Word of the Week

Palm Sunday of the Lord's Passion

Remembrance: Anamnesis (Gk.): meaning a “recollection” or “memorial”
 
The sacrifice of Christ on the cross is the memorial of Christ’s Passover. Christ’s priestly offering is perpetuated throughout history, drawn into the present every time the Eucharist is celebrated, powerfully remitting our sins. In the Sacrifice of the Mass, Christ’s saving death is re-presented, actually made present, on the altar to intercede on behalf of men in the presence of the Father (CCC 1341, 1362-64).

Remembrance is used four times in the New Testament. In the Old Testament, the term is united with all OT feast days, most notably Passover, the corporate feast day of the ancient Israelites (Ex.12:14). We read in the book of Leviticus, incense being placed in the bread of Presence in the Temple as a “memorial portion to the Lord” (Lev.24.7). Similarly, in the book of Numbers, we read the tribes setting out from Sinai for the first time to go into battle in the presence of the Lord. Before their dismissal to battle, the tribes blow trumpets at the time of sacrifice to remind them that Israel is Lord (Num.10.10). In the NT, this term accentuates how the animal sacrifices of the OT only reminded Israel of their sins, but were unable to remove them (Heb.10.3). Ultimately, Christ’s memorial offering is the one and final sacrifice that atones for the fall of man. This holocaust offering is the Real Presence of the Eucharist (Lk.22:19; 1 Cor.11:25) (Hahn and Minch, 63-64). Essentially speaking, Christ, in the sacrament of the Eucharist, offers to man his saving death anew that our own memories might have proper trajectory.

The principle of memory routes our whole being, it links us to our past, and allows us to know who we are in the present. In the absence of memory, we lose an approximation of self and cease to be. We can say that memory acts as a compass and in the case of being and identity, a spiritual compass.  Concerning the Mass, it is our fundamental Christian duty to internalize the priests words, “do this is remembrance of me” (Lk.22:19; 1 Cor.11:25) to better pray in silence the Liturgy of the Eucharist. In this part of the Eucharistic Prayer, we ought to simultaneously offer up our own memories to Christ, so that Christ in this sacrament of memory would heal the wounds from our past to guide us into the future. In this way, we advance in the way of the cross, via the Liturgy, as pilgrims of memory. Ultimately, this points to our call to live here on earth as one “on the way”. So let us live as one ‘on the way’ with a reference point to Christ who has and continues to be “the way, the truth and the life” (Jn.14:6).

“When you see the Lord immolated and lying upon the altar and the priest bent over that sacrifice praying, and all the people empurpled by that precious blood, can you think that you are still among men and on earth? Or are you not lifted up to heaven?”

-- St. John Chrysostom

Primary Texts Consulted

• Catholic Bible. Suggested trans. Revised Standard Version, Catholic Edition.
• Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd Edition, 1997.
• Hahn, Scott and Minch, Curtis. Ignatius Catholic Study Bible: The Gospel of Luke, RSV 2nd ed. San Francisco : Ignatius Press, 2001.

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