Buechner: Memory, Eucharist, Jesus
“There are two ways of remembering. One way is to make an excursion from the living present back into the dead past. The other way is to summon the dead past back into the living present. The young widow remembers her husband, and he is there beside her. When Jesus said, ‘Do this in remembrance of me,’ he was not prescribing a periodic slug of nostalgia.”—Frederick Buechner in Wishful Thinking (Harper & Row, 1973).
Buechner gives us two ways to remember, going back and bringing memories forward. Going back to past memories can allow us to relive a scene from our lives. Anthony de Mello writes that perhaps that scene was too powerful to experience the first time. As we relive it, we can take part in it, again and again, each time gaining a greater sense of its meaning.
Bringing memories forward is like doing active imagination with a living friend or with someone you deeply loved who has died. You imagine the person’s presence with you. My experience is that sometimes you feel that presence even without trying to imagine it.
Buechner believes that when Jesus said, “Do this in remembrance of me” (1 Corinthians 11:24b), he was calling us to bring him back into our presence—to know and feel his love, so we might go out and bring others in to share in this love.
Some believe that Jesus is actually present in the bread and wine at the Eucharist. Others believe that the bread and wine are messengers or symbols, reminding us of Jesus’ presence and love in our lives. Either way, the God of love is present.
Receiving the Eucharist is one of the significant liturgical sacraments many people most miss during the isolation of this pandemic. Jesus is still beside us and within us, but we are learning that the symbol of this presence is more powerful and more needed than we recognized. Perhaps in our remembering, we can go back to previous times or bring Jesus forward and let him know that we believe with all our heart that he is so very much present within and beside us, and the sacrament telling us that has been so missed.
Joanna. Joannaseibert.com