Pretty obvious. No need for any comment. Yet, I feel I should include a personal one--something I still feel guilty about no matter how many years went by. And no, I won't share how many. I was a teenager. We were attending Mass at a seaside resort. In front of us, a mother and her child with Down syndrome went for Holy Communion. The mother gently coached her son to leave his seat, get to the aisle, and move forward to receive the Sacrament. Whereas many children and adults with DS have fervent religious beliefs and fully participate in Mass or another service of their faith, that boy didn't seem to be aware of What he was about to receive.
After Mass was over, I told my Mom something I still feel ashamed of today. I'll share it publicly anyway. I told her I didn't see the point in having a child receive a Sacrament he didn't seem to fully comprehend. Immediately my Mom, E. Nydia Soracco-Godone, now with God, kindly replied that it was only normal for a mother to want her child to participate in the Sacrament the same as she did. And she added that Jesus and His Blessed Mother welcomed that boy to Holy Communion with no reservations.
Well, I still had another argument I'm not proud of at all: What if the boy bit the Holy Host? I still remember my Mom's words. And I still hear it next to me--even though God called her over eight years ago. And I'm crying. Not one single day or one single hour goes by without missing my parents and trying to find comfort in the thought that one day I'll see them again. She told me that, first of all, she didn't think that the boy would bite the Holy Host. She had been able to see in him a sense of fervor and reverence that apparently I had missed. Yet, she continued, even if the boy bit the Eucharist, Jesus would be much happier to be bitten by pure teeth than going down the throat of any adult modern version of a Pharisee, pretending to love God while unable to love their neighbor. As I looked a little disconcerted, she put her arm around my shoulder and assured me that her statement was not at all addressed to me because of my comment but referred to those who failed to care about the poor and the disabled, failed to welcome the immigrant, exploited their workers, and/or dealt with others in contemptuous ways.
She was ahead of her time as many people then still thought that Holy Communion could be received only with a clear intellectual grasping of the concept of Transubstantiation. But, again, I won't share how many years ago that was.
God bless.
Pope Francis kisses Peter Lombardi, 12, of Columbus, Ohio, who has Down syndrome, after the boy rode in the popemobile during his general audience in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican on March 28, 2018. (CNS photo/Vatican Media)
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