This year 61 of our children celebrated, with our community, their First Holy Communion. From my vantage point at the altar, prior to distributing communion, I watched their faces. The children were so excited and anxious, anticipating this moment for which they had been preparing for two years! I contemplated how Eucharist would sustain them in their journey throughout maturing personhood. I reflected on the many people I have been with, bringing them their last communion, Viaticum, derived from Latin meaning “food for the journey.” When food no longer nourishes the physical body, Viaticum, the last earthly Eucharist, prepares us for our journey home to be with God.

The deeper meaning of Eucharist is something we grow into over a lifetime.

Theologian, Rosemary Haughton’s thoughts about Eucharist, poetically expressed, evoke for me the reality to grow into as we begin to understand the mystery of God’s love for us. She wrote:

Remembering is now. Remembering is not going into the past. It is bringing the past into now, to change it. The Eucharist is remembering. That night at supper Jesus was remembering many things, because he was needing something to break through. He wanted it from his friends. He felt very alone- they didn’t understand- yet they were the only ones to share it with. They had come together to remember.

He had found a way, because he craved, needed, desired that union, and found a way through the simple things that lay under his hands.

At that moment divine love smashed through and transformed reality. Through sharing that revolutionized sign of food- food that makes bodies, food that makes people- he was one with them. They were his body and blood.

The gathering, the assembly, the body of Christ, the Church, sat at table, bodily one by one food, one of heart by one love. And he told them, he tells us, to do it again- to remember.

Century by century we try clumsily but faithfully, to remember. Not just on great days but as part of everyday life, like caring for children and growing a garden. In celebrating we change, the high days, the dull days, the sad days are changed, when the changed food changes bodies, changes a people into himself. This is what the Church is for- to consecrate- to be the place where ordinary things, are known for what they are -when we remember, and make God present. The Eucharist is remembering.

In passing on our Tradition of celebrating the Eucharist, we are giving our children the best food that can nourish them over their lifetime. It bequeaths the gift to live with the joy we know on our First Communion Day and strengthens us for challenges we face and brings meaning to the divine significance of our everyday lives. It is the food for the journey that will always bring us home.