Remembering What God Has Done For Us

Homily for Thursday of the Fifth Week in Lent

Christianity is a religion that gives great importance to the relationship that exists between the present and the past. Memory plays an important role in our expression of faith. The celebration of the Eucharist, the sacrament that gives power to the other sacraments, is a memorial liturgy. We remember what Jesus did for us. As the hymn states so beautifully, “We remember how you loved us to your death.” The Eucharistic Prayer which is at the heart of our liturgy is essentially a prayer of calling to mind what God has done for us.

Judaism is also a memory religion. Unfortunately, those whom Jesus is confronting in today’s Gospel reading have only a selective memory. They remember the covenant that exists between God and the descendants of Abraham, but they have forgotten the words of the prophets of Israel who told of a new covenant that would write the commandments on their hearts rather than on stone. Jesus’ heart was the first to bear this new covenant.

At the end of the passage from the Gospel reading for this day, Jesus speaks of the close relationship between the present and the past. “Jesus said to them, "Amen, amen, I say to you, before Abraham came to be, I AM." At the beginning of the Gospel, St. John proclaimed that Jesus was the pre-existent LOGOS, who was present at the creation of the universe. He recalls that statement in today’s reading by once again claiming the name of God.

Let us remember what Jesus has done for us as we receive him in the Eucharist this morning.