As we enter into the most Holy days of the year, perhaps we may ask ourselves, as the youngest child at the Passover meal asks, “How is this night different from all other nights.”
Memory, memorial, for the Jews is far more than our modern understanding of simply remembering. Passover is how the Jews of every generation are able to participate in the moment of salvation history when God freed his people from slavery and brought them through the Red Sea into freedom. This was not only for those alive and living under the tyranny of Pharaoh, this redemption was for all of his chosen people. Each year, by remembering, by retelling the story, God allows his people in the present moment, through the ritual meal eaten on the night before the exodus, to be present in the act which defines the identity of all His Chosen people.
On the night before he died, Jesus gave to us a means to be present at the act of salvation which defines for us our identity as Christians. His death and Resurrection were not only freedom from slavery and death for those present in the moment. This conquering of death which entered the world through the first humans is for all people of all time. It stretches back to Adam and Eve and stretches forward to include all of humanity.
When I ask my students what we are participating in through the Eucharist, they often say “The Last Supper.” And I understand their confusion. It makes one’s head hurt to contemplate the truth:
No, no! The Passover meal doesn’t allow the Jews to participate in the first Passover meal. It allows them to participate in the exodus from slavery to freedom. The Eucharist is not participation in the Last Supper! The Last Supper and each and every Eucharist allowed the apostles and allows us to be present at Christ’s death and Resurrection!
(And it just occurred to me that all but one of His Chosen 12 were not present at His death.)
God has taken these most important events out of time in order to allow all people of all time to be re-present. It is not a representation as a crèche at Christmas, but a miracle of space and time.
It makes my head hurt further to contemplate that both the Passover Meal and the Last Supper, in which the rite of each liturgical ritual was dictated by God Himself, took place on the night Before the event took place in time.
May we never forget that Christ died for us, that He is Risen for us, and He will come again for us, all of us. Through the gift of the Eucharist, this saving act is brought into my space and my time in the History of the Kingdom. What an incredible gift!
And may we be compelled, this Holy Week and each and every day, to ask deep in our hearts:
And how shall I respond?
No comments:
Post a Comment