This week is special for us as a community as we celebrate Mass and administer First Holy Communion to 26 of our children in Kilbrittain National school.
This celebration is not only a blind rite of Christian initiation for these children but more importantly a public profession of our faith in Jesus Christ and the deliberate passing of that faith to these children.
The Eucharist from the Greek word Eucharistein…“thanksgiving” highlights the central message of every Christian gathering namely, our thanksgiving to God for the gift of life in Christ Jesus (I Cor 6:20). As within this celebration, we acknowledge every special blessing and favour the lord has shown us. Amongst these many blessings we return thanks for the gift of our children and in turn bring them before the lord who loves them as they are. The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches that at the last supper on the night he was betrayed our saviour instituted the Eucharistic sacrifice of his Body and Blood. This he did in order to perpetuate the sacrifice of the cross throughout the ages until he should come again. This sacrament is the memorial of his death and resurrection, an event that brought grace and redemption to humanity. It is the sacrament of his love, a sign of our unity, a bone of charity for all believers and a paschal banquet in which Christ is consumed, the mind is filled with grace, and a pledge of future glory is given to us (CCC 1323).
The Eucharist: The Source and Summit of our lives
This is why this sacrament is described as the source and summit of the Christian life because in the Eucharist is contained the whole spiritual good of the church, namely Christ himself. The Eucharist is the divine life and unity of the people of God by which the church is kept in being. It is the combination of God's action of sanctifying the world in Christ and of the worship we offer to Christ and through him to the father in the Holy Spirit.
It is our ardent wish and prayer today that these young brothers and sisters of ours may grow in faith and deepen their faith in Jesus Christ the source and submit of our faith (Heb12:2)
Fr Pontianus Jaffla
