THE FIRST COMMUNION.
For the Roman Catholic child, how beautiful and yet how sad is the day
of his first communion! How many joys and anxieties by turn rise in his
soul when for the first time he is about to eat what he has been taught
to believe to be his God! How many efforts he has to make, in order to
destroy the manifest teachings of his own rational faculties! I confess
with deep regret that I had almost destroyed my reason, in order to
prepare myself for my first communion. Yes, I was almost exhausted when
the day came that I had to eat what the priest had assured us was the
true body, the true blood, soul and divinity of Jesus Christ. I was
about to eat him, not in a symbolical or commemorative, but in a literal
way. I was to eat his flesh, his bones, his hands, his feet, his head,
his whole body! I had to believe this or be cast forever into hell,
while, all the time, my eyes, my hands, my mouth, my tongue, my reason
told me that what I was eating was only bread!
Has there ever been, or will there ever be, a priest or a layman to
believe what the Church of Rome teaches on this dreadful mystery of the
Real Presence? Shall I say that I believed in the real presence of Jesus
Christ in the communion? I believed in it as all those who are good
Roman Catholics believe. I believed as a perfect idiot or a corpse
believes. Whatever is essential to a reasonable act of faith had been
destroyed in me on that point, as it is destroyed in every priest and
layman in the Church of Rome. My reason as well as my external senses
had been, as much as possible, sacrificed at the feet of that terrible
modern god, the Pope! I had been guilty of the incredibly foolish act,
of which all good Roman Catholics are guilty—I had said to my
intellectual faculties, and to all my senses, “Hush, you are liars! I
had believed to this day that you had been given to me by God in order
to enable me to walk in the dark paths of life, but, behold! the holy
Pope teaches me that you are only instruments of the devil to deceive
me!”
What is a man who resigns his intellectual liberty, and who cares not to
believe in the testimony of his senses? Is he not acting the part of one
who has no gift or power of intelligence? A good Roman Catholic must
reach that point! That was my own condition on the day of my first
communion.
When Jesus said, “If I had not come and spoken unto them they had not
had sin; but now they have no cloak for their sins: if I had not done
among them the works that none other man did, they had not had sin; but
now have they both seen and hated both me and my Father” (John xv.
22-24), he showed that the sin of the Jews consisted in not having
believed in what their eyes had seen and their ears had heard. But
behold, the Pope says to Roman Catholics that they must not believe in
what their hands undoubtedly handle and their eyes most clearly see! The
Pope sets aside the testimony most approved by Jesus. The very witnesses
invoked by the son of God are ignominiously turned out of court by the
Pope as false witnesses!
As the moment of taking the communion drew near, two feelings were at
war in my mind, each struggling for victory. I rejoiced in the thought
that I would soon have full possession of Jesus Christ, but at the same
time I was troubled and humbled by the absurdity which I had to believe
before receiving that sacrament. Though scarcely twelve years old, I had
sufficiently accustomed myself to reflect on the profound darkness which
covered that dogma. I had been also greatly in the habit of trusting my
eyes, and I thought that I could easily distinguish between a small
piece of bread and a full-grown man!
Besides, I extremely abhorred the idea of eating human flesh and
drinking human blood, even when they assured me that they were the flesh
and blood of Jesus Christ himself. But what troubled me most was the
idea of that God, who was represented to me as being so great, so
glorious, so holy, being eaten by me like a piece of common bread!
Terrible then was the struggle in my young heart, where joy and dread,
trust and fear, faith and unbelief by turns had the upper hand.
While that secret struggle, known only to God and to myself, was going
on, I had often to wipe off the cold perspiration which came on my brow.
With all the strength of my soul I prayed to God and the Holy Virgin to
be merciful unto me, to help, and give me sufficient strength and light
to pass over these hours of anguish.
The Church of Rome is evidently the most skillful human machine the
world has ever seen. Those who guide her in the dark paths which she
follows are often men of deep thought. They understand how difficult it
would be to get calm, honest and thinking minds to receive that
monstrous dogma of the real corporal presence of Jesus Christ in the
communion. They well foresaw the struggle which would take place even in
the minds of children at the supreme moment when they would have to
sacrifice their reason on the altar of Rome. In order to prevent those
struggles, always so dangerous to the Church, nothing has been neglected
to distract the mind and draw the attention to other subjects than that
of the communion itself.
First, at the request of the parish priest, helped by the vanity of the
parents themselves, the children are dressed as elegantly as possible.
The young communicant is clothed in every way best calculated to flatter
his own vanity also. The church building is pompously decorated. The
charms of choice vocal and instrumental music form a part of the fete.
The most odorous incense burns around the altar and ascends in a
sweet-smelling cloud towards heaven. The whole parish is invited, and
people come from every direction to enjoy a most beautiful spectacle.
Priests from the neighboring churches are called, in order to add to the
solemnity of the day. The officiating priest is dressed in the most
costly attire. This is the day on which silver and gold altar-cloths are
displayed before the eyes of the wondering spectators. Often a lighted
wax taper is placed in the hand of each young communicant, which itself
would be sufficient to draw his whole attention; for a single false
motion would be enough to set fire to the clothes of his neighbor, or
his own, a misfortune which has happened more than once in my presence.
Now, in the midst of that new and wonderful spectacle; of singing Latin
psalms, not a word of which he understands; in view of gold and silver
ornaments, which glitter everywhere before his dazzled eyes; busy with
the holding of the lighted taper, which keeps him constantly in fear of
being burned alive, can the young communicant think for a moment of what
he is about to do?
Poor child! his mind, ears, eyes, nostrils are so much taken up with
those new, striking and wonderful things that, while his imagination is
wandering from one object to another, the moment of communion arrives,
without leaving him time to think of what he is about to do! He opens
his mouth, and the priest puts upon his tongue a flat thin cake of
unleavened bread, which either firmly sticks to his palate or otherwise
melts in his mouth, soon to go down into his stomach just like the food
he takes three times a day!
The first feeling of the child, then, is that of surprise at the thought
that the Creator of heaven and earth, the upholder of the universe, the
Saviour of the world, could so easily pass down his throat!
Now, follow those children to their homes after that great and monstrous
comedy. See their gait! Listen to their conversation and their bursts of
laughter! Study their manners, their coming in, their going out, their
glances of satisfaction on their fine clothes, and the vanity which they
manifest in return for the congratulations they receive on their fine
dresses. Notice the lightness of their actions and conversation
immediately after their communion, and tell me if you find anything
indicating that they believed in the terrible dogma they have been
taught!
No, they have not believed in it, neither will they ever do so with the
firmness of faith which is accompanied by intelligence. The poor child
thinks he believes, and he sincerely tries to do so. He believes in it
as much as it is possible to believe in a most monstrous and ridiculous
story, opposed to the simplest notions of truth and common sense. He
believes as Roman Catholics believe. He believes as an idiot believes!!
He believes as a corpse believes!
That first communion has made of him, for the rest of his life, a real
machine in the hands of the Pope. It is the first but most powerful link
of that long chain of slavery which the priest and the Church pass
around his neck. The Pope holds the end of that chain, and with it he
will make his victim go right or left at his pleasure, in the same way
that we govern the lower animals. If those children have made a good
first communion they will be submissive to the Pope, according to the
energetic word of Loyola. They will be in the hands of the Supreme
Pontiff of Rome just what the stick is in the hand of the traveller—they
will have no will, no thought of their own!
And if God does not work a miracle to bring them out from the bondage
which is a thousand times worse than the Egyptian, they will remain in
that state during the rest of their lives.
My soul has known the weight of those chains. It has felt the ignominy
of that slavery! But the great Conqueror of souls has cast down a
merciful eye upon me. He has broken my chains, and with His holy Word He
has made me free.
May His name be forever blessed!