, is a mortal sin. I had an aunt who used to tell her children that the only acceptable reason for missing Mass was sudden death – and she wasn’t talking about a hockey game. There are reasons missing Mass would not be a sin, but busy weekends with lots of activities or vacations are not serious reasons.

     Keeping our souls free from mortal sin is vital, but if we truly loved Our Lord, we would want to do our best to keep our souls free even from venial sin.

     Because of our fallen nature, we do sin. Jesus knew that and left us the wonderful sacrament of Reconciliation. It was the gift He gave to us, through the apostles, on the evening that He rose from the dead.

     Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent Me, so I send you.” And when He had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you shall forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained” (Jn 20 vs 21 -23).

     I personally love the sacrament of Penance. I prefer to go every two weeks, but never let more than a month pass by. When more time than that passes, it is very difficult for me to do a thorough examination of conscience. It is important to not only look at the wrong I have done, but the good things that I failed to do. We are all guilty of committing sins and imperfections: gossip, twisting the truth or lying, unkind thoughts, rash judgments, resentments, not loving and not forgiving others as God has done for us and much more.

      Believe in the graces of the sacrament and the effect it will have in your life. The sacrament of Penance cleanses our soul of sin and restores God’s grace to us. When we bring the darkness of our lives to Him and He shines His light upon it, we are changed. God gives us help in the areas where we have been struggling.

     Before Jesus died, He gave us His new commandment: “Love one another, as I have loved you.”

     This is a very difficult thing for us to do. We are wounded and often act out of our woundedness. We need God to recreate our hearts and make them more like His. The sacrament of Reconciliation is a healing sacrament. God’s grace can lead us to conversion and make our hearts a more worthy place for Jesus to rest.

     Before I receive Jesus at Mass in Holy Communion, I ask the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, to forgive me for all the ways I have offended Them. I ask St. Joseph to come and clean my heart as he did the stable in Bethlehem, long ago. I then ask Our Lady to come into my heart to make it a worthy place for her Son to rest.

     We need to receive Jesus in a reverent way and teach our children to do this as well. We have the option of receiving Communion on our tongue or in our hand. Either way is fine, when Jesus is received with love.

     St. Cyril of Jerusalem, born in 315 A.D., gave the following instructions when receiving Communion: “Make your left hand a throne for your right, as that which is to receive a King. And, hollowing your palm, receive the Body of Christ, saying over it, ‘Amen.’ With due attention, sanctify your eyes by the sight of the Holy Body, and partake of it, taking care not to lose any part of it.”

     If our children receive in their hand, please try to impress upon them Who it is they are holding, and that they would not want to receive by hand, if their hands were not clean. As parents, we need to instill the reverence and respect that God deserves, in giving Himself to us so generously.

     Having received Jesus, I pray a prayer that St. Louis de Monfort recommends: My Jesus I give you Your Mother. Dear Mary I give you your Son. May your hearts become one with mine so I may bring Your love, joy and peace to all. I then pour out my heart to Our Lord with words of love and thanks. I tell Him all that is on my mind: my joys and struggles, my cares and concerns and ask for His help and guidance. I ask Jesus to pour His love into my heart so I can love as He does. I try my best to be present to Jesus and shower Him with my love.

     After receiving Our Lord, encourage your children to spend this time speaking with Jesus. Kneeling, with their heads bowed, is helpful to keep them focused. Explain to them that it’s like having a private audience with God – only He’s even closer to them than that. He is truly one with them and remains present for about fifteen minutes. Encourage them to tell Him just how much they love Him; tell Him all their cares and concerns. Tell them to try to make up to Jesus, for all the people who do not spend time talking to Him, but instead, are looking around – or worse yet, leave immediately, without a serious reason.

     Jesus complained to St. Faustina about this very thing: “When I come to a human heart in Holy Communion, My hands are full of all kinds of graces which I want to give to the soul, but souls do not even pay attention to Me. They leave Me to Myself and busy themselves with other things . . . They treat Me as a dead object.”

     Do not treat Jesus as a dead object! It is painful to Him! He loves us so tenderly and wants to pour graces upon us, yet we ignore Him!

     The fruits of receiving Jesus in Holy Communion are an increase in our union with Christ, forgiveness of venial sins, and a help in preserving us from grave sin. It also increases our love for God and neighbor. Like food for the body, Holy Communion is food for the soul.

     But the graces that we receive in the sacraments are in proportion to the disposition that we bring to them. In other words, do we want to be down in the hull of the ship with the dry crusts of bread, possibly starving ourselves and our families, or do we want to be in the dining room, with the great abundance to nourish us on our journey?

     As parents, the outcome lies with us. Our Lord Jesus Christ, has given us all the help we will need for our journey, in His Church, through the sacraments. But we need to learn all that we can about our Faith if we want to give our children the very best!  The Catechism of the Catholic Church is an invaluable resource for every Catholic home. It’s the place to look for the true teaching of our faith and will answer any questions you may have.

     Being a parent now a days is very challenging! We need to plug into the supernatural powers of God, because it’s quite obvious – our world does not have our children’s best interest in mind.
     I’d like to leave you with a visual image of the Eucharist.

     In the movie, It’s a Wonderful Life, George Bailey meets Mary Hatch at a high school reunion. It’s like George sees Mary for the first time and they fall in love.

     While walking her home, under the moonlight sky, George asks Mary, “What is it that you want? Do you want the moon? I’ll lasso the moon and bring it down for you.” Mary replies, “I’ll take it. Then what?” George replies, “Well then you can swallow it and you’ll have moonbeams coming out of your eyes and your nose and your mouth – out of your finger tips and toes.”

     Well, here we are in our world today, and our priests ask us, “What is it that you want – from the depths of your souls? Do you want the moon? I’ll do better than that! I’ll lasso the Son – the Son of God – and bring Him down on our altar. And then what? You can swallow Him and you will have Son-beams coming out of your eyes and your ears and your mouth – from the tips of your fingers and down to your toes.

     When we receive Jesus Christ in the Holy Eucharist, we should be transformed! His love should be shining forth from us and touching everyone we come in contact with – but most especially our families.

     In the words of St. John Paul ll, “You yourselves must be fervent witnesses to Christ presence on the altar. Let the Eucharist mold your life and the life of your families. Let it guide all life’s choices.”