Understanding our Faith

“Do This in Memory of Me”

In this series of articles before the beginning of Lent, I was planning to take a close look at the Mass, but with the approach of Easter it seemed best to leave that aside for some weeks and look instead at the meaning of those great holy days and the season of Lent which leads up to them, and the season of Easter which teases out the depth of their reality.

I hope the readers of this series will be happy now to return to that earlier theme – the Mass – which everywhere and always is at the heart of our faith.

It is important that we be at Mass but it is also important that we have an understanding of what we are doing at Mass.  I want to emphasise the ‘WE’; it is not just important to know what the priest is doing but what we, the People of God, the Church, are doing.  Sometimes we can feel like spectators at Mass, that we are attending to watch what someone else (usually the priest) is doing.  That can become a considerable problem, because we can come to feel that it is only indirectly our business or even that it is not our business at all!!

Whereas it is at Mass that we are supposed to be discovering just who we are and what our spirituality is.  How are we being involved in the death and resurrection of Jesus?  How is our life being flavoured by Jesus’ life?  How our entering into communion with him is shaping our lives and ourselves?

In the coming parish newsletters, I would like to take those parts of the Eucharist which are at its core and talk about how they become ours and how they draw us into union with the Lord Jesus himself.  

In the Eucharist, we do what Jesus did in accordance with his words ‘Do this in memory of Me’.  What did he do?  He did four actions: he took bread and then wine; he gave thanks over the bread and wine; he broke the bread and he gave the bread and wine to his disciples.

So, as we celebrate the Eucharist, we do those same four actions: we take, give thanks, break and give.  We will look into these actions as we proceed.

By Fr Frank O’Loughlin