THE GREATEST IN HEAVEN

A SERMON FOR FIRST COMMUNION SUNDAY

If you don’t mind, I’d like to speak first to our first communicants today.  To you who are receiving Jesus today for the very first time.  It’s an important day for you, like Christmas or a birthday.  But Christmas comes every year.  And every year you have another birthday.  But you can only receive your First Communion once.  Today then is a very very special day in your life.  One that you will never have again. 

And why, do you think, we make such a big fuss of making your First Communion?  Because of what Communion is.  For the very first time, you’ll be receiving the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus himself.  You know who Jesus is.  He’s the Son of God.  He is God.  You know that he created us out of nothing, you know that we must know him, love him, and serve him in this world, so that we can be happy with him forever in the next, after we die.  And you all know by now, I hope, exactly what it means to love and serve God.  Jesus himself told us what it means, so let’s listen to his exact words—it’s a good reminder for us as we receive him today in Holy Communion, and start this path of loving and serving him.  He said: “If you love me, you’ll keep my commandments.”

You’ve learned the Ten Commandments.  You know what they command you to do and what not to do.  Now comes the hard part, when you’ve got to obey those commandments.  If you do obey, the reward is huge: you’ll go to heaven one day.  If you refuse to obey, the punishment is also very great, and you don’t need me to tell you what it is.  But it’s something you have to remember now, as you pass from being innocent little children, and slowly start to become grown-ups.  Because now, you know the difference between right and wrong, and you have to choose very carefully every time you want to do something or say something or even think something—whether it’s a good thing to do, or say or think; or whether it’s a bad thing that will make God displeased with you.  So choose wisely from now on. 

Always remember that God loves you very much, so try to love him as much as you can in return.  Just as you love your mom and dad because they love you, you should love God too.  Because he’s your Father in heaven, that’s the prayer, isn’t it, that we say all the time, “Our Father, who art in heaven.” And he loves us just as much—more than even our own mom and dad.  Don’t ever do anything that will make him disappointed in you.

 So you be thinking about that for a few minutes while I talk to your moms and dads and the other moms and dads in church today.  Because what I’ve just told you is something they learned when they made their First Communion, and unfortunately that was a long time ago and some of them might have forgotten.  So today is a good time to remind them of these very basic truths which they need to save their souls just like you do.

You grown ups are very fortunate today to be able to witness the First Communion of these innocent children.  It’s a great and wonderful milestone in their lives, and one which marks the passage from innocence to responsibility, from the angelic sinlessness of their early childhood to a far more difficult state where they will have to choose for themselves between good and evil.  As parents and grandparents, you will continue to guide them in their choices, and bring them through that difficult time of adolescence and on to adulthood where, hopefully, they will do a better job than any of us have of leading godly and upright lives.

Let’s remember what our Lord said when they asked him who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.  The Gospel tell us that “Jesus called a little child unto him, and set him in the midst of them, and said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.  Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven.”  We have here an example of God’s little children as they come to our Lord at the communion rail.  They are naturally humble, naturally innocent.  Our job as parents and teachers is not to make them grow up to be more like us.  Our job is to become more like them.  Let’s never forget that. 

When Adam and Eve bit the apple, they became aware of the difference between good and evil.  Our own awareness of this difference stems from the time we reached the age of reason, which these children today have proved they have done.  From that moment on, we are on ‘the path’.  The path that we can either climb up, or slip down.  Since we reached the age of reason, we have all done some good things that merited God’s grace and a heavenly reward.  But we’ve also done a barrel full of bad things, which deserve an altogether different kind of reward.  It’s been a difficult path for all of us, so by all means let’s do our best to guide these children so they don’t make the same mistakes.  Your guidance is essential in their lives, and a humble acknowledgment of your own spiritual status goes a long way in allowing them to do good and avoid sin.  If you’re a saint, then pull them up after you.  If you’re a sinner, then push them up from behind.  Let them learn from your good example, and let them learn from your mistakes.  Meanwhile, we ourselves must learn from their example of innocence, their absence of guile, their sincerity and sense of justice.  Most of all, copy the complete love and trust they have for you, by having the same for God. 

Today, children, is a great day in your lives.  Stay as innocent and pleasing to God as you are today, listen to your parents and grandparents, your teachers, and all the grown-ups you know. Pray hard for them that they make God as happy as you do, as you worthily receive in your bodies and souls this morning the most blessed Sacrament of the Altar, the real presence of God himself.