Holy Thursday - We Remember...

Memories and Remembering...they can change us and the world...if we want.

Remember the first Harry Potter movie/book, “The sorcerer’s stone”, and the mirror that showed the deepest of dreams. And the lure of that mirror was the people would get so entrapped by that dream, the fantasy, the memory, and they would forget reality and waste away.

Have any of us ever returned to a place that long ago meant something to us? Like going back to our old elementary school and looking at those tiny desks?

Or a favorite park, restaurant, someplace where some nice event or memory was formed?

And it failed now to live up to that memory?

Memory, scientists will tell us, will deceive us. Every time we remember something from the past, it gets altered in our conscious, so that the next time we remember it, it is slightly different.

Memory is not true reality, it is really not objective, but subjective. Memory can deceive.
The past is essentially gone.
Yet, how much we want to believe what we think we remember!

How much we want to remember a past, that may have not actually happened. Nostalgia is not always a good friend for us.


In Jewish liturgical spirituality there is a term call “anamnesis”
It is a brilliant concept. We as Christians, especially as Catholics, kept this in our own spirituality.

Anamnesis is a form of remembering.
It is not about memories, nor nostalgia for days of past, or the way things used to be. It is not about making things the way we think they were.

Anamnesis is about remembering the reason for the events, to make real today what it is about and to create a better future.


This weekend our Jewish sisters and brothers celebrate Passover.
They remember the event of liberation from slavery by God in the Exodus story.
They remember it so as to make it real in their own lives.

We too remember.

We remember all that Jesus Christ did and all that who he is.
We remember, not only to say, “well that was a nice thing that he did”
We remember, not only to re-enact in plays.

We remember, so as to live it real and present in our lives.
We will remember our own Passover, from the darkness of the lies of this world, to the Truth of the Father’s love.
To incarnate in our own lives the Paschal Mystery, the Salvation of Jesus Christ.
Jesus, in our Gospel for this first service of the Triduum, does an extraordinary thing.

He washes the feet. The Master humbles himself to serve.

Jesus provides to the disciples and us, the context for what will soon happen, in his death and resurrection.

It is God who comes to serve us; and If God will serve, then as Children of God we too are to serve one another.

Can we remember this?


Jesus’ interaction with Peter, is that he wants Peter to remember, and for Peter to be able to remember, he must wash the feet. By his being served with love, Peter too will remember and make real in his own life, service, humility; his life will be changed for love.

See, each time that we remember to hold our tongues and truly listen to others...we make real the Paschal Mystery of Christ.

Each time we remember to forgive someone and build a bridge with someone, we make real the Salvation of Jesus.

Each time we remember to be generous, compassionate, merciful…
Each time we model for our children these virtues…
Each time we ask for forgiveness…
Each time we remember to see the human person in front of us…

We are making real the salvific work, the paschal mystery, the liberation of God that comes through Jesus Christ.

Each time we remember, we do our part to make this world more reflective of God, and make it more of God’s kingdom.

We as Catholics are called to the Eucharist each week so that we remember.

We remember and not forget the reality of God.

We come together as a community to be reminded through liturgy, scripture, prayer, contemplation who the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are, that great harmony of divine love, and that we created in that image of divine love.

We are reminded that being human, being a man, being woman, is about making that real, in our homes, in our workplaces, in school...wherever we are.
We remember.