SHARING THE SUPPER TABLE

People rarely expect law to be innovative or visionary. Law is conservative. It regulates conduct. It contains clues about a society's values. The 1983 updating of Catholic Church Law reclaims ancient tradition by stating the traditional line up for the sacraments of initiation. The initiatory pattern is baptism, confirmation, and Eucharist.

Those washed in the water bath (baptism) are sealed in the Spirit (confirmation) and are brought to the supper table (Eucharist). Nathan D. Mitchell, with the help of Aidan Kavanagh, writes: "In baptism the Eucharist begins, and in Eucharist baptism is sustained. From this premier sacramental union flows all the church's life...(The) Eucharist is the concluding act in that ensemble of rites we call Christian initiation precisely because it is the abiding, embodied ritual symbol of all that it means to live and die as a Christian...The Eucharist is not only a rite but a Spirit-filled corporate way of life in the Body of Christ which is the church."

Another way of understanding this comes from our human experience. Newly born infants need protection and security, care and nourishment. Physical or emotional neglect imperils the life of children. Parents and family members mentor children in a family way of life. They teach social graces, manners, and boundaries. They convey values, attitudes, and virtues. They nourish through meals, affirmation, and love. Children rely on the word and the faith commitment of adults. Children cannot get to church, go to school, get to a doctor or dentist, or go to a music lesson unless a responsible adult takes them. When the parents' faith flourishes, the children's faith flourishes.

Spiritual experience, like human and family experience, tutors children. The faith of girls and boys flourishes when parents bring them to church every Sunday for the children's liturgy of the word and the Eucharist. Children become the body of Christ, the church, by being part of the church at prayer at home and at the liturgy. Weekly participation enables girls and boys to grow in patterns of prayer and in rhythms of grace. Children need to become so familiar and comfortable in God's house that they, in time, feel at home in the house of God's people. Children enjoy ritual prayer each week when they can see what is going on. They delight in stories and metaphors of faith when they hear the Word of God. Children cherish public prayer as they join their parents and families. Sunday after Sunday in hospitality and song, in eating the broken bread and drinking the cup.

The old saying is still true. The Church makes the Eucharist. The Eucharist makes the Church. We ask the Spirit to come down and to transform the bread and the cup into the body and blood of Christ. We ask the Spirit to transform us into the body of Christ, the assembled Church. While the bath of baptism and the aromatic oiling of confirmation are received only once, the Eucharist is received every Sunday. Sharing at the supper table renews the grace of baptism and confirmation.

God is a generous giver of good gifts. The Lord's table groans under the weight of so many abundant blessings.

Children acquire a taste for God and cultivate spirituality when they take their place at the supper table on Sunday.