Congratulation to our First Communicants!

Once a gentle man was visiting his son. On Sunday he went church and took his little granddaughter with him. The little girl was observing everything, and finally they went to receive communion. Grandpa received communion, and she got a blessing. On the way back to the pew she asked, “Grandpa when am I going to get one of those.” Grandpa told her, “I will be make sure in couple years you will receive First Communion.” She kept watching the priest, and when he went to tabernacle to keep the Blessed Sacrament, she asked, “What is he doing? Is he putting in the microwave?”

Congratulation on your First Communion! Look at the Cross; God loves you so much. Look at the Easter Candle, he loves you and wants to be the light of your life, that guides you.  Look at the Altar, just as your parents feed you so that you can be strong physically, God feeds you from the Altar, so that you can be strong spiritually. At your Holy Communion, Jesus comes to you. He wants your communion & relationship with him to be holy. He wants your communion & relationship with everybody to be holy.

Pope Francis published a new Apostolic Exhortation “Gaudete Et Exsultate,” “Rejoice And Be Glad.” Pope Francis wants to remind us that we are called to holiness. In other words, he wants us to become saints. We don’t have to be a bishop, priest, or religious person to become saints. The Pope says, “we are all called to be holy by living our lives with love and bearing witness in everything we do, wherever we find ourselves.”

So what is holiness? It is being poor in heart, reacting with meekness and humility, knowing how to mourn with others, seeing and acting with mercy and so on. In the middle of problems, accepting the Gospel in daily life and sharing peace and love all those who are around us. Pope Francis says this is the holiness, rejoice and be glad, we all can attain holiness.

In today’s Gospel of Luke is presenting two different accounts. Two disciples were explaining how they recognized Jesus in the breaking of the bread and during this conversation Jesus appeared in their midst. He is real, with a human body. Jesus risen from the dead was still someone they could talk to. First Communicants, today Jesus is coming to you first time in Eucharist. Jesus wants you to be holy like Pope reminds us. What do you have to do become holy: just be yourselves and do everything with love for God and others.

Many years ago, there was a holy nun that went to the great Saint Teresa and was telling her how she wished that she had been alive at the same time that Jesus was walking around on the earth.  She kept thinking what a joy it would have been to see his face, to hear his voice and just to be near Him. “Imagine what it would have been like to even talk with Jesus!” she exclaimed.  “Oh, I would be a saint if only I could have been with Jesus!”

Saint Teresa looked at her with love and said, “My dear sister, have you forgotten that Jesus is still on earth , and that He lives near you-yes, in the house with you, and often in your very soul.  Have you also forgotten that you can see Him and can speak to Him as often as you like?  Is not Jesus with us in the Most Holy Sacrament?  Why then do you wish to have lived long ago, since that same Jesus who lived with Mary and Joseph lives also with you?” Jesus lives with us, he gives himself in the Eucharist so we can grow in holiness.