As we continue liturgically to mark the great season of Easter with Jesus’ Resurrection from the Dead and mindful that Jesus chose to communicates this Divine life us to through His Church and her sacraments while we are in this world of pilgrimage, especially in The Most Blessed Sacrament – the Holy Eucharist, we reflect on today’s Gospel with a spiritual eye toward the young people of our parish who this Sunday, at 11.15 Mass, will begin receiving holy Communion.
Please pray for them, especially recognizing the radical words the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church has carried down the centuries from her Lord about Holy Communion (thru her life, worship, tradition, and scriptures). Pray that our young people and their families may trust the Lord (His words, deeds and teachings), and following the witness of Peter, the disciples and their successors, and by graced intellect and will, remain faithful to the Lord, keeping His command to attend faithfully the Christian Passover Meal – the Mass, to receive the Lamb of God, who offered as the Great High Priest, Himself, as the unblemished Lamb on the Cross, and continues to feed us with His divine life through our consuming of the Lamb of God in Holy Communion. From the beginning, many left communion with Jesus because of this teaching, many continue through their unbelief to fall away or to settle for a lesser teaching, a more “modern and nuanced” teaching on this Bread of Life reality where Jesus comes to us truly as spiritual food to nourish and preserve us for everlasting life. Let us pray God these young people may trust in the Lord, attend faithfully the great Christian Passover Meal, and may not fall away from Him by refusing to attend this banquet at which He offers Himself to us. Lord keep us all faithful and by your grace keep us in union with You and not settle for anything less than what you have taught and promised us in the Great Sacrament of the Eucharist. We welcome you Lord, to make us instruments of the communion you desire for all Christians in your one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church, by the sacrament of Holy Communion. May we give witness to your words and invite others to come into the fullness of your words and embrace this call to receive you in the Most Blessed Sacrament. At the same time, may we recall always your great mercy. And after committing serious sin, or falling away from the Church and her Sacraments, allow the Lord to help us back to the great sacrament of holy Communion, by first encountering you as our Divine Physician in the sacrament of reconciliation. Just a few weeks back, as the Church marked Divine Mercy Sunday, through personal revelation you reminded us through St. Faustina of your great mercy when you spoke to her of your desire to forgive…. the greater the sin the greater the right to my mercy… May we trust that at any time, and from any sin, with sorrow, contrition and a desire to not commit the sin again, we may seek out this great mercy in the sacrament of confession/reconciliation. So that, reconciled to you, we may welcome your invitation to the great Paschal Banquet at Mass and as often as possible, present ourselves to receive You in Holy Communion.