In 2018, I posted musings on observing believers as they came forward in the communion procession to receive the Body and Blood of Christ. Recently, I returned to in-person worship after a long pandemic-induced hiatus. I returned, also, to watching others as they received communion.
A parent came forward to the priest, hands extended. Immediately in front of this parent, a boy, perhaps three years old, mimicked his father’s gesture. The priest placed the bread in the father’s hand and, noticing the small child, offered him a blessing. The boy’s face fell when he realized that he was not going to receive communion. Sadly, he permitted his father to guide him back to their seats.
Setting aside questions about the appropriate age for First Communion, I want to focus here on the native human longing to be like others, to be a part of what others are a part of. Later in his life, of course, this young boy may face peer pressure to engage in unhealthy / unwise activities in order to have a feeling of belonging. At this Mass, however, this young boy’s yearning is something that will someday be taken up into the order of grace. As the Catechism of the Catholic Church reminds us, “the liturgy of the Church presupposes, integrates and sanctifies elements from creation and human culture, conferring on them the dignity of signs of grace, of the new creation in Jesus Christ” (#1149). One could point right away to the bread and wine, the wheat and grapes, that the church consecrates at Mass. This bread and wine is aimed at a corresponding human longing for food and drink, of course, but this longing is not merely for intake of nutrients. It is a longing to dine *with.* This human longing to dine *with* finds realization in the sacrament where we companion (com / with – pan / bread) each other and God companions us.
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