humanlifereview.com
2025-04-26
This coming Thursday, Christians celebrate Jesus giving to his Church the sacrament of his body and blood. The Holy Eucharist is both a remembrance and a proclamation of his death. Both are included in the earliest reference we have to the Holy Eucharist, from a letter of St. Paul: ". . . the Lord Jesus . . . took bread . . . and said, 'This is my body that is for you. Do this in remembrance of me' . . . and also the cup . . . saying 'This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this . . . in remembrance of me.' For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the death of the Lord until he comes." (I Corinthians 11: 23-26)
The tradition that St. Paul received, and then passed on, is that the Lord commanded his apostles to consecrate the bread and wine in remembrance of Him--which means, as a memorial sacrifice--a corporate act of worship, not just a mental recalling. That is the religious sense of the Greek word anamnesis, which translates as "remembrance." Then, St. Paul continues, ". . . as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the death of the Lord until he comes." Not remember but proclaim! And "proclaim" translates the Greek word kataggelo (from which we have "evangelist"), which has the sense "to publicly and formally make something manifest."
St. Paul is telling us that Jesus intended to give his Church a sacramental liturgy, a sacrifice, a "new rite" to replace the old, by which to offer thanks and praise to God the Father for his death. The actions, the dramatic gestures of the Eucharistic liturgy--taking, blessing, and distributing bread that is his body and wine that is his blood--were to ritually re-present his death and to proclaim its power to save. "Do this," Jesus said, which means perform this liturgy. Of all the commandments he gave his disciples, this has been the one most perfectly obeyed.