Aden

John

Friday April 5, 2024

Discussions

Communion Ceremony Reflections

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DavidCampus, Nova Scotia, Canada 

Discussions on Teaching Frameworks | Subject:

Communion Ceremony Reflections

The First Holy Communion is a special and memorable day in all our lives. There’s the great spectacle, everyone is dressed in their best, the children are the centre of all the attention, there’s a festive atmosphere, and – of course – there’s a few bob to be made on the day. That is the material side of it but as a ceremony, as a ritual – it symbolises the start of the greatest relationship that the individual child will ever have: their personal relationship with God. This is what we endeavour to bring to the centre of the child’s awareness – the child is now personally in communion with the Great Father. Through this relationship the Father will guide his child out of the dizzying illusions of childhood into the divine liberty of the clear light of full spiritual maturity.

The ritual of Communion proclaims to the world and the Cosmos that the God of Eternity has found another child of time and the child now embarks on the great adventure of finding God. In the child’s personal experience they discovered for themselves that there is a difference between right and wrong, good and evil, fairness and unfairness – they have achieved moral consciousness. They are finally of age where they can stand as a witness in a Court of Law, because they know there is a difference right and wrong, they are capable of moral reasoning – of figuring out what they ought and ought not to do.

Play teaches children the importance of rules, law, and obedience. Without rules there can be no game. Games teach us about fairness, about playing by the rules. Games also teach us that we invent games, we make up the rules, and that often it is only after we have played the games for a while that we discover that the rules were not fair and so have to be changed so that more people can enjoy playing the game. Rules allow us to play. Reason allows us to understand how, while moral reasoning enables us to understand why – to discern ends from means.

Consequently, an excellent way of celebrating Communion Day would be to spend the day playing games – especially ones for the whole family. You could have the kids playing with one another, dads playing with one another and so on for mothers. Being able to play well with others is an essential life skill. It helps us understand concepts such as fairness, how to make agreements, what commitment means, how to establish goals, that team mates have different abilities, strengths, and weaknesses and that some are more blessed in one department that others are. All the while, highlighting the importance of honesty, integrity, loyalty, and conscientiousness.

Through this lens we see that TRADITION is the rules we have developed so far. We can see that things like CONSTITUTIONS were put in place to level the societal playing field, and as part of an attempt place definite limits on the plans of those who would cheat their way through life if they could. Through this lens we see that tradition is important, even vital, and that it cannot be safely abandoned without risking total societal collapse. Likewise can we see that tradition needs to be critiqued to ensure that society is not burdened with antiquated rules that benefit a minority at the unfair disenfranchisement of an honest majority.

We can see how changing things like a constitution, which is essentially the articulation of the Social Contract, must be done very carefully, clearly, and slowly. Otherwise social cohesion can unravel, and a virtually endless list of social ills could be unleashed upon society. Hence, the necessity for conservativism when it comes to social innovation. Innovation might be good, but it might also have unappreciated negative consequences. Youth is always full of new ideas and can be frustrated by the conservative spirit of their elders but traditions teachings us that many ideas are not as new as children might like to think. Moreover, that they have been tried and led only to disaster and tragedy. However, by using this framework we might be able to foster a sense of respect for tradition, while noting that tradition needs to be critiqued – all the while understanding that innovation, in and of itself, is not always a good thing.

Communion is a two way street. The child engages with their community to learn about the rules of life, and with whom it is going to play the game of life. The Community prospers as it protects the interests and enables the child reach its potential. The individual prospers as bestows its life for the enhancement and enrichment of the whole and in all this there is COMMUNION with the Father, as he endeavours to guide the child through the game of life – illuminating its way through the ideals it nurtures in its heart, showing the child the way to live its best life and providing glimpses of better worlds, more noble futures. The Father nurtures in the soul an appreciation of what could be – what you could be as an individual, what you can do to make the world a better place, even as your soul feasts on the abundance of blessings that surround you.

The Community has a moral obligation to welcome and assist the child in learning the rules of life, how to play by them, how to win and lose with grace. The child has a moral obligation to bestow its best self on the world and cosmos.

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