"To my memory"

[As you can see, the holy table of the Lord is once again set and prepared for those who wish to partake of the precious gifts of salvation through this visible act. The question may arise in this connection on this Sunday: why are we giving communion again today? After all, Good Friday and Easter also provided ample opportunity for all who wished to receive it. And that was only two weeks ago! Isn't that too often? Is it not too much? Shouldn't we be more careful not to make this most sacred act of our worship too commonplace, not to make the Lord's Supper a waste?! In this church we have often spoken of the Lord's Supper. I do not want to give a summary teaching of the essence of the sacrament, but rather to look at the whole sacred act from the point of view of a single text, a saying of Jesus. The text, this saying of our Lord, is: "Do this in remembrance of me" (1 Cor 11,24c) He says this twice: first at the distribution of the bread, and again at the giving of the wine. In considering the meaning of these words, we may find the answer to our previous question: what is the point of such frequent communion?"Do this in remembrance of me," says Jesus. We are already very used to this formulation, let us try to express it in a slightly different way: 'Do this in remembrance of me, and let what you do remind you of me'. So at communion we remember by an act. We all know how an object of remembrance can help us to recall in our souls the face of someone we have seen long ago. I once witnessed a young man receive a letter from his sister in his small village in Transdanubia. Opening the letter, some pressed flowers fell out. His sister wrote that the flowers were from their mother's grave and that she was sending them to her brother in Pest on the anniversary of her death. It was wonderful to see how the little memento recalled in the boy's soul his mother's whole life. Moved, he began to speak of his mother's love, the many precious beauties of her soul, her faith, her sacrifice. He told little stories they had lived together and finally he told how his mother died. The Last Supper is one such memory, which again and again, as it were, recalls to our forgetful memory the precious scenes and events of our Lord's Passion. It recalls the agony in the Garden of Gethsemane, the mockery, the agony and death on the cross, and recalls to our memory the infinite love with which He undertook all this for us. We are so haunted by the danger of remembering only at certain times the great events of Jesus' life that brought us salvation, especially His passion and death. Yes: on Good Friday! Then all our thoughts turn there, but then life goes on. Good Friday passes and with it the remembrance of Christ's death! As we move away in time from Good Friday, so we move away in spirit from the events of Good Friday, from the cross of Christ. And so we are again outside the divine power of redemption, turning away from the cross, as it were, leaving the spiritual magnetic field of the cross of Christ. That is why our faith becomes again joyless, wavering, stumbling.
Well, the holidays are over now too, this holy memorial here on the table reminds us not to lose the remembrance of Christ's death. "Do this in remembrance of me": return again to the cross, return under the cross, do not go away, do not go away from here, stay here, do not forget what I have done for you, for in this is strength for you! It is by remembering me, by turning your souls towards me, that you may experience the saving effect of my sacrifice on Calvary. Jesus says something like this in these words, "Do this in remembrance of me!"
But there is more! It is a very special ritual, this Last Supper! From the very beginning, it has been the centre and highlight of the worship of the Christian congregation. That is why it is called a sacrament, or in Hungarian: a sacrament! It is the most sacred part, the act, the deed of the whole cult! So much so, that no one else can take part in it except the one who professes his faith in Christ. In the beginning, those who were not confirmed were sent out of the church when it came to the distribution of communion. But this is only one of the characteristics of communion, this distinct sacramental character, this sacramental act. The wonderful thing about it is that the opposite could be said of it: that it is the least holy act in the whole of worship. It is, in fact, very profane, very ordinary and not solemn, very commonplace, very general: eating and drinking. So it's an act that we do much more often in a non-cultic context, as an act of worship. Everybody eats and drinks several times a day, and this act cannot be said to be a particularly sacred and devotional act. How interesting that it is this most ordinary, most commonplace act of people eating together that has come to be at the centre of Christian worship as its most sacred, most ordinary, most prominent cultic act. What does it mean? It means that communion is the meeting of the ordinary and the festive, the sacred and the profane, and the blurring of the boundaries between the two. For the Christian man, there is no ordinary life and no festive life, no profane realm and sacred realm, but the Christian man's life is also worship when it is not in a cultic context; he is also worshiping when he is not in church, when he is not praying or listening to the Word, but, let us say, eating or drinking.
What happens in Communion is that the ordinary enters into worship in order that worship may enter - or, if you like, withdraw - into the ordinary, out into the world! Here in the church we do what we do outside in the world, in our homes: we eat and drink, so that when we eat and drink, work and play outside in the world or in our homes, we will do all this again in worship! Let us eat and drink and live out in the world as those who do all these things for the Lord, for His glory, for His honour.
"Do these things in remembrance of me," says Jesus. And what he is saying is that in the most ordinary things of your life, remember Him! Remember Jesus, His word, His deeds, when you are out there in your daily life breaking your bread for yourself or for others, when you are earning your bread or enjoying it - remember Him! That means to stand before Him in spirit, count on Him, think of Him! With Communion, Jesus wants to remind us again that we cannot divide our lives, as we usually do or would like to, between God and the world, between the way of life inside the church and the way of life outside the church. In communion, a piece of the most ordinary life is placed at the centre of worship, so that the most ordinary life can become worship!
"Do this in remembrance of me", says Jesus. This remembrance is not only a simple recollection of the Lord, but also a confirmation of his love, of communion with him. At the farewell his father took his watch out of his pocket, an old clock with an old lid, on the cover of which were photographs of both parents. 'Take this watch,' said the father, 'and carry it with you on all your journeys. Every time you look at it to see what time it is, you meet the eyes of your father and mother. And when you see the faces at home, remember that you are in our thoughts and prayers. Don't go to a place where you don't want us to see you. Don't do anything you don't want us to know you're doing. Something like this is how Jesus gave His image, His "photograph", the visible signs of His broken body and shed blood in the Lord's Supper. And He gave it so that we might always remember Him, so that we might never forget: His eye is upon us, His grace surrounds us, His power helps us, His intercessory prayer protects us, His word encourages and counsels, forbids and commands! Not just like a son in a photograph of his parents, but in reality, directly!
Therefore, we have nothing to do but to remember, not to forget, but to remember always that He is with us, as He said, "every day until the end of the world." (Mt 28,20c) Yes: the Lord's Supper reminds us of the risen, living Jesus, because it repeats an act that the disciples experienced every day with Jesus on earth, in which they lived and experienced Jesus' being with them in a very real and simple way: in the meal together. Communion is a repetition of the real experience of being with Christ. So just because it is not visible, remember that you have a living Lord, remember him, think of him, that he is here, present, with you!
"Do this in remembrance of me", says Jesus. How good it is that we can now do this again in remembrance of Him. How good that we can now again remind one another of His death, His resurrection, His presence sanctifying our lives. It is good precisely because the holidays are over and life - ordinary life - goes on. Well: let it go on, but not without Christ, but with Him. Together with Him, in communion with Him!
Let us tell Him:
We long, Jesus, to be united with you:
Our hearts will be holy if you sanctify them.
Give us therefore, as members of the head,
Let us yield to thee, who livest in us.
"Let us, like a good vine, let us be in you,
That good moisture may flow into the vine,
And let our hearts be like your heart,
In our lives, your life for all to see.
(Canto 438, verse 7)
Amen
Date: 27 April 1952.