FIRST HOLY COMMUNION

May 19, 2012

Rev. Emmett H. Carroll, S.J.

Incidents of Holy Communion.

You have learned how Jesus promised that people who received His

body and blood would remain His friends.

Amen, amen I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the son on

Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you.

Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I

will raise him on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my

blood is true drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood

remains in me and I in him. (John 6:53-56).

I recently saw that happen. A few days ago, I visited a woman who was

dying. She had had Catholic parents and had received baptism and

penance and First Holy Communion. She had learned catechism, and

had been a regular Catholic. But after her Catholic wedding and then her

divorce, she ceased to practice her faith.

But her adult daughter telephoned the parish office and asked if a priest

could come to her mother. So, I went. The mother had not been to

church in many years. Both of her two husbands had died. Yet she had

always believed in God and in Jesus Christ, and daily she had prayed the

rosary, and now she could no longer speak. Yet when I came, she

smiled, and recognized me as a priest, and then she almost immediately

slipped back into semi-consciousness. So I was able to pray for her with

her daughter, and I could anoint her, the last sacrament of her life.

Recall that our Lord promised that whoever “eats my flesh and drinks

my blood has eternal life.” So that woman, even though she had not been

to church in many years, could still rely on our Lord’s promise of eternal

life.

There is another woman who lived a holy life and every day went to

Holy Communion. Ms. Dorothy Day (1897-1980) during her high

school and college belonged to the Communist Party. Although she

never married officially, she lived for a couple of years like a married

woman, and she gave birth to a daughter, and she regularly protested

everything. Eventually, she quit communism, and she became a

Catholic, and she received Holy Communion on every day for the

remainder of her life. She established the newspaper entitled “The

Catholic Worker.” It continues to this day.

Another famous instance of Holy Communion occurred on Easter

Sunday morning, just after Jesus had risen from the tomb. On the very

day of the resurrection, two disciples walked from Jerusalem to a village

named Emmaus.

And it happened that while they were conversing and debating,

Jesus himself drew near and walked with them, but their eyes were

prevented from recognizing him. He asked them, “What are you

discussing as you walk along?” They stopped, looking downcast.

One of them, named Cleopas, said to him in reply, “Arte you the

only visitor to Jerusalem who does not know of the things that

have taken place there in these days?” …. (Luke 24: 13ff.)

So Jesus explained the Bible to them, and then these disciples wanted

Jesus to stay for dinner with them. So they went into the motel together,

and “it happened that, while he was with them at table, he took bread,

said the blessing, broke it, and gave it to them. With that their eyes were

opened and they recognized Jesus, but he vanished from their sight.”

That was the Eucharist, and by that Eucharist, these disciples recognized

Jesus. Because of the Eucharist, you and I come to know Jesus. When

we receive Holy Communion, we talk to Jesus, just you and Jesus Christ

talking together.

Another famous instance of receiving the Holy Eucharist occurred in

China. There was a priest named Father Robert W. Greene. He was a

member of a priest group known as Maryknoll priests. He was in China

and there he was a druggist who dispensed medicines to people in the

area. This happened in October of 1950. The Communists took over

China and they arrested Fr. Greene as a spy. Remember, this Fr. Greene

was born in Indiana, and so the Communist rulers could complain that

he was a spy. They tried to make him confess. After eight days of

torture, the Communist soldiers said that they would shoot him and cut

off his head. Thinking that he was about to die, he managed to take the

single consecrated host, the holy communion, from his jacket, and

swallow it. The communists, instead of shooting him, forced him across

the border line into Hong Kong. So this Fr. Greene lived. At the most

critical moment of his life, he received Holy Communion.

Another famous instance of the Eucharist occurred in World War II.

There was a priest whom I knew. He came from Ellensburg,

Washington. He was a Chaplin, and he served with the Marine Corps.

His assignment brought him to a ship as the Marines waited to land on a

famous island over 600 miles from Tokyo. That island is smaller than

Bainbridge Island, about eight square miles. It was flat, and so it could

have a place on which to land airplanes. That is why the United States

wanted to conquer that island, and that is why the enemy soldiers came

there and prepared to defend it. A worn out Mountain, only 550 feet

above sea level, dominated this otherwise flat land. Fr. Suver went

ashore with the Marines, and many died.

After two days of killing with rifle fire, a group of Marines reached the

Mountain top. There, Fr. Suver prepared to say Mass. The men found a

piece of flat wood, and Fr. Suver put on the alb, cincture, and chasuble

that he always carried in a sack with him. Then he also had hosts and

wine for consecration. Now he offered Mass, and many of the soldiers

received communion at that spot. Christ in the Eucharist was brought

into that scene of death and carnage on Mount Surabachi. That became a

famous picture, with the Mass and the Eucharist at the center. After that

Mass, the Marines took a pole and tied the flag to it, and stuck the pole

in the ground to declare that the United States had conquered the famous

island of Iwo Jima. And that flag raising became one of the best known

photos of the whole war. After that, the battle continued for two or three

more days. On that famous occasion, many marines received Holy

Communion.

Today this parish is glad that each of you receives our Lord in Holy

Communion. From today, you can often speak to Jesus Christ as you

take him to yourself. On all the big days in your life, you can offer Mass

and have Jesus with you. Amen.