We hear at every Mass, Jesus saying, “Do this in remembrance of me.” What are we remembering? Tonight is more than memorializing or remembering a ritual that occurred over 2000 years ago. As a kid, the nuns taught me that the Latin Mass I grew up with, in which I only saw the backside of the priest throughout most of Mass and what prayers I heard him say were all in Latin, was the way that Mass was celebrated by Jesus at the Last Supper. Of course, that information was wrong. The Latin Mass I knew had only been celebrated that way for 400 years, from the time of the Council of Trent in 1563. The way Mass has been celebrated has changed quite a few times between the Last Supper that Jesus celebrated in the Upper Room to way we celebrate the Mass in our present time.
What really happened on that night 2000 years ago? Not even the Gospels can agree about that. The Gospels were written 30, 40, and 50 years after that night. The Gospels of Mark, Matthew and Luke insist that the Lord’s Supper was the Passover meal. John’s Gospel insists it was not the Passover meal, for the Passover wouldn’t be happening for another two days. John’s Gospel suggests it was a meal of thanksgiving, a Jewish Berakah. So, just what is that we are being commanded by Jesus to remember tonight, and every time we celebrate Mass?
The answer to that question is found in chapter 11 of Paul’s 1st letter to the Corinthians. We heard a small portion of that reading tonight. To fully understand what we heard in the second reading, we need to hear that reading in context. This letter of Paul, written around 50 A.D., approximately 20 years after the first Last Supper, describes how the early Christian community celebrated Mass. The Corinthian Christian community was filled with horrible division. Paul introduces what we heard tonight with these words to the Corinthians, “When you meet in one place, then, it is not to eat the Lord’s supper, for in eating, each one goes ahead with his own supper, and one goes hungry while another gets drunk. Do you not have houses in which you can eat and drink? Or do you show contempt for the church of God and make those who have nothing feel ashamed? What can I say to you? Shall I praise you? In this matter I do not praise you.” Then Paul describes that which he received from the Lord Jesus which we heard proclaimed in the second reading.
What are the principle actions of the early Christian Mass which Paul describes in the entirety of chapter 11 in his letter? It is taking bread, giving thanks, breaking it and sharing it with all in the community. Then it is taking the one cup of wine, giving thanks, and sharing that one cup with all in the community. However, prior to eating the bread that is shared and prior to drinking from the one cup, Paul warns them that they must discern the body. What is the body to which Paul refers? Paul is not just referring to the Body of Christ in Holy Communion, Paul is referring to the Body of Christ present in the community of the baptized. If they remain a divided community, if they continue to disregard the needs of the poor in their midst, they are tearing apart the body of Christ and are receiving Holy Communion unworthily. Paul warns them that if they continue to do this, they will have to answer for the body and blood of the Lord. In other words, if they continue to foster division and ignore the needs of the community, they are guilty of murdering the Body of Christ and will eat and drink their own condemnation. What is Paul saying to us today? When we come to receive Holy Communion and the communion distributor says, “The Body of Christ”, we must have the awareness that we are not only saying Amen to the real presence of Jesus in the host we receive, Wwe say Amen to the real presence of Jesus in all the people around us, the Body of Christ. Before we receive Holy Ccommunion we must be at peace with the Body of Christ of our community.
Paul tells us that to celebrate Mass worthily we must: 1) take bread, give thanks to God, break the bread and share with all in the community, 2) to take the one cup of wine, give thanks and share it with all in the community, and 3) to discern the Body of Christ and to be at peace with the Body of Christ present in the faith community prior to receiving the Body and Blood of Christ present in the consecrated bread and wine. John’s Gospel expands on what Paul is teaching by giving us one more action. Jesus shows us that in order to have peace within the Body of Christ in the community, we must humbly get down on our knees and wash the feet of others.
In John’s account of the Last Supper, Jesus, the One through whom all was created, humbly gets down on his knees and washes the feet of those he had created. He washes the feet of his disciples, fulling knowing that one will betray him for money, one will deny ever knowing him, and all the rest are cowards who will abandon him to merciless people who will lead him to a merciless death. Nonetheless, out of love for all these broken, sinful people, he lovingly washes their feet, then commands them to wash the feet of others just like themselves.
To “Do This In Remembrance of Me” requires more from us than just statically being present at Mass to honor an obligation placed upon us by the Church. It is more than just remembering something ritually that happened a long time ago in a place far, far away. The command of Jesus to “Do this in Remembrance of me” is not just directed at the priest celebrating Mass. Jesus is addressing those words to us who are his physical Body in the world.
At our baptism we were baptized into the passion, the death, and the resurrection of Jesus. At our baptism we were anointed with the chrism of salvation. We were anointed priest, prophet and king. As the Body of Christ, what we receive at Mass must compel us to act as Christ in our world and continue Christ’s saving peace not to just our community but to a world horribly broken by sin.
At Mass, as the Body of Christ, we are called to become the bread that is broken and given to all in love. We are called to become the Blood of Christ shed and shared for all in love. We are called to humbly get down on our knees and wash the feet of others, including those who will betray us, those who will deny us, and those who will abandon us. The great Pauline biblical scholar, Fr Jerome Murphy-O’Connor, in his commentary on 1st Corinthians wrote that what Paul was telling the Corinthians, was that it was only love that gave substance to the words of consecration at the Last Supper, and it is only love that will continue to give substance to the words of consecration at Mass.
How long must we fulfill the commandment of Jesus to “Do this in Remembrance of Me?” Paul answers that question. “For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the death of the Lord until he comes.” In other words, we must continue to “do this in remembrance of me” until that time when Jesus comes a second time in glory.
In conclusion, I believe the most powerful hymn that reflects what Jesus is commanding us to do tonight is the hymn by David Haas, “Now We Remain.” In the last verse we sing, “We are the presence of God, this is our call. Now to become bread and wine, food for the hungry, life for the weary. For to live with the Lord, we must die with the Lord. We hold the death of the Lord, deep in our hearts. Living, now we remain with Jesus the Christ.”
