There are around forty kids between third and fourth grade who, every Saturday, gather on the grounds of the Navicella -the Roman basilica of Santa Maria in Domnica-, for a moment of the Stars of St. Lawrence: games and songs, a snack together, a simple reflection on the Gospel of that Sunday which always brings forth surprising questions and observations. Finally, Mass with the families.
After at least two years of Stars, to the kids is proposed confession and Communion, adding around ten meetings of true and proper catechism to get to know better this Jesus who they are about to receive in His body and His blood.
Among these children, this year, there is Maria Gabriella, blonde, with blue eyes that are bright and mischievous, who from birth has suffered from Angelman’s syndrome. She is not able to express herself if not through symbols and images, but she is able to understand everything, especially when she is enjoying playing jokes on the others.
One day, the mother and father, Valeria and Ettore, ask me what I think about the possibility of Maria Gabriella receiving Confession and Communion: immediately, they add that it will not be easy to take on this preparation. It will be necessary to make a booklet just for her that can help her to understand the meaning of what she will receive. But they think that this is the right moment: they see that Maria Gabriella realizes when she does something bad when she disobeys, pulls her sister’s hair or throws things. And she becomes sad…
Their request struck me a great deal: how many times do we live the sacraments like gestures to repeat without knowing what the meaning is? And so, I immediately made myself available to help them, especially to get to the bottom of what is essential to communicate to Maria Gabriella: what is the heart of confession? What is necessary to obtain absolution? How does one prepare oneself to receive the Eucharist?
“Do you want to leave these weights with Jesus so He can destroy them?”
One evening, while I am at dinner at their home, we try to respond to these questions. The heart of confession is recognizing that when we do something evil we are not happy: this is why Jesus wanted to take our evil on Himself to free us from this weight. Once this concept has been translated into symbols that Maria Gabriella could understand, the question for her was: “Do you want to leave these weights with Jesus so He can destroy them?”. Her response, after the time needed to help her to understand, was “Yes.” In Confession, God burns up our evil if we have the least awareness of what we have done and if we desire to hand it over to Him so that He can cancel them out and lighten our load, putting us back on the path to walk towards Him, towards our happiness.
And Communion means affirming the desire for friendship with Jesus. Eating His body means repeating, like Peter, “Lord, You know everything, You know that I mess up, but I love you. Help me to love You more.”
In the space of four months, Valeria and Ettore prepared a version of the catechism, aided by the therapists of the association that takes care of Maria Gabriella, and they would now like to make what they have accomplished available to other families. Previously, there was nothing like this for children suffering from Angelman syndrome. Maria Gabriella made her confession and received for the first time-and then every Sunday- , the Body of Jesus.
What are the sacraments for? It is not necessarily that before and after we “feel emotionally different,” or even that we fully understand what we are doing. So why receive them?
Maria Gabriella’s story helped me put back at the center the fact that even if we do not understand, even if our feeling is not the “right” one, it is God who acts. We are only asked to let Him approach, to tell Him that we desire Him. He does the rest.
