First Communion Mass
Well, First Communicants,
some of you must have stayed up all night and prayed to have such a beautiful
day on this your First Communion Day.
But you know in many ways we don’t have control over the weather do
we? Whatever God gives us today we’ll
make the most of it. But what we are
about in this Mass in a very special way is to bring someone very wonderful to
you, into your hearts and into your lives.
And maybe a little story
might help a little bit about this. One
time there was a Sunday School teacher and she had her group of children. And they were only four or five-years-old, so
they were younger than you boys and girls.
And the teacher was telling them the story of Noah and the ark and the
flood. And she was telling the story to
all of her students, the little four and five-year-olds about all the different
animals that Noah was taking into the ark.
So she said to herself, “I’ll think I’ll play a game with the student
and see if they can guess what kind of animals Noah took into the ark.” So all her little kids are sitting around in
front of her and the teacher said, “Okay boys and girls, see if you can guess
what this animal is? I have a long,
bushy tail. I have four short little legs
and I like to climb trees.” All the
little children just looked at her with a blank look on their face. So she said, “Well, not only do I have a
long, bushy tail, four little legs, and I like to climb trees but I love nuts
and acorns too.” The boys and girls just
kept looking at her. Finally she said,
“Well, sometimes I’m brown or gray, I can even be black or red.” And they still just looked at her with that
blank look. Finally the teacher said to
one of the little girls. Michelle was
her name. And she said, “Michelle, come
on, you must know the answer. Tell me
what kind of animal am I?” Little
Michelle looked at her fellow classmates and looked up at the teacher and said,
“Well teacher, I know it must be Jesus, but sure sounds like a squirrel to
me.”
You know boys and girls, who
are you receiving today? Jesus. Jesus is not a squirrel is He? And you are not squirrels or animals. You are receiving Jesus Christ Himself who
loves you all very, very much. And just
in the gospel today Jesus said, “I’m the good shepherd.” He is trying to tell us again that we’re not
a bunch of sheep. Okay, you’re not
animals are you? You’re human
beings. You have names. Your mom and dad love you. They brought you into this world and they
dressed you up to beautifully today because this is a special day in your
lives. So Jesus in the gospel is saying,
“I know you. I know you all by
name. And I’m coming today to give you
Myself.”
Maybe you could think of it
this way. Boys and girls when someone
gives you something, say like a birthday present, what do you do with it? You unwrap it, right. And after you unwrap it then what do you
do? Wear it or use it, right. So if someone gives you a gift you unwrap it,
or you wear it, or you use it, or maybe sometimes too you go to someone and
say, “Gee, look what grandma and grandpa gave me.” And you’re proud of it and you show it
off.
Now if you took a gift that
say grandma or grandpa or one of your uncles or aunts or your godparents gave
you and then you didn’t even unwrap it, and you took it home and shoved it
underneath your bed, what would you kind of be saying to them? I really don’t like your gift. So if somebody gives us something, when
someone gives you a gift, what are they telling you? Mom and dad give you something, or grandma or
grandpa, what are they telling you? That
they love you, right? They think you’re
somebody special. They love you. They care about you so much that they want to
pass on their love to you, right?
So how did you get there
this morning boys and girls? Did you
fly? Huh? How did you get here? A car.
Do you have a drivers’ license?
Ah! So I be you mom and dad
brought you here right? Okay. So that’s another good thing to remember boys
and girls. You are here right now today
because your moms and your dads put you into their car and they drove you here
to church today so that you could receive Jesus in Holy Communion.
So that’s a tip-off parents,
grandparents, other people who love these boys and girls, it’s your responsibility
to make sure that these boys and girls get to come here every Sunday to receive
Jesus in the Eucharist. That’s a
commitment that you’re making to your sons and daughters today. Because today is just the first of many times
boys and girls that Jesus is going to come to you and give you himself.
You know you mentioned
someone gives you a gift for your birthday, and you said because people love
you they give you gift, that’s what Jesus is doing today boys and girls. He’s saying, “I love you. And I figured out the best way to show you
that I love you I’ll give you Myself.” And when Jesus comes to us today I want
you to share Jesus with others. I want
you to take His love, His joy, His kindness, His thoughtfulness and share it
and keep giving it to your moms and dads, those around you. Think you could do that?
Because if you just keep
Jesus to yourself you’re being selfish huh?
Jesus wants you to share His live, to give it away. Guess what?
You’ll never run out of Jesus’ love.
Isn’t that neat? Because the more
that you let Jesus into your heart the more you are going to be able to give
and share with others. That’s the gift
that we are celebrating today, boys and girls, the beautiful gift of
Jesus. You get to come here every Sunday
to receive Jesus and when you receive Jesus say, “Thank you Jesus you love
me. You gave me moms and dads and
grandparents and uncles and aunts who love me and I’m going to let them know
how much I love them too. And the love
that you give to me I’m going to keep sharing with other people.”
You know what’s going to
happen? We’re just going to fill
Minnesota with so much love and joy and happiness. That’s what we are doing today, sharing
Jesus’ love because Jesus loves you so very, very much.
And when someone says, “I
love you,” what do you say? I love you
back. That’s what I want you to say to
Jesus too, I love You back. And one word
we use, when I’m going to give you Holy Communion today, when I give you Jesus,
I’ll say, “Body of Christ”, you’re going to say what? “Amen”
And that’s a way of saying, “I love you back Jesus.” So that’s a powerful word to say.