Better than Christmas

Fourth Sunday after Easter
    In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.  I will beg your forbearance, as I address my homily primarily to the First Communicants, though I pray it will edify all present.
    My dear boys and girls receiving our Lord in the Eucharist for the first time: when I was your age, the celebration of Christmas was one of the highlights of the year, as I imagine it is for you.  Yes, we went to Mass to celebrate the real reason for Christmas (and the reason it’s even called Christmas: Christ’s-Mass), but honestly, I was more excited for what presents would be under the tree on Christmas morning.  Part of the joy was the wrapping around the presents, because it took some time to realize just what I had received.  And my parents didn’t let us pick out the presents (probably both to avoid the chaos of three kids all grabbing for gifts, as well as to get pictures of what we opened), but my dad would pick one out at a time and give it to us so that we could unwrap it and see what we received.  Some of the gifts would be less exciting than others (I was not often a fan of the clothes that we inevitably got as gifts), but I would usually have a gift or two that really excited me and which I treasured for the near future.

    Today is not Christmas, but today you are all receiving the most precious gift of all: the gift of the Body and Blood of Christ in the Eucharist.  You are all dressed so nicely, to show how important this special day is.  And I imagine you are maybe as excited as you might be for Christmas, because of this treasure that our Lord is giving to you today.  And yes, just like at Christmas, there will be pictures, too, at least with me after the Mass, but probably with your family as well.
    Our Lord gives you this gift because of how much He loves you, and how close He wants to be with you.  In this Mass, you get to come close to Christ because we participate in His crucifixion, which is what the Mass presents for us once more, though without the pain and the blood.  But even though you have come close to Christ at each Mass, today He comes closer to you than anyone else will ever be to you, as you receive Him into yourselves through this Most Blessed Sacrament He gives us. 
    Having met with you, I know that you know that this is not ordinary bread.  By the power of the Holy Spirit, and the ministry of me, a priest who gets to act in the Person of Christ, God Himself changes bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Christ.  And in doing so He connects us back to the sacrifice that opened heaven for us.  Whenever we receive the Eucharist, we receive a little bit of heaven inside of us.
    And we need that bit of heaven, because it prepares us for that place that we all want to go many years from now when we die.  Our Lord tells us that the way to get to heaven is narrow, and not many people take it.  But He also says that if we eat His flesh and drink His blood, we have eternal life within us that helps us make the decisions that lead us on that narrow road to heaven.  Receiving the Eucharist takes away our venial or small sins, and gives us strength to follow Christ.
    Following Christ is sometimes hard, because we all have temptations to do things that Christ doesn’t want us to do.  Christ knows those temptations won’t really make us happy.  Maybe sometimes your siblings aren’t nice to you, so you are tempted to be mean right back to them, or even hit them or say things that hurt their feelings.  Sometimes your parents ask you to clean your room or don’t touch something that can be dangerous, and we don’t want to follow their instructions.  Receiving the Eucharist will help you to be kind to your siblings and be obedient to your parents.  As you grow, the temptations will change; adults have other temptations of their own.  But if you receive the Eucharist each week, you will have everything you need to say no to any temptation that comes your way, no matter how old you are or what those temptations are.

    Today we also celebrate the Blessed Virgin Mary, because we honor her in a special way in the month of May.  Mary is a model for us because, unlike Christ, she is not God.  She is like us in every way, though she never, ever sinned in her life.  She always said “yes” to God.  And so we also ask her to help us say “yes” to God.  And like your own mothers, she loves you very much and will help you to follow her Son, Jesus, and say “yes” to Him.  If you ever need someone to talk to when you’re sad, or someone to share really good news with when you’re happy, you can always turn to Mary, and she will help cheer you up or celebrate with you.
    St. James in our epistle said today that every good and perfect gift comes from above from the Father of lights.  He’s talking about God giving us every good thing that we need.  And today He does give you the best present ever: His Only-Begotten Son, Jesus, in the Eucharist.  Christ Himself also gave us Mary, His mother, to be our own spiritual mother.  Those are two amazing gifts, and you didn’t even have to unwrap them!  And you don’t even have to wait until Christmas to receive them.  From this point on, every time you come to Mass, as long as you don’t have a big sin, you can receive this perfect gift of the Eucharist.  And the gift of our Blessed Mother, Mary, is a gift that you can always have, even on the days when you can’t come to Mass. 
    Just like at Christmas, when we receive gifts, we say thank you to the people who gave them to us, today (and every time your receive the Eucharist) I invite you, after you receive Holy Communion, to kneel down and silently say thank you to God for giving you these amazing gifts.  Say thank you in your own words in your heart to God the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.