The Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults
brings families closer through the Eucharist

By Sean Gallagher

(Editor’s note: The Catholic Church is observing the Year of the Eucharist. This article is part of a Criterion series exploring the importance of the Eucharist in all facets of the life of the archdiocese.) 

A year ago, Andrew Kuhn was helping his daughter, Maggie, prepare for her first Communion.

As her knowledge about the sacrament grew and the day on which she would receive it for the first time approached, Kuhn’s appreciation of it expanded as well.

However, on her first Communion day, his admiration could only take him so far. Kuhn was a Presbyterian and could not join his daughter in the eucharistic feast.

Nearly a year later, he can be one in the Lord with his daughter and the rest of his family. Kuhn was received into the full communion of the Church at the Easter Vigil at Our Lady of Lourdes Church in Indianapolis, where he is now a parishioner.

Last fall, Kuhn entered into the process of the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults ( RCIA) at the parish. His wife, Mary Anne, who had been raised as a Catholic, served as his sponsor.

Although he had considered for many years participating in RCIA over the course of the 15 years of his marriage, Kuhn said in an interview before the Easter Vigil that his daughter’s first Communion was a turning point for him.

“I finally just said, ‘I really need to make the commitment,’ ” he said. “I was very active in a lot of the things she did for [her first Communion]. And it just was a great experience.”

In an interview before the Easter Vigil, Mary Anne Kuhn noted the greater unity in her family that she saw would be an outcome of her husband joining the Church.

“Before, I really did hate it, going up to Communion [without him],” she said. “He didn’t partake of the Eucharist. And my daughter said, ‘Daddy, why can’t you come up here with us?’ He’s looking forward to all of us going up there together, and all of us receiving it and being more of a one-body family.”

After the conclusion of the Easter Vigil at Our Lady of Lourdes Church, Kuhn was aglow in the delight of the moment.

“It was beautiful,” he said. “It was kind of a culmination of everything. It’s been a very rewarding experience.”

After receiving Communion for the first time, Kuhn reflected on what impact his being able to join his family in the sacrament will have on their life together.

“I think that it will make a big difference,” he said. “It just kind of makes it whole. It kind of brings everything together.”

Although the Eucharist in a very real way is the culmination of RCIA for those who are received into the Church, a great amount of attention is also given to the sacrament of baptism.

And rightly so, for it is “the gateway to all the other sacraments,” according to Benedictine Father Kurt Stasiak, associate professor of sacramental and liturgical theology at Saint Meinrad School of Theology in St. Meinrad.

“It’s through baptism that two things happen,” Father Kurt said. “We’re incorporated into Christ’s world of grace and we’re incorporated into the community of the Church. Once we get into the Church, once we get into that world of grace, then we take the next full step of celebrating the Eucharist.”

Although Andrew Kuhn and many others like him received into the Church at the Easter Vigil had been baptized long ago in another Christian ecclesial community, RCIA is ordinarily intended for those who have not been baptized.

Therefore, there is a natural tendency for those participating in RCIA and those who are leaders in it to focus on baptism.

That does not mean, however, that there is not a close tie between baptism and the Eucharist, according the Father Kurt.

“I think the Scriptures show us a very intimate connection between baptism and Eucharist,” he said. “When in John 19:34, as Jesus’ side is pierced with a lance, it’s blood and water that flows out. The fathers of the Church have always kind of seen that as the symbol of baptism and of Jesus’ sacrifice in the Eucharist. So that’s there from the very beginning. ”

Years before she was fully initiated into the Church at St. Paul Church in Tell City, Rebecca Daum had been baptized as a member of the Jehovah’s Witnesses. But because that religious tradition does not profess belief in the Trinity, her baptism was invalid in the Catholic Church.

While a Jehovah’s Witness, Daum also on a yearly basis celebrated what that group describes as “The Passover.” In it, a plate of bread is passed among the members, but few partake of it, according to Daum.

This is because among the Witnesses, only those who consider themselves part of the 144,000 they believe will be the only ones to go to heaven actually fully participate in the ritual.

Since Daum at the time of her membership in the Jehovah’s Witnesses did not consider herself in that number, she only could look at the bread as it passed before her year after year.

Now that she is fully initiated into the Church, Daum can receive Communion alongside those who have been Catholic their entire lives.

In a telephone interview before the Easter Vigil, Daum spoke about her anticipation of receiving Communion in the Catholic Church for the first time.

“I think it’s going to be awesome,” she said. “I’m really excited about it. It makes me happy to know that I’m going to be involved in something that is so uplifting.”

The enriching impact that the Catholic faith had on her husband, Ryan, and his family was one of the main factors that eventually led Daum to participate in RCIA.

This attraction to the Church was a change for her. When as a member of the Jehovah’s Witnesses, she began to date her future husband, she was shunned by her fellow Witnesses. Daum’s family soon ended their membership as well.

“When I came out of the Jehovah’s Witnesses, I didn’t feel comfortable even praying to God,” Daum said. “And then when I went and saw their relationship [with the Church], it just made me feel so much more comfortable.

“It weighed on my mind. And I just thought, ‘Well, this is what I want to do because I do want to have a relationship with God.’ ”

In a telephone interview following her reception into the Church at the Easter Vigil, Daum spoke about her experience of receiving Communion for the first time.

“It just made you feel so much closer,” she said. “It was so much more personable. You actually felt like you were a part of it. It wasn’t something that you just passed by and then you didn’t really think about. It’s like when you consume it, it goes into your body.”

Her relationship with God now made closer through the Eucharist, Daum said that she is looking forward to instilling a love of God in her young daughter.

Father Kurt said RCIA and its culmination in the Eucharist can bring families, like the Kuhns and the Daums, closer together.

“I think that’s what we mean by a community of grace,” he said. “That’s an example of the communion of saints here on earth, where the good that we do does influence each other and does build upon God’s grace.” †