Eucharist as Memorial

     At the Last Supper, Jesus said “Do this in memory of Me.” One essential part of every Eucharistic prayer is the “Anamnesis,” which in Greek means memorial.” The Catechism of the Catholic Church, second edition, writes “the Eucharist is the memorial of Christ’s Passover, the making present and the sacramental offering of His unique sacrifice, in the liturgy of the Church, which is His Body.” (CCC, #1362)

     It therefore took me by surprise when I read recently in a Catholic magazine a letter to the editor which criticized those who see the Eucharist as a memorial. Perhaps this person did not know Catholic Eucharistic theology or the Catechism as well as he should. Or, perhaps he had fallen victim to the contemporary deflation of the meaning of the words “memory” and “memorial.” For some, if not many, in our day and age, memory is a faculty for calling to mind who and what no longer is. Memorials are simply dusty monuments to past persons and events which grow more irrelevant with each passing year. If that is one’s understanding of these terms, then no wonder one feels it is an insult to refer to the Eucharist as a memorial.

 

     But this contemporary understanding of memory and memorial as only referring to the past is not the one that has prevailed throughout human history, and it certainly was not what Jesus had in mind when He said, “Do this in memory of Me.” For the contemporaries of Jesus, the act of remembering bridged the gap between past and present in such a way that the events and people of the past were made present to those remembering them. Or better, those who remembered were made present to the people and events of the past.

 

     This mentality was (and is) most evident in the Jewish celebration of Passover. By remembering the events of the first Passover, Jews of every time and place participate in the events of the Exodus. The Lord is setting them free just as much as He set free Moses and his generation. (Keep in mind that Jesus spoke the words “Do this in memory of Me” at a Passover meal. Undoubtedly, Jesus’ disciples got the point, if not immediately, then certainly after the Resurrection.)

 

     The power to make present the past through human remembering is taken to a higher level when we celebrate the Eucharist because it is the Lord of time and place that we remember, and it is by the power of the Holy Spirit that we do so. You could say that at every Eucharist the Lord is the One who is remembered and the One who remembers, through His Body the Church. Eucharistic remembering is no mere subjective human act, but a divine-human act which is effective in the objective world. “When the Church celebrates the Eucharist, she commemorates Christ’s Passover, and it is made present: the sacrifice Christ offered once for all on the cross remains ever present.” (CCC, #1364)

 

                                                                                   Msgr. Lockard

 

 

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