first communion

Christopher will have his First Communion in May. And that's good. I like the religious education program at our church: they don't shy away from hard questions and they listen to what the kids have to say, which for Christopher in particular is super important because he loves to philosophize and can't get the time of day from his teacher at school. First Communion is a rite of passage, the one service in the year when our church is completely packed, and a day where the kids feel honored and proud that they are growing up.

But. The discussions around the Eucharist in the Catholic Church just make me so...sad and frustrated. Someone tried to explain to me the other day how the question of whether divorced and remarried Catholics should be allowed to take communion was very difficult and theologically fraught. I just...no. In fact (as I've said before) I don't see how, if we believe that the bread and wine turns into the body and blood of Jesus Christ...God incarnate...who lived and loved and died for all of humanity, we feel like we have the right to turn anyone at all away? I've heard the arguments. I don't buy them. I go to my brother's church and hear "all are welcome at this table" and it makes me cry.

So in Virginia we got to go to church with my friend, the same Episcopal church where I became a godmother to her littlest two years ago. Their family service on Sunday mornings is kind of chaotic and kind of wonderful and when communion time came, everyone was invited to the altar. And Christopher whispered, "does that mean me, too?" and I said sure, go for it. So we went up together and he held out his hands and got a communion wafer. The nice woman who came by with the wine told him he didn't have to take a drink if he didn't want to. There was no fanfare about it, no dressing up, no party afterwards; he just took and ate. Like all the other children of God gathered in that particular place on that particular day. Like Jesus taught us. And I'm very glad this was his first experience of communion, because my heart tells me that simple and loving - as opposed to difficult and theologically fraught - is exactly what communion should be.

(Afterwards the kids said we should import that service to Zurich, "because it's not so boring. And the priest actually seemed like he enjoyed his job!" Indeed...)