Yesterday, I was at Sunday Mass at the St. Ignatius Church in Kelana Jaya. Unlike most masses throughout the year, this mass included the children (all of them should be at the age of 7 or 8, about 50-70 of 'em) receiving their first Holy Communion. The kids were all dressed in white; for the boys, all-whites with a red tie; for the girls, white fancy dress with a veil and even white gloves. Such a momentous occasion in a Roman Catholic child's life.

For the un-initiated, the First Holy Communion is a Roman Catholic ceremony for a person's first reception of the sacrament (rite) of the Eucharist (The Lord's Supper/Holy Communion). This celebration is something like a rite of passage for the children towards the sacramental life of the Roman Catholic church. Perhaps, due to the child reaching his/her perceived "age-of-reason".

For so many years, I have always avoided such masses as it always tend to be longer than the usual Sunday mass. But that's not the main reason for this entry, at least not to lament too much. For a long time, I have forgotten how to be a child. Everyday I'm surrounded by the prejudice and pre-conceptions of the world, that I rarely have any reason to truly smile. As a child, the atrocities of the world is, more often than not, hidden away from the child. A child will not truly understand such happenings and prejudice. As a homage to the film, La vita è bella, this movie demonstrates how a loving father shields his son from the evils within life in Europe during the Nazi occupation.

I've missed such bliss and would give it all away just to be a child again.

But then again, is it truly acceptable that one should live within such confines, oblivious of that all is happening or even accepting things that are told to us with blind faith? As a child, can they even truly fathom an entity such as God or a religious belief? Admittedly, when I was that young, I too didn't really understand. We were told to believe in something that holds no evidential proof, let alone having to wake up early every Sunday, just to listen to some old priest for almost an hour.

I would bet that even some adults out there are accepting their beliefs as blindly as a child. Is it truly human nature of some to just accept the way things are? Or what's worst than the blind leading the blind? Would it be too foolish to say that we all lack some degree of understanding? What about the considerations towards other opinions on any subject matter? Why are they so many differing opinions on one subject at times?

Anyways, in regards to the Sunday mass, although I smiled for all the kids, I couldn't help but feel a bit sorry for all of us.