April 24, 2005: First Communion & Love

+ THE FIFTH SUNDAY OF EASTER

Today, we joyfully celebrate First Holy Communion here at St. John’s Parish. Soon, three beautiful youngsters will receive Our Lord in the Holy Eucharist for the very first time — please God, for the first of countless times in their life. We congratulate all of them and their families!

Receiving Jesus in communion is like nothing else in the whole world. Just as food makes the body healthy, Holy Communion makes the soul healthy — healthy to live out faith, hope and love… healthy to deal with all the troubles of life that come along… healthy to fight off temptations… healthy to carry even the heaviest burdens of sorrow and trial. Communion makes the weak strong and the strong stronger.

And, the same way that food helps the body grow, so does Holy Communion help the soul grow — grow from selfishness to charity… from impurity to purity… from injustice to justice… from pride to humility.

We know, too, that in every living thing, repair is continually necessary to fix the damage that comes about and to strengthen against possible future injury. Holy Communion does this for the soul. It is spiritual medicine. It fixes the wounds that come from sin and makes us stronger so we are less likely to sin in the future.

And finally, just the way that having a meal is not only a source of nourishment for the body, but also a source of pleasure and enjoyment — so too there is pleasure in receiving Holy Communion, the Lord’s Supper. It is a spiritual delight. It is a time of sharing a meal and having an intimate visit with a loving friend.

Yes, First Holy Communion opens the door for our precious children to all these wonderful things — and takes them deeper into the life of grace.

The life of grace, of course, is found squarely in the heart of the Church. Jesus’ desire is not just to have individual, one-on-one relationships with each of us — but rather to incorporate us as fully as possible into His Mystical Body… into the Communion of Saints. That’s why there are two, not just one, Great Commandments: to love God and to love our neighbor.

I’m sure most of you with children are familiar with the popular game called “Chutes and Ladders.” I remember playing it with one of my nephews a few years ago. We both had our share of wins and losses. If I was very unlucky rolling the dice, I’d be slowed down by landing on a lot of chutes, and lose. If I got lucky, I’d land on more ladders than usual, beat my nephew to the last square, and win.

Usually though, in this game, players lucky enough to land on a lot of ladders land on at least one chute, just as the unluckiest player landing on many chutes gets at least one ladder.

My nephew asked me, “Uncle Jeff, what would happen if a person always got ladders or always got chutes when they played?”

I answered that I thought that the person with all the ladders would be really happy for the first few games — but then he’d get bored with winning all the time and with the lack of any challenge. A person who only got chutes every game would probably get discouraged and quit playing after a few games, just as some people do in the game of life.

Then he asked, “How is the Chutes and Ladders game like life?”

I explained that just the way that the game’s inventor put lots of chutes and ladders into his game, God has done the same thing with life. The ladders in life would be the people or events that “lift” you by encouraging your gifts, making you feel loved and giving you hope. Chutes would have the opposite effect. They would bring you down — those people or events that make you feel unloved, discouraged and cause you to lose hope.

God didn’t want too many ladders in life because then it would be boring or too easy or unchallenging. But he also didn’t want life to be so tough or stressful that we’d give up. So he gave life a balance of ups and downs.

Now remember what I said a little while ago. God wants us to live our lives as a church community — by loving him and by loving each other, all with the constant help of the Holy Spirit. If you relate this to the game of Chutes and Ladders, it would be interesting to ask yourself this: what kind of person am I towards others? Am I more like a ladder in life to people, or a chute? In other words, do I act to lift people up and encourage them… as a channel of God’s love, hope, forgiveness and healing… or am I just the opposite?

Wouldn’t it be great if we could all be ladders! We would smile at people… be kind to them… take an interest in them… go out of our way to help them and comfort them and bring them joy. What a lift and a blessing we would be to them!

It’s not such a far-fetched idea! The beautiful thing about Holy Communion is that in an amazing way, it can turn icy cold, stony hearts into warm, loving hearts. It really can turn us from chutes into ladders.

May all of us who come to the Lord’s table today, (and especially our First Holy Communicants), pray for God’s forgiveness, wisdom and power to love… and let’s get to work for the kingdom of love! May we never lose the wonder and joy of the Bread of Angels! And may the Holy Spirit always fill us with his wonderful grace. Amen!