Now, Boys and Girls, the big day has arrived.  Today is the day when you receive Jesus for the first time and everybody is very happy for you today. Especially Jesus.  When you were getting ready for today, you all read this nice book and learned all about the Eucharist didn’t you?  Now I still remember my first Holy Communion and that was a long time ago, about <mumble-mumble> years!  On that day, the priest came down and looked stern and asked us all questions to see if we remembered.  But today, maybe I should ask your Mummies and Daddies these questions eh?  Let’s see what they remember?

Seriously though, Jesus tells us in another part of the gospel that we should be like little children and so maybe it wouldn’t hurt us to look at the lessons we are trying to teach our children.

The first lesson says the Eucharist is about belonging.  When you have Holy Communion today you will have Jesus with you in a special way, just like all your parents and older brothers and sisters and all the people in the Church.  You became part of the family of God when you were baptized and now you will belong to the community of God in a special way because we will all share something precious – we will all share Jesus inside us.

It means something else too, it’s about celebrating.  We don’t just have this special food like it was any old dinner or lunch – we eat it in a special celebration called the mass.  That is why we get dressed up to look nice for Jesus, to show Him he is special.  That is why when you come up to receive Jesus, you should always do it carefully with and with attention and with a proper prayer-filled attitude.

I’ll tell you something boys and girls – you have learned how to receive Jesus the right way, I know because I saw your teacher teaching you, and you know that you come forward with both hands in front of you like a very special plate.  And when Father or I put the host in your hand, I know you will take it carefully in your hand and put it in your mouth before you start walking away.  There’s no rush you know.  After all, if your mummy or Daddy had made a very special supper and put it on the table, you wouldn’t just walk by, grab a handful of food and shove it in your mouth would you?  No, you’d stop and sit and eat properly.  Jesus isn’t fast food, so we can all take our time when we get here to receive Jesus properly and then put the host in our mouth before we start to leave. 

On this special day, you get to receive Communion first and so you can show all the grown-ups out there who might have forgotten a little bit, how to receive communion, because sometime when you get older, it’s easy to try to be in too much of a hurry.

Another thing you know you are supposed to do, when the priest says “The Body of Christ!”, you say …   AMEN – right.  And AMEN means, “Yes, I believe!” so say it nice and loud like you mean it.

Another reason we celebrate today is because receiving your first Holy Communion means that you are growing up.  It means that all of us here in the church think that you all are old enough to understand that Jesus is in the bread and wine.  That’s pretty special isn’t it?  How many times have your parents said to you, “You’re too young, you wouldn’t understand, I’ll tell you when you grow up!”   Pretty annoying isn’t it?  How many of you know what you want to be when you grow up?  See there, that’s pretty grown up!  Maybe some of you might even grow up to be a priest or a sister.  Well, now, we are all here to tell you that we think you are old enough and grown up enough to be able to have Communion with all the other people in the church.  You are old enough to know what happens here at mass.

The Book tells us about the Mass.  You heard me read the gospel, when Jesus takes the bread and gives it to his friends and says, “This is my Body”, we all believe that the bread turned into the body of Jesus.  It still tastes like bread and feels like bread and smells like bread but it has changed in miraculous way to be something else.  When Jesus said, “Do this in memory of me!”, He was telling all the priests all through the ages, for two thousand years, to say these same words so that all of us can share Jesus in this special way too.

In a little while, Father will say Jesus’ words “This is my Body” when he holds up the bread.  And just as Jesus promised, the bread will turn into Jesus.  This is why we kneel down and keep especially quiet at this time of our celebration, because Jesus is there right at that minute!

The book reminds us that Eucharist is a meal too.  Jesus chose to give us this special food because he knows we need to eat to have a strong body, and we eat Communion to have a strong spirit too!  You wouldn’t only eat once, and then not eat again for a long, long time, would you?  If you did that, you would get pretty weak!  The same is true with Holy Communion.  You should come every week, so that your spirit becomes strong.

We are all celebrating your first Holy Communion, and we are all hoping that it doesn’t become your first “annual” Holy Communion.  Parents, the world is full of reasons to rush and to be somewhere else, but you have brought your children here today because your faith is speaking inside of you to tell you how important this is – so listen to your hearts and try to make sure that Jesus gets his time every week with all the other things that demand our time.  After all, any one of these Boys and Girls will tell you, “Jesus comes first!”

The book ends by saying to go out into the world and show people what Jesus taught you.  So Girls and Boys, once you have received Jesus, what did you learn, what happens then?  Do you think you will be exactly the same when you’ve received Jesus or will you be different?  <pause>  That’s right, you will be different – better!  And you’re grown up enough now to know that means that you need to show Jesus that you can be good and begin to be like him.

Having Jesus inside of you means being ready to share with others, help out others who need help, help your parents and do your share – Jesus helped his Father in the carpenter shop!  To be good!  Being good doesn’t mean you never get to have any fun, look at the young people in our youth group, they have lots of fun but they are still good kids!  You should be happy when Jesus is with you and if you take some time every day to say some prayers and then be quiet and listen in your heart – you will get the message from Jesus about what is the right thing to do!  The same is true for your parents too!  If they receive Jesus, then they should be kind to each other and be ready to forgive as Jesus was.  When Jesus is truly living in your family then you will have a happy life.  And we all know that changing the world, begins with changing things right at home.