First Holy Communion Celebration in Divine Word Parish Kayole Nairobi
On 26-11-2017, many children from DIWOPA Parish, Kayole – Nairobi, who had completed successfully their catechism instruction, received the Holy Communion – The Body and Blood of Christ – for the first time. From now on, they will be receiving Christ every time they go for mass (Te Eucharist), if they are prepared well, that is, with clean hearts. Christ has made himself available for us so that we can consume Him as food for our souls for our salvation. This is a huge question of faith that needs thorough instructions and a vocation to be a Christian in order to appreciate it.
SOME BACKGROUND NOTES
One of the most intrinsic and fundamental human need is to belong somewhere stable and reliable i.e. to be able to cling in a future that can be relied on. But since the question of life and death still remains a mystery, every man and woman finds himself or herself in a deep desire to hold on something that guarantees the future. This is what FAITH is all about.
How we come to believe and in what we believe that keeps our hopes for a better future burning could vary and even conflict. In the world there are what we can call the “vehicles” that carry our human desire to belong to the better future especially after death. These are the different religions. Some religions have a very deeply entrenched history going back for many centuries. Others emerge to answer a particular individual or community quest before they fade away. Some even claim that they do not believe in external forces, but they nevertheless believe in themselves or something of their own. No one can escape the element of faith. It is part of our fabric.
For us Catholics, we not only build on a long history of consistent and transforming belief about a God who reveals himself to his creatures, but also we deeply believe that the God we worship has intervened in our lives, first through our forefathers in the olden days and later through His only Son Our ord Jesus, who is God made Man for our salvation.
This is why the Holy Eucharist, that we strongly hold to be the real body and blood of Christ, cannot be over emphasized. Just as our earthly bodies need food and water to be strong and live, so also is our soul that we again believe is our form that will proceed to live long after our death. Christ himself instituted the Eucharist so that he may remain present in us and in our midst, for the kingdom of God to continue to grow in us until its culmination, when He will add it over to the Father (see Lk 22:14-20; Mt 26:26-30; Mk 14:222-26 1 Cor 11:23-25)
All this need a reap of faith to grasp. St. Anselm puts it this way: “I believe in order to understand”. Yes, Faith comes first not the reverse.
Fr. Lawrence Muthee, SVD
JAMBO KENTAN 
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