Maria's First Holy Communion

“Amen, I say to you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it.”

What is it, my dear niece, that so many Old Testament figures longed to see, but did not, that you see with your eyes and hear with your ears? The reality of sin was stamped upon the minds of the patriarchs from Adam to St. Joseph; it was woven into the sight of the prophets from Moses to St. John the Baptist. Each of them knew they owed an infinite debt to God, and that one day that debt would be paid by a perfect sacrifice, the death of Christ Jesus our Lord. “To Him all the prophets testify,” says St. Peter.

You know the stories. When Abel offered his sacrifice to God, it was from the flocks, but he knew even as he offered them up, that there was another to Whom they pointed, for “it is impossible that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sin.” When Melchisedek, priest of God most high, offered bread and wine in sacrifice, he was well aware that the Almighty God does not eat our food but that these offerings were a foreshadowing of the One Who was to come later. When Abraham laid the wood upon the shoulder of Isaac, but by the command of God did not slaughter him, he foretold to his son that God would provide. All of these offered sacrifice, but they did not see the One for Whom they longed.

Moses ordered the children of Israel to offer a lamb as the Passover sacrifice, but as they repeated that ritual year after year, it only became more and more painfully obvious that it was another Lamb they were waiting for. Even as St. Joseph, foster-father of the Son of God, brought the baby Jesus to the temple and offered two turtle-doves according to the custom of the Law of Moses, he knew that his Son would fulfill everything in that Law by His own sacrifice, but the head of the Holy Family died before his eyes beheld the redemption of the human race. And St. John the Baptist, the greatest of the Old Testament prophets, pointed with his finger and cried out, “Behold the Lamb of God, Who takes away the sins of the world!” thus indicating that this was the true victim of sacrifice, but he too ended his earthly course before the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.

Now, however, the eyes of a young girl see before her the sacrifice of Calvary, Jesus immolated on the cross. What are the words she hears? “This is My body. This is the cup of My blood.” For these are not just words, but sacramental words. The bread and wine are not mere earthly elements, but sacramental elements. Together, they are not just symbols, but sacramental signs—things which not only point to another reality, but actually cause it to be present. Jesus our God is present in His Body and Blood. But that is not the limit to our understanding. He is not simply present, but present as He was sacrificed on the cross. For what do the separate elements signify, if not that the Body and Blood are not together, just as they were not together in His saving death? So, Christ on this altar is the same Christ on the altar of the cross. The sacrifice is the same—only the manner of its offering is different.

“Blessed,” therefore, “are your eyes because they see, and your ears because they hear. Amen, I say to you”—whether sacramental presence or the original presence of sensible realities long ago—“many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see but did not see it.”

“Blessed are your eyes because they see and your ears because they hear.” Is that true? Is it enough? If it were, then the one who hears the word without understanding has nothing to fear; the one who hears the word with joy but has no root need not fear persecution; worldly anxiety and the lure of riches should bother us not at all.

To the contrary, there is one who is said to have “kept all these things, pondering them in her heart.” She heard the word and understood it. There is no greater patron saint, my dear niece, than the one to whom we address the prayer, Ave Maria. If you—if anyone—would be that soil whose seed bears a hundredfold fruit in life everlasting, the seed of a worthy reception of Holy Communion—be it the first or the ten thousandth time—imitate her pondering of the Word of God who first conceived in faith before she received in her flesh Him Who is about to be received in yours.--Given by Uncle Fr. Chrystostom at Maria's First Holy Communion, July 13, 2008.