First Holy Communion in Gaza
- Mike O'Brien
- Aug 2
- 3 min read
Updated: Oct 28
"For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in them."
In Gaza City, the new year of 2024 was greeted by a scene of broken bodies and spilt blood. Against this backdrop a small group of people were preparing an act of resistance. Their preparation had continued through the brutal autumn of 2023, and by the start of January, they were ready. Smiling and dressed especially for the occasion, their act of rebellion wasn’t aimed at Hamas nor at the IDF. They were the children of Holy Family Church making their First Communion, and the enemy they resisted was despair.
For ninety days, the world they inhabit had screamed its propaganda:
Human life is worthless, and a human being is just blood and meat.
But by candlelight in the crowded church, where injured friends and neighbours slept, they listened and learned a deeper truth.
The truth that every human life is precious, and the human body is blessed and holy. They learned that God’s own Son has taught us this. And they learned what He did to prove it.
So, amid the horror of Gaza City, humanity's resistance will never die. 'For mankind is not made for defeat - a man can be destroyed and still not defeated.' Evil and death may have their day, but our story ends in eternal joy.
“And what can we say about such wonderful things? If God is for us, who can ever be against? If he didn’t spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, won’t he give us everything else, too?
Who would dare to accuse us whom God has chosen? No one! God himself has paid the debt.
Who will condemn us? No one! Jesus Christ died for us and was raised to life for us, and He sits in the place of honour at God’s right hand, pleading our case.
Can anything then ever separate us from Christ’s love?
Does it mean he's stopped loving us if we have trouble or disaster, or we're persecuted, or hungry, or destitute, or in danger, or threatened with death? No! Despite these things, we will always win in the end because Christ loves us.
So, I’m convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love.
Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, not what’s happening today or what will happen tomorrow.
Not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love – the love He showed to us through Jesus Christ, Our Lord.” Romans 8:31-39
These eight children united with Christ are just beginning their journey with Him. Yet one quarter of their life has been marked by destruction. Unlike most seven year olds, they had friends and family members who have been killed. It's possible they witnessed these deaths first-hand.
For two years, their home has been a sanctuary for the injured of the
neighbourhood. A place of emotional and spiritual support for all who grieve - whether
Christian or Muslim, Catholic or Orthodox.
They learned too that such love is not confined to the church. When parishioners were maimed and killed in July’s attack, it was their Orthodox and Muslim neighbours who rushed to their aid.
In this summer of 2025, they will have experienced real hunger and some will be changed by injury and malnutrition. Most will carry the scars of complex PTSD. With medical help, nutrition, and security, their minds may heal. Without these things, they'll be disfigured forever. Without God's grace and our protection they may yet fall prey to hatred and revenge.
Yet these eight children were born no different to children everywhere. Precious creatures made in God's image - beautiful, but vulnerable whose wellbeing and protection is the responsibility of all adults everywhere.
All children are so easily harmed and so easily corrupted that only a just world can keep them safe. What they experience today shapes what humanity is becoming.
Pray for them.
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