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May 14, 2006

Body and Blood

By Michelle Martin

It was a picture-perfect day: clear and sunny, all blue sky and green grass and leaves making backdrop for all the snowy white dresses and shirts on the First Communion kids.

The church was packed with parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles, with at least three cameras for each kid, as the pastor noted.

All in all, it was a memorable, sacred occasion when Caroline and 49 other children made their First Holy Communion.

So why is one of my main memories screeching, “Don’t bleed on your dress!”?

Communion, of course, is about the Body and Blood of Christ—not blood from a scraped elbow, with the scab torn off running around the gym after the ceremony.

It’s also not really about the dress, either, pretty as it was. Caroline and her girlfriends all noticed how their fluffy white dresses and tulle veils made them look like pint-sized brides—an image that made them laugh and their parents cry.

Nor is it about the party, the cake or the gifts.

But it is about more than a wafer and a sip of wine (white wine, which would not stain those white dresses if shaky hands spilled a drop or two).

As Catholics, we believe the bread and wine become the real Body and Blood of Christ—something Caroline acknowledges she doesn’t understand, but accepts. We receive the Eucharist as a gift, and make a gift of ourselves at the same time.

At Caroline’s First Communion, that was made abundantly clear as the children followed the gifts and stood in the sanctuary during the consecration.

As we take in the Body of Christ, so we, the church, become the Body of Christ. The children who received Communion for the first time were already members of that body through baptism, but when they approached the altar for the first time, they became involved on a new level.

And when they celebrated at home with family and friends, that’s what they were celebrating: a new way of belonging to the community.

Of course, they are still children. Caroline loved her fancy hairdo and beautiful dress, but after showing it off for an hour or so at her party, she couldn’t wait to change into play clothes and go to the park. Most guests gave her generous gifts that will go straight to her college fund; one of her favorite presents was a pink baseball mitt from Auntie Liz. And children will run around and scrape their knees and elbows.

But somehow, that’s part of God’s plan, too. When he chose to make the church—a church made up of men, women and children—his mystical body, he must have known it would get a few bumps and bruises along the way.

Michelle Martin is a Catholic New World staff writer.