First Holy Communion

We met today for a nice party. …… children receive God’s body and blood for the first time. It is a great event in their lives because, from today, they will be able to participate fully in the Holy Liturgy. Even though it is their celebration, I would like to focus more on education today because their spiritual life depends most on education. The upbringing of children is influenced by the school, the street, friends, television, magazines, the Internet, the church, and many other actors. But his parent has the greatest influence on his child. Father and mother are the first educators of their child. Many times we focus our education only on satisfying the needs of the body. We make sure that our child has something to eat, what to wear, get a good education, and later have a good time in life. If we find that he has a talent for something, we try to develop it. We make sure that he knows how to play something, that he can do something, and we often don’t even realize that we want a perfectionist out of him. But with this attitude, we often forget what our child really needs. We forget that my child is not only a body but also a soul, and it also has its needs, which we often neglect. What are these needs?

The body is alive from the energy in food, so the soul longs for the “energy” from which to live. She is God. If you don’t give God a child, you won’t teach him to love God and the surrounding people; you won’t teach him to forgive, you won’t talk to him about his problems. Worries, but also joys, you do not teach him to live from God, from the Eucharist and prayer, you do not give him an example of your life, you do not understand your role as father and mother. And your son or daughter will go there and for the one who satisfies his mental needs. And your basic role, for which you will once be responsible as a parent before God, is taken over by television, dubious press, party, alcohol, perhaps sects, unrestrained sex life, drugs, and everything else that you, mother and father will cry for once, but already it will be late. You ask yourself, “What happened? He had everything he wanted. ” But did he really have everything?

On one pilgrimage to Medjugorje, I also visited the Cenacolo community, where drug-addicted young people are treated. A young man from Zagreb, I don’t remember the name, said about his life: I’m from a family where I had everything. Such a normal, ordinary family. Every Sunday in the temple, twice a year for confession. The emphasis was on work and money. We never talked about our problems. My father gave me as much money as I wanted and nice branded things. He never said no to me, always just yes. Then, suddenly, his father died. I shut myself up. I found friends a little older than me who I was fine with. I started smoking, tried marijuana. I felt happy. I had a girlfriend; my family gave me money. I thought it was true freedom. But that was not true. I had four faces. One at home, another at school, a third in the game, and an entirely different one in front of his girl.

And I slowly didn’t even know my name. I gradually switched from marijuana to the toughest drugs and kept falling and falling. I lost friends, the girl left me, behaved aggressively, and my head was full of problems. Finally, my family told me to decide: either to go to Medjugorje or the street here. I wanted to avoid coming here, but I came. I received one “guardian angel” (an older, already healed boy who takes care of the sick in everything and experiences crises with him) who was still with me, eating, resting, working, praying. He was still in contact with me, talking to me. He suffered from me when I had withdrawal attacks, delirium. Only here did I begin to respect me, to begin to pray truly with my heart, to receive Jesus daily in the Eucharist. It is the only drug in this community. I felt and feel real happiness and real freedom. I’m healed now, but because I’m happy here, I stay in this community, and I’m already the “guardian angel” of another boy who needs it. I am happy because I have learned to fight the problems not with drugs, alcohol, and heroin but with the power of the living God, whose closeness I feel with every step I take.

You noticed that even though the boy had everything, he still started using drugs. He had a father, a mother, and siblings, yet he had no one to talk to about his problems, and none of his loved ones were curious about them. And this is a big mistake that is repeated in many families. Maybe in yours too. Be interested in the parent, what your child is doing, with whom friends, who read and watches on TV, what internet sites he surfs on, where he spends his free time and especially talk to him about his problems because otherwise, someone else will take over this role of yours, the one who lurks most to your child, who wants to destroy him, spoil it, damn it. This is what is here today during this celebration. That is, it is not the end but the beginning. The beginning of a fuller life of children, but also us parents. Let no one say, “I have it behind me,” but “I have everything in front of me.” And may God help us, us parents and you children. I wish you that the Eucharistic Jesus Christ dwells in your hearts so that you will never forget God because He also never forgets you and is always present and ready to enter our lives at any time.