527. April 23, Our Father's First Holy Communion

Meditations no. 459 (unofficial computer-aided translation)

The remembrance of our Father’s First Holy Communion invites us to adore the mystery of the Eucharist.

We are celebrating the anniversary of our Father’s First Holy Communion, which took place in Barbastro, on the 23rd of April 1912, the feast of St George. It was traditional in Aragon to do so on that day.

Each person’s life attains to its deepest meaning in the measure in which we meet Christ, with whom we must be conformed so as to enjoy the eternal happiness of heaven. That is why the First Holy Communion day is always a solemn day, a feast: Christ arrives to the soul in a new way, real and substantial. Even the body partakes of this coming of our Lord, and takes in its effects, being made fit, as it were, to enjoy glory: He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood, has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.

This first meeting with Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, which ordinarily takes place at an early age, when children begin to enjoy the use of reason, is also a cause of joy for the Lord, who has said: Let the children come to me, and do not hinder them. Jesus is quite pleased to find himself in innocent souls - such as those of little children - who know nothing of betrayals, who do not raise obstacles to grace. And if this is always the case, how he would have rejoiced on arriving sacramentally into the soul of our Father, whom he himself had chosen as a most faithful instrument!

On this anniversary, we also affectionately remember the Grandparents, for Christian parents are the ones who bring their children to the Sacrament of the Altar. It is to them we owe the sowing of love of God deposited that day in the heart of our founder, which has meant so many benefits for us as well. I was then about ten years old, our Father observed on one occasion. At that time it was unheard of to make one’s First Communion at such an early age, in spite of the dispositions laid down by Pius X. Now it is customary to make it even earlier than that. An old Piarist father, a good, simple and devout man, prepared me for it, and it was he who taught me the formula for the spiritual communion.

It is timely on today’s feast to consider the marvel of love contained in the eucharistic mystery. As our Lord assures us: He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. There cannot be a more generous promise: really to receive Christ himself, source of all graces. And not only once, but each day. For this reason, too, we have especially to thank our Lord for instituting the Holy Sacrament of the Eucharist, through which he has stayed among us. It is something to marvel at: He had to go away, and he wanted to stay on with us. And since he is Almighty, he performed this great miracle of love. We cannot do what we desire, for our power does not reach as far as our desire: not so with our Lord. He goes away to heaven and, at the same time, he has stayed hidden under the species of bread and wine.

We have to thank him particularly for three things: the institution of this sacrament; its perpetuation through the words of the Consecration recited by the priest; and its administration. They are three marvellous tokens of God’s goodness, which are tailored to the needs of our nature. I always think of the love of a good mother who cleans her little one, washes it, perfumes it, and then, covering it with kisses, says to it: I could eat you! Our Lord has also said this to us: Take, eat me! It cannot be more human. But we do not humanise God our Lord on receiving him. It is he who divinises us, exalts us, raises us up. I dare say that our Lord would have been remiss in not acting in this way, knowing, as he does, our weakness, and knowing that we are inclined towards sin.

Preparing very well to receive our Lord in the Eucharist.

Years ago, on a day like today, our founder said: For me, today is a very great feast. Help me to give our Lord thanks truly for that goodness of his, because he willed to come and make himself master of my heart.

Every moment of our founder’s life, every encounter with God in his soul, were just so many milestones in the germination of our spiritual lives, which were to come to birth from his. Because of this, too, the anniversary we celebrate today is a feast for each one of us. It is a motive for thanksgiving and an opportunity once again to return thanks to our Lord for all his gifts.

Our gratitude has to be operative: Love means deeds, not sweet words, goes the saying which our Lord wished to engrave as by fire on our Father’s soul. Speaking in third person during a get-together, he observed: I have had to skip from here to there and I have listened to so many things, many confidential things from my brother priests… And I once got to know of one who was giving Communion to some cloistered nuns through those grilles there used to be back then… Those grilles had spikes this long, and that was good, very good. They used to be on the outside because they didn’t need them on the inside, since the little nuns already knew about how to mortify themselves. While that priest was giving them Communion - poor priest, I know him, I knew him already back then, poor priest! - he was saying in his heart: I love you more than these. And our Lord said to him: Love means deeds, not sweet words. He was left dumbfounded.

A good resolution for today’s prayer might consist in doing our best to prepare for Holy Mass and Communion. Our Father advised us to receive it with a great faith, with a love that burns, as if it were the last time in your life. We can also go back in our recollections, to the happy day on which our Lord came to our souls for the first time. Clearly aware of the miracle that takes place each time we go to communion, we can rekindle the desire, the joyful eagerness we had back then, when we were preparing ourselves for First Holy Communion.

We have our founder’s example near at hand. He never ever got used to receiving Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. As he said during one meditation: I have somewhere brought to your consideration the Eucharist’s being our Lord’s greatest proof of humility: more than in Bethlehem, more than in Nazareth, greater even than the humiliation on the Cross. Here, Jesus Christ lies defenceless, exposed to profanation and the forgetfulness of many. He allows himself to be received unworthily. He is forsaken in the darkness of the Tabernacle. And he is the Bread of the Angels! Ecce Panis Angelorum / factus cibus viatorum, / vere panis filiorum / non mittendus canibus (Sequence Lauda Sion). Behold the Bread of the Angels, become the food of wayfarers. It is truly the Bread of the children, which must not be thrown to the dogs. This divine Bread can’t be thrown to the dogs! We have to respond lovingly to Jesus. After all, Love is paid for by love. That’s why devotion to the Blessed Eucharist has to be our first devotion. We approach to receive him with acts of faith, of love and of hope. And we shall have these same dispositions upon coming before the tabernacle every day.

Taking care with the Thanksgiving after Mass.

Our Father was often asked about how greater fruitfulness might be drawn from receiving Holy Communion. At times he would get us to consider: Thanksgiving… is a movement of our hearts and of our heads. With our Lord’s help, we thank him for something: for having received him in Holy Communion; for having suffered a little setback and having been able to offer it up to him cheerfully; for having been given some satisfaction by others and for having offered that also up to him… But it’s as if I were to whisper in your ear what you ought to say to your mother. You can tell our Lord whatever you like. Not with your mouth, because with your mouth you could sing the Te Deum laudamus or a Psalm out of those marvellous ones we priests pray in the breviary. It’s better to thank him in your own way, as you would me, as you would your parents, your brothers and sisters, for lots of things; and all of this, in a natural way, without anyone’s having to suggest it to you.

On other occasions, in order to help us, he would pass on to us his personal way of thanking God at that particular time. When you have him in your heart, say to him: Lord, I believe it’s you: I firmly believe it. I thank you because you have given me this faith; but teach me to receive you as you want me to. And keep saying things like that. Little by little you will learn to do it very well, for your Communion will have a continuous effect right throughout the day. And for one part of the day, you will give thanks because you have received him, and for the other, because you are going to receive him.

I don’t mind telling you what I do. Every day, the last words I say to our Lord before going to sleep, are these: Thanks, Lord, because I have been able to celebrate Holy Mass today. And I thank you in advance because, by your mercy, I expect to celebrate Holy Mass again tomorrow, in persona Christi, renewing the divine sacrifice of Calvary and consecrating the Body and the Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. At times, I say these words only in my heart, and at others, almost in a shout, because I am alone…

Don’t feel far from God. Our Lord is with us, in us. As long as we don’t cast him out by mortal sin, he lives in our souls. Have a great intimacy with him! We can’t deceive him, so it’s better to tell him about our miseries, to ask him for help, and to thank him when we manage to do something well. And the Mass comes out in our work and our work is turned into prayer.

Ever since our Father first received Jesus Christ in his presence under the sacramental species, the Eucharist became his fundamental food, which gave him strength to overcome so many difficulties and bring to completion the mission God had entrusted to him. His whole existence was orientated towards the Tabernacle. There he frequently delighted to have recourse, in order to adore Christ, to make amends to him, to thank him, to ask for his protection. He taught this very thing to us his children and to so many other persons, eager as he was to make reparation for the offences committed against this sacrament of Love.

Every day we often pray the spiritual communion we learned from our Father. We can repeat it more fervently today: I wish, Lord, to receive you, with the purity, humility and devotion with which your most holy Mother received you, with the spirit and fervour of the saints.