First Communion

[GregoryPalamas]

One of the classes I teach is located in a more Protestant area. I have only one Catholic in the class. So, I ask her what the second initiatory sacrament is. You guessed it. “First Communion”. Oy!

CDL

 

[lak611]

The thing is, first Communion is wonderful. But that is just the beginning! I have come to understand that it is better if a person receives Holy Communion as often as possible if they are in a state of grace. I didn’t get it either, when I was a teenager, and even in my early twenties. Now, I like to receive the Sacrament of Penance about once a month, at least, sometijmes more, and the Holy Eucharist about 2 to 3 times a week. I eventually want to receive Jesus in the Holy Eucharist every day. The more I learn about my Catholic faith, the more I know that I need the Sacraments of Penance and the Eucharist!

 

[GregoryPalamas]

The thing is, first Communion is wonderful. But that is just the beginning! I have come to understand that it is better if a person receives Holy Communion as often as possible if they are in a state of grace. I didn’t get it either, when I was a teenager, and even in my early twenties. Now, I like to receive the Sacrament of Penance about once a month, at least, sometijmes more, and the Holy Eucharist about 2 to 3 times a week. I eventually want to receive Jesus in the Holy Eucharist every day. The more I learn about my Catholic faith, the more I know that I need the Sacraments of Penance and the Eucharist!

Amen!!

 

[CRW]

I teach Theology 101 at a local Catholic University. Invarably when ask to list the seven sacraments of the Church about 1/2 the students will include “First” communion as a sacrament as in “I made my first communion”. Usually when someone writes this I comment something like “Whenever someone goes to communion for the first time one may call that first communion but that is not the name of the sacrament.” It usually turns out that very few of the students who proclaim “first” communion to be a sacrament that they have made attend Mass with any regularity.

I don’t know about you but the idea of “making first communion” troubles me greatly on several levels not only for the person who has experienced this unusual sacrament but for the Church that inadvertantly promotes it.

First, to say one “makes” first communion suggests that the student believes that they have rightly jumped through a hoop and overcome an obstacle the completion of which entitles them to eternal rewards just by having “made” the event. Is it any wonder that persons who think this way are susceptible to the charge that “the Catholic Church teaches ‘works righteousness’?”

Second, the adjective “first” suggests for many “only” at least in practicle terms. For many of the students using this phrase it really was the only time they received or ever thought they needed to receive the Eucharist. Most do not even know that “Eucharist” is the better term for the sacrament or even if they did would have no idea that “Eucharist” has a much fuller and more specific meaning that does communion.

Third, there are numerous bad theological ideas that have crept into the Church because of the separation of the three initiating sacraments. This is where the heirarchy must bare the major blame. I’m Eastern Catholic and have not noticed these same problems. We have our own set, just not these particular ones. The distinction comes precisely at the point that while the Eastern Church has mostly retained the practice of offering the three sacraments of initiation together the Roman Church has divided them. The unintended consequence of this division is the impression that while Baptism is a gift of grace, the other two sacraments are individual achievements. This misapprehension is encouraged by the practice of training sessions that are rewarded with “first communion” and then later “confirmation”.

In fairness many come through this with a firm and often mature faith. I suggest that it may be in spite of this all too common experience and not because of it.

Help me think through this. I’m not trying to be insulting but I would like to have help to think my way through this.

CDL

Grace is an interior supernatural gift of God bestowed on us through the merits of Jesus Christ for our salvation (The Faith Explained by Leo J. Trese.) In theology grace is a gift from God, all sacraments equally are a gift from God. How we instruct students concerning the gifts, their results, church qualifications to receive the gifts, is key to their understanding. For 1st graders receiving their First Holy Communion, this is a problem, but college 101 Theology should not. As adults we realize the proper celebration of the Mass, the participation of the faithful in the Eucharistic celebration, and the disposition for the reception of Holy Communion. IMHO we celebrate the Eucharistic celebration and receive Holy Communion. God Bless