The Eucharistic Prayer: Anamnesis
The Eucharistic Prayer continues following the Institution Narrative and Consecration with the Anamnesis. The General Instruction to the Roman Missal describes this part of the prayer in these words:
- Anamnesis: In which the Church, fulfilling the command that she received from Christ the Lord through the Apostles, keeps the memorial of Christ, recalling especially his blessed Passion, glorious Resurrection, and Ascension into heaven.
In the Roman Canon this is expressed in these words,
Father, we celebrate the memory of Christ, your Son. We, your people and your ministers, recall his passion, his resurrection from the dead, and his ascension into glory; and from the many gifts you have given us we offer to you, God of glory and majesty, this holy and perfect sacrifice: the bread of life and the cup of eternal salvation.
One of the things that struck me when I was being taught about liturgy in the seminary is that the early Christians adopted the Jewish notion of memorial. This view holds that remembering is not simply thinking with nostolgia about someone or some event in the past, but rather to remember makes that person or event present now. When we remember Christ’s life, death, resurrection and ascension we make it present to those gathered at the Eucharist. This does not mean, as some of my protestant friends have suggested, that we are celebrating those events over and over and that we believe Christ’s sacrifice must be repeated at each celebration of the liturgy. It simply means that we can continually be connected to that event through re-membering Christ through the sacraments.
A good example might be the celebration of passover when the youngest son asks the question, “Why is this night different from every other night?” The question is answered by remembering what God has done for the people of Israel and it makes present the events of the past. We have similar language in our celebration each year of the Easter Vigil. The exultet prayer that is sung at the beginning of the liturgy is always sung in the present tense, but recalls the past in order to make it present to us today:
This is our Passover feast, when Christ, the true Lamb, is slain, whose blood consecrates the homes of all believers. This is the night when first you saved our fathers: you freed the people of Israel from their slavery and led them dry-shod through the sea. This is the night when the pillar of fire destroyed the darkness of sin! This is the night when Christians everywhere, washed clean of sin and freed from all defilement, are restored to grace, and grow together in holiness. This is the night when Jesus Christ broke the chains of death. and rose triumphant from the grave. What good would life have been to us, had Christ not come as our Redeemer? Father, how wonderful your care for us! How boundless your merciful love! To ransom a slave you gave away your Son. O happy fault, O necessary sin of Adam, which gained for us so great a Redeemer! Most blessed of all nights, chosen by God to see Christ rising from the dead!
As we continue celebrating the liturgy each week, let us always remember that Christ is truly present with His saving power that is timeless.
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