Message from Fr. Luis R. Largaespada V.F.

St. Hugh Catholic Parish

Do This in Remembrance of Me (1 Cor 11:24).

What is this remembrance that we are commanded to observe?
The Greek word is anamnesis, and although it has some connotations of “recalling,” it is, in this case, more of a “make this present again.”

No wonder St. Paul follows this with “for as often as you eat the bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the death of the Lord until He comes” (1 Cor 11:26).

Calvary is made present again.

Calvary, you say?
Yes; without the Cross, without the Passion, there is no Bread of Life, no Resurrection. We prefer to forget the suffering and bask in the glory, but Jesus did suffer, for us, that we may also share in His glory.

Today’s celebration is also our celebration. As Cardinal Wilton Gregory once said, if the Church is the Body of Christ and we are the Church, then this is also our feast. If we are His body, then even in this glorious day we must embrace the Cross that we may share in the resurrection.

Let us come to the table and eat of this “Bread of angels now made food for the journey,” as St. Thomas Aquinas calls it; let us eat the Body and drink the Blood that give strength to face all the hardships of life: Jesus Christ, the true Bread come down from heaven.

Fr. Luis R. Largaespada V.F.