We rushed out the door to get to church, and I was just happy we would probably make it in time. I waved to a parishioner as we pulled into a parking space, and I looked at the clock. Yes!
We had arrived with a few minutes to spare. Then I glanced at my sons in the back seat.
“OK, let’s go. Wait … what are you doing? Are you … eating something?”
One of them was finishing a box of candy.
“We can’t eat before Mass!” I said. “We’re going to be receiving Communion!”
I was met with blank stares and confusion. There was no way we had a full hour before Communion. We would have to go home and go to a later Mass.
The whole way home we discussed it – and I was surprised by the confusion. I was sure that I had explained that we need to fast for an hour prior to Communion. My children seemed to recall that rule vaguely, but it had been years since we had discussed it. We have had a pandemic since those conversations – and sometimes I forget the ground we lost during that time.
Even though I had believed I was communicating this every Sunday, I had been taking all the responsibility. I hadn’t been teaching our children. I had simply been deciding for them and guiding them in the right direction.
It was a good lesson for me that you can never say things often enough. Children don’t always hear you the first time or the seventh time or the 70-times-seventh time you say something.
We ended up having a really good conversation about preparing ourselves to receive Jesus, delving into a little history of the church and how Catholics used to fast much longer than we do now.
Thanks to that hurried Sunday, our sons will probably never forget about fasting before Communion. Sometimes it takes making a mistake to learn a lesson. They might accidentally eat or drink something and break their pre-Mass fast, but chances are good that they won’t do it on purpose anytime soon.
It was a good reminder to me as a mother that faith is a lifelong journey. No one knows everything about God or the Catholic Church. Even people who remember not to scarf down a box of Nerds minutes before Mass still have questions left to discern and explore. We are lifelong learners, trying to grow closer to Jesus as we move closer to the end of our time on earth.
This time of year, as we move through Ordinary Time and prepare for Lent, we are walking with Jesus in his ministry. We have the chance to listen to people in the Gospels who are asking Jesus their own questions, kicking the tires on this new faith that Jesus was bringing to the world. Even the aspects of Scripture that sound familiar can seem new and different depending on where we are in our lives when we hear them. We bring life’s experiences to our faith journey and grow and change along the way.
“Faith lifts the soul. Hope supports it. Experience says it must. And love says let it be!” St. Elizabeth Ann Seton tells us.
As we continue through these darker, colder days of winter, life’s journey often brings us face to face with questions we cannot answer as easily – questions we certainly cannot answer without God. We can find strength in focusing not on the rules of the day but on the simplest, most extraordinary aspect of our faith, that God loves us completely and infinitely. Assured of that love, we cling to our faith with a special kind of gratitude and hope.
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