Easter is a time for recalling memories. The Liturgy gives us every opportunity to do so. At the Last Supper Jesus said to the disciples, “Do this in memory of me”, referring specifically to the sacrament at the heart of our Faith, the Holy Eucharist, by which he fed them and feeds us with his own Body and Blood, the sacrifice of our redemption.
In the same context, as recorded by the Beloved Disciple, Jesus washed the feet of his disciples, charging them to do likewise: “If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet.” There is no more powerful way of remembering than by repeating the actions which gave birth to our memories. That is why the great Liturgies of Holy Week are so effective in moving us spiritually and emotionally. Need I recall Palm Sunday and its Procession and Hosannas; Good Friday with the unveiling of the Cross and its adoration; The Easter Vigil with its Blessed Fire, the “Exultet”, the Blessing of the Easter Water, and the Renewal of our Baptismal Promises?
I have been fortunate over recent years, through repeated visits to the Holy Land, to have had my mind’s eye see more vividly the events described in the Gospels.
There are experiences of which memory is the store. I recall for example the occasion when, after all the hubbub of travel, I and my fellow pilgrims in a boat on the Sea of Galilee, sensed a profound calm on its gentle waters as the morning sun illuminated the very shores from which, after his Resurrection, the Lord called to his disciples: “Come and have breakfast.”
I can recall sitting in the chapel of the Crucifixion one afternoon on a pilgrimage, witnessing a whole cross-section of humanity passing through its space, and veiled Arab women kissing the image of the Mater Dolorosa with great tenderness.
I remember, too, when in Rome as a student being in St Peter’s Square on a beautiful spring morning when a vast crowd filled that copious place, when Peter’s successor proclaimed: “This is the Day the Lord has made; let us rejoice in it.” It was, of course, Easter Sunday.
And I recall an early morning visit to St Peter’s Basilica as a newly ordained priest, to celebrate Mass in the Clementine Chapel below the High Altar. The Basilica was almost empty. As I made my way there a small body of guards and attendants emerged from the vicinity of the Chapel of the Blessed Sacrament, accompanying the now canonised Pope John XXIII, deep in prayer, carried on the sedia gestatoria. A shaft of light crossed his path.
In the Clementine Chapel I was permitted to celebrate Mass below where the Pope offered the Eucharist for a group of contadini from the Castelli Romani; I heard not only his voice but also that of the Gospel, the Lord stretching out his hand to grasp that of the sinking Apostle who had impulsively ventured to walk on the water. “He cried out, ‘Lord save me’. Jesus immediately reached out his hand and caught him, saying to him, ‘O man of little faith, why did you doubt?’” (Matthew 14:30-31).
None of us can emerge from this time of grace which is Holy Week and Easter without memories from the Liturgy and from life, to sustain our own journey of faith.
The Most Rev Mario Conti is the Archbishop Emeritus of Glasgow. His memoir, It’s Late!: Final Pages of a Bishop’s Journal, is published by Burns Publications
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