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Confirmation and First Communion:
Seeing Jesus in the Breaking of the Bread
April 5-6, 2008
Luke 24:l3-35
There are many things upon which we could focus on today from the beautiful gospel we just heard. But I want to talk about the last phrase: how the disciples came to see Jesus in the breaking of the bread. Now you remember in the story that Jesus walked with them along the road, but they did not recognize him. It was only when they broke bread with him, when they shared a meal with him, that they came to see that it was really Jesus. Now many of you here today will be breaking bread at the table of the Eucharist for the first time. And so the question I want you to think about today is, what does it mean for you to see Jesus in this meal in the breaking of the bread?
Now to answer that question, I have a story. Usually on First Communion day, I tell a story from my childhood. But today’s story is a special one, because it happened to me on my First Communion day.
But before I tell you the story, I need to give you some background. You see, when I was in the second grade, I went to a catholic school, a catholic day school. Now some of you here say, “Father George, we know about that, because we go to catholic day schools. We go to All Saints or Our Lady of Mt. Carmel or St. Francis.” Well, yes, you do. But your catholic day school is very different from my catholic day school. In our catholic school almost all of our teachers were nuns, religious sisters. Now some of you say, “Oh, Father George, we know about nuns. We’ve met religious sisters.” And you have. But the nuns that you met were very different from the nuns who taught me in school. For example, the nuns in my school all wore a full religious habit, special clothes which covered their entire body (not only from their neck to their shoes, but their head as well). In my childhood, nuns wore a veil, but not the lacey veils which some of you girls are wearing here today. They wore a complete veil that covered their whole head, and the only thing you could see was their face. You could not see their hair or their ears. All you could see was from their forehead to their chin. Now if you think that I’m making this up, when you go home, go on the internet and you can find a picture of a nun that looked the way they looked when I was in school.
So, when I was in the second grade, we had a new nun who came to our school as principal. And her name was Sister Laetitia. Now in Latin that means “Sister Joyful, Sister Happy.” But it was not a good name for Sister Laetitia, because she was not particularly joyful or happy. In fact, a Latin name for her should have been Sister Maximus, which meant “Sister Big.” Because she was big. She was six feet tall, and she had big shoulders. Of course, all you could see was her face, but you knew that there was a lot of nun under that habit. And Sister Laetitia was tough. In fact, there was a rumor that went around our school that before she became a nun she was in the navy. The rumor said that she fought on a submarine during the Second World War and that she had personally sunk a number of German battleships. Now I didn’t believe that, but my friend, Tommy Wagner said he believed it. He told me that he heard that Sister Laetitia had a tattoo, right here on her forearm, and it was an American flag with rope around it, and it said “Anchors Away.” So every time that she came into our classroom and she would write on the board and her habit would slip a bit, all of us leaned forward to see if we could see that tattoo. Now, I never saw it, but I knew that she was tough.
One day she came into our classroom and she said, “Boys and girls, I have a friend to introduce to you.” And then she pulled out from under her habit and brought out a paddle, a wooden paddle. She said, “This is my friend. His name is Mr. Conversation. I call him Mr. Conversation because if any of you children fool around in school, if you fight in the parking lot, if you don’t listen to your teacher, if you fail to finish your homework on time, then you and me and Mr. Conversation are going to go into my office and have a talk.” Now we knew that if we went into Sister Laetitia’s office, there would be more than talk. If we went into that office, we would receive a spanking. We could even see that Sister Laetitia had drilled holes in that wooden paddle so that when she struck us there would be less air resistance. When she left the room, my friend Tommy Wagner said, “Oh my God, first she took care of the Germans and now she’s gonna take care of us!”
So, that’s the background. And that brings us to the day of First Communion. Like all of you here, we prepared for our First Communion. We learned about how Jesus loves us, how Jesus is present to us in the bread and wine of the Eucharist. We learned all the things that you children have learned. And just like you children, we also had a practice in church. And at the end of that practice, Sister Laetitia came in and she said, “Boys and girls, after you receive our Lord in the holy sacrament of the Eucharist, I want each of you to come back to your pews and kneel down.” (Now in our church we had kneelers; not like St. Noel’s.) She continued, “I want you to kneel down and I want you to put your face in your hands like this, and I want you to say a prayer. But most especially I do not want to hear a sound. I do not want to see a movement. And as you are kneeling there, if I hear even one peep or see even one little wiggle, then on Monday when you come to school, you and I will meet with Mr. Conversation.”
So I determined right away I was not going to say anything; I was not going to move. On my first communion day everything went well until I came back from communion. Unlike you children who sit with your families, in our parish all the children sat together. Next to me was my good friend Tommy Wagner. So I sat down and I put my face in my hands and I was not making a sound and I was not making a move, and suddenly I felt something hit me in the leg. And I knew at once it was Tommy trying to get me into trouble. So as I looked through the corner of my eyes, I saw that he, without making a move himself, had balanced himself on one knee and was using his other knee to hit me. Now of course what I wanted to do was to say, “Tommy, stop that.” Or I wanted to hit him back, but I couldn’t do that because I knew that Sister Laetitia was watching. And so I was caught. I could not speak; I could not move. And Tommy was making it look like I was causing the problem. I knew I was in big trouble. What could I do? Then I thought, “I should pray.” And here’s the prayer that I said. “Dear Jesus, I know that you suffered and died for me, but I do not want to suffer and die in a conversation with Sister Laetitia. Please help me. Please save me. You are my only hope.” And I just tried to be as still as I could while Tommy kept hitting me.
Well, when our time for prayer was over, we stood up and I looked right at Sister Laetitia and she looked right at me. I was worried. After the Mass was over, we gathered together in our classroom and Sister Laetitia came in. And for once she looked really happy. She said, “Boys and girls, you were wonderful. God bless you on your First Communion. All of you really were good. You really behaved yourselves.” And then she said, “Some of you had a harder time of it than others.” And she looked right at me and winked. In that wink I knew that things would be okay. She had figured out that Tommy was making me move. I knew that I would not have to meet with Mr. Conversation on Monday morning. And all I could say was, “Thank you, Jesus!”
Now I know that this story is a bit silly, but really speaks to the heart of what we’re about today. Everybody here through their baptism and confirmation belongs to Jesus. And that means that Jesus is with you always, at every time and in any place. And it means that you can always talk to Jesus, no matter where. But in a special way, Jesus is with you when you come and share this meal of the Eucharist, when you come and break bread at this altar. I want everyone here to know this, those who are making their confirmation and First Communion today and those who are not. Jesus is always with you, but it is here that he is with you in a special way. It is here that you can ask for anything you want, that you can ask him to save you from any trouble you have. Although Jesus is always with you, he is with you in a special way in the breaking of the bread.
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