Some 40 people receive sacraments at Milford parish

By Tanya Connor | The Catholic Free Press

MILFORD – The church was packed, a sea of mostly black hair, women in dressy dresses, men in neat suits. The noises of children punctuated the Mass. A few little ones found a seat on the floor in front of the first pew to watch the baptisms of 11 youngsters and a senior citizen. Then confirmandi lined the entire front of the 700-plus capacity church, their sponsors behind them.
It was the Easter Vigil at St. Mary of the Assumption Parish – celebrated in English, Spanish and Portuguese – for the Anglo, Hispanic, Portuguese and Brazilian communities there.
“We live for this night,” the pastor, Father Peter J. Joyce,  said in his homily, quoting Blessed Carlos “Charlie” Rodríguez of Puerto Rico.
Father Joyce said worshippers might have felt like little children gathered around older folks speaking languages they didn’t know. But, he said, “It needs to be uncomfortable because we’re waiting for Christ to rise.
“An empty tomb doesn’t tell us that Christ is risen … it is not enough to turn the night into day,” he continued. People needed to know Christ, who was present, wanting to reveal himself to each one and fill their hearts.
“Our church is filled because of the people that line this center aisle,” who are about to give their hearts to Christ as they receive the sacraments, Father Joyce said. In their hearts, Christ rises again.
He spoke of faith, grace and the power of God that left the tomb, and added, “We are called to bring that presence to a desperate world.”     
The 40 people receiving one or more sacraments of initiation – baptism, first Communion and confirmation  – processed (or were carried) around the church with their godparents and sponsors. Parents accompanied some of the youngest ones.  
“It engages the community,” Father Joyce said of having the procession. “It just helps to kind of focus and gather everybody.”
Those being baptized – older ones in brown robes, tots in arms dolled up in white – lined up behind the wading pool near the altar.
The sackcloth-colored robes, a symbol of humility, helped make the baptisms more modest and dignified, and provided a contrast to the pure white outfits the youth donned after their baptism, the pastor explained.
Father Joyce, barefoot from the beginning of Mass, soaked those being initiated in the baptismal waters and covered them with Holy Chrism, the oil for their confirmation. Father Mateus Souza, associate pastor, also anointed some of them.
Asked why he went barefoot, Father Joyce said: “It’s actually an old monastic custom. You remove your shoes for the foot washing on Holy Thursday and you don’t replace them until after you walk through the waters for baptism.” The new missal recommends removing one’s shoes to venerate the cross on Good Friday, he said, recalling how Moses removed his sandals when approaching the burning bush because he was on holy ground. Father Joyce said that remaining barefoot until after he baptizes people is also practical. (At times he got in the pool.)
Some of the newly baptized, now clothed in Christ, helped dress the altar with a white cloth for the first time since Holy Thursday, when the altar was stripped, like Christ was on Good Friday, Father Joyce explained. At the resurrection, Christ was clothed with glory, he said.
Before the newly initiated went forward for their first Communion, Father Joyce asked them to think about how they felt.
“This is really the moment you’ve prepared for,” he said. He said they received the other sacraments so they could receive Jesus in the Eucharist, and spoke of them hungering for him, and him hungering for them.
“For me as a priest, it’s just a wonderful experience to watch their faces,” he told The Catholic Free Press after the three-hour Mass. “In their faces you see Christ dying and rising, because Christ changes them from the inside out. It’s just a marvel to see. God doesn’t come with an army of angels holding thunderbolts” to change the world; “God changes the world one human heart at a time.”

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