Eucharist and memory

[angellous_evangellous]

I heard this morning a young lady talk about how her grandmother lives on in her memory... she is preparing her dead grandmother's reciepes for her family. This is especially important during the holidays - she is taking the place of her grandmother in cooking her receipes for her grown children.

This reminded me of the Eucharist. The early Eucharist is modeled after the Greco-Roman symposia, a communal meal. The important difference was that instead of pouring out a libation to Zues or another god - or discussing philosophy or poetry or listening to music or having some other form of entertainment... the Christians remembered Christ by reading the early Gospels, discussing Paul's or another apostle's letter(s), or reading the Old Testament. Christ lives on in our memory as we celebrate his meal...

 

[sojourner]

Memory is a wonderful thing, and a necessary component of the Tradition...and part of the dynamic of anamnesis. Your last sentence of your anecdote: "she is taking he place of her grandmother in cooking her recipes for her grown children" is really what anamnesis is all about, that is, more than a memory, but seeking to bring a past event into the present, so that we become participants in that event.

While we don't "take the place of Christ" in the Eucharist, we certainly do more in the Eucharist than simply remember what Christ did for us. We bring his ministry into the present and become part of it, just as the woman brought her grandmother into the present and became part of her through cooking the recipes.