Eucharist Sunday Year B *Alternate* First Reading (no psalm)

On the last night of his life, Jesus said, “Do this to remember me” (Luke 22:19). Many of us think these words, these Last Supper words, mean that we’re remembering Jesus when we drink of this cup and eat of this bread. Well, of course, we’re remembering Jesus, but that should not be all we’re doing. I don’t think Jesus was interested in everybody just remembering him. 

What’s the point of that? That puts Jesus in the category with various celebrities who will do anything to get into the media so we’ll remember they’re still alive. Instead, I think Jesus wanted his disciples and everyone who came after him to remember what they had together. What they made together. What it meant to be together. How the things he wanted them to do could not be done alone. How the things he did could not have been done without them.

“Do this to remember how we healed the sick and cured the lepers and relieved those possessed by demons. Do this to remember how we were a band of men and women who traveled together and ate together and were a company of friends.”

“This is my body,” Jesus said, “given for you.” (Luke 22:19)

Instead of thinking of that Communion as a ghoulish eating of human flesh, think of those who gather at Communion as the body of Jesus. We are the body given for each other. This is my body, he said. Look around you.

When we all show up and do our parts, we are the sacrament, the body of Christ. Do this to remember me. Do this to remember who you were with me. Do this to remember who you are. Who you all are together.

The Words of Nora Gallagher.