(The Nationalist, 31 March 2000)
The time of First Confession, First Communion and Confirmation is fast approaching. I had a reminder of it the other day as I was walking along the street past a cake shop and saw a notice in the window: “Orders taken for Confirmation cakes”. It wasn’t my first reminder. About last October I was talking to a friend in the hotel business and he mentioned in passing that the hotel – not by any means the cheapest – was fully booked up for confirmation receptions for June 2000. I must admit that it bothers me.
It has become a cliché to say that Christmas is commercialized – the adverts remind us that there are only so many shopping days left. But other Christian celebrations are going the same way: Saint Valentine’s day, Saint Patrick’s day, Easter and Hallowe’en. Baptisms, First Communion, Confirmation and, of course, weddings have become commercial affairs. It’s a great pity to hear children of seven or eight years, after their First Communion, discussing how much they money they got on the big day. One child I heard of last year said he had got £740. Maybe it was true; maybe he was just boasting, I don’t know. Either way, it raised questions in my mind about priorities.
I would love to see those celebrations become simple affairs with the focus clearly on the sacrament being received. Drop the idea of dressing up boys and girls for First Communion as if it were a wedding, with new suits and dresses all round, not only for the communicant but sometimes for the other children in the family, too. It gives me the creeps to think of the young girl who, as the priest said to her ‘The Body of Christ’ on the occasion of her First Communion, pressed a button on her hip and her battery-operated neon tiara lit up. What, in God’s holy name, has that got to do with the Christian sacrament of the Eucharist?
Every priest I have spoken to on this matter would warmly welcome an end to the razzmatazz that surrounds the sacraments and instead have a simple, well-prepared, dignified celebration that leaves people with a sense of having been in the presence of God. Because that’s what sacraments are about.
Is it not time for parents, teachers and priests to come together and decide on a common policy which would relieve the peer pressure to conform to commercial interests? Decide on priorities; educate and motivate. Have a standard form of dress for boys and girls for the occasion, something simple like a sash or a medal worn either on the ordinary clothes or on the school uniform if the children go as a school group.
What is necessary for receiving a sacrament well is faith and reverence. The rest is trimmings – and the fewer of them the better.