Every year this time, we hear of some upset parents' frustration and despair when their children could not quite make it to the Sacrament of receiving the Holy Communion. Tears of anger and frustration; feelings of being short-changed by the church; feelings that the church is out-dated in its understanding of the modern world; feelings that the church is being unreasonable in imposing stringent requirements; feelings that the church is pushing away rather than embracing our children; and least but not last, threats of converting to another more understanding church of different denomination.
Cries of "what! another year of my children sitting through the communion class? another year of us parents ferrying our children and waiting for the extended hours of communion instruction classes?" "Doesn't the fact that we parents put in all those extra time justify our children to receive this Sacrament of Holy Communion?" "Just what more can the Church want from us?"
While all these cries do not go unnoticed and unsympathatized by the Church, nor by the teachers of these instruction classes, the Church holds steadfastly to certain basic requirements to be satisfied by parents of these children before they can be declared ready for this Sacrament.
And this basic requirement is - that parents would be willing and responsible enough to continue exposing and bringing their children up in the practice of our Catholic faith - both in and outside Church - both in and outside their homes. In other words, an active practising Catholic. There is no room for negotiation in that requirement.
Personally, I think the Church is right in upholding this requirement albeit it's painful to watch parents rant and rave against the Church for this seemingly unfair decision. I know of 2 families who did not do more than sent each of their children to the communion instruction class and confirmation instruction class at the relevant time. They were lost in space prior and in between those years of communion and confirmation. They were lucky to get their children through to confirmation before this stringent requirement was insisted upon by our St Mary's church. I have been observing these children over the years and not surprisingly, they do not manifest a desire to learn more about our faith. On the other hand, one is now studying aboard and the last I heard, he has stopped going to Sunday mass. As for the rest of the siblings at home, their mother told me that she has to drag them by the ear just to attend sunday masses - when she attends - sometimes.
I am not saying that these children would surely be heading for disaster time in the future. Nor am I saying that children from active practising Catholics would never ever come face to face with trouble in the future. But why should we turn away from the principle (ie of cultivating a loving and personal relationship with our Lord) for which our church rules are made to serve? Why should we deprive our children from every opportunity of finding that loving and personal relationship with our Lord?
So parents, take heart. And I am very glad to say that most parents, inspite of their cries of blue murder, do take heart and presevere to lead their children to the Lord. And I am sure that at the end of the day, when these children finally make it to receiving their first holy communion, no one would be prouder and more gratified than those parents who had hurled cries of anger and anguish against the instruction class teachers, the priest and the church. For is it not true of the saying - that the more difficult it is to achieve something, the more valuable that something is when you finally have achieved it.
So parents of this year's children who made it, congrats and God bless. Parents of those who need to go through another year, take heart, presevere and God Bless. May good things come in the end.
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