Memory and Faith

Fr. Lawrence Jagdfeld, O.F.M., Administrator

However, take care and be earnestly on your guard not to forget the things which your own eyes have seen, nor let them slip from your memory as long as you live . . . (Deuteronomy 4:9ab)

Memory plays an important role in our faith just as it did for our Israelite brothers and sisters. There Passover observance is all about remembering what God did for them. They believe that by recalling what God did for them on that first Passover night that they are able to participate in it themselves even though they live thousands of years after it took place. This is exactly what our Eucharistic theology teaches us Catholic Christians. By "remembering" what Jesus did for us on Calvary, we make it real again. When we "communicate" with that reality, we participate in the redemptive death that Jesus accomplished some 2,000 years ago.

Catholic Christians speak of the "real presence" when we consider the Eucharist. We believe that the bread and wine become the body and blood of Christ when we celebrate the Eucharist, when we take, bless, break and distribute the bread and wine of the Lord's Supper. That real presence is more than just Christ dwelling among us in our tabernacles. That real presence means that the sacrifice of Calvary continues to this day. Christ's death and the resurrection that followed it are ongoing. As the Letter to the Hebrews reminds us, Jesus died, once for all. The acclamations that we sing or say after the words of consecration bear witness to the ongoing effects of that sacrifice, of that redemptive act.

The refrain of a popular hymn puts it very succinctly: "We remember, we celebrate, we believe."