Taste and touch trigger memory.
A couple of personal memories, having to do with mint chocolate chip ice cream, and memory.
When I think of mint chocolate chip ice cream a couple of memories stand out. In the earlier one, Bambi told me about the time Dave was driving a bunch of people (all around age 19) down the road in his VW microbus, and they stopped to buy ice cream. But then it began to melt. And Dave said, hand me the carton. And he dipped his hand in, scooped some out, and ate. And then passed along the carton, so others could eat. Imagine the mess when he shifted gears.
There was another memorable occasion. After the burial of someone’s grandmother, her family gathered at a nearby house. There wasn’t much preparation, but what was in the refrigerator was, yes, mint chocolate chip ice cream. Enough to go around, and then some. And as they ate, cousins, sons, grandchildren, all began to hear and tell stories, of those who had gone before, grandmother, grandfather, and all. The stories remind and revive those who mourn.
Taste and touch trigger memory, famously in the case of writer Marcel Proust who took a bit of madeleine, a small cake, into his mouth, and then sipped a cup of tea. This triggered memories of how France, and Paris, had been before the first world war, and he wrote about it in a series of novels, called in English, In Search of Lost Time, or, earlier, Remembrance of Things Past.
Remembrance. Do this in remembrance of me. Remember this day, said Moses, on the first Passover. Do this in remembrance of me, said Jesus, at his last meal with the disciples, the first Eucharist of the Lord’s Supper.
Remember.
That is what Maundy Thursday’s service is about. Remembrance. Memory. Or, in Greek, anamnesis. But it is more than remembering in the nostalgic sense. And it is better than William Faulkner’s dour observation, “The past is never dead. It's not even past.”―Requiem for a Nun.
It is about bringing the past into the present. As Massey Shepherd, who taught at my seminary, reminded us, the Lord’s Supper, and indeed the washing of feet, are meant to make the past effective and actual in our lives, as they are meant to make the work of Jesus our own.
Father Fuller, late of St Frances Cabrini parish in Tucson, said that in the Eucharist our Lord gives us the most precious of gifts, himself. Note, gives us, not just gave us. For the gift of the Lord’s Supper is ongoing. And the gift Christ gives us in it is one that continues.
As the apostle Paul said, it is something we receive from the Lord and something we also hand on.
We pass on more than just the memory of a man serving his followers, of a master serving his disciples. In doing that, Jesus had upended the natural order of things. As he said, the servant is not greater than the one he serves. But do you get it? Whom he was serving? Not just the one before him, but the God who made and loved and redeemed him.
And it is more than that. Jesus said, go and do this yourself. Not just physically washing feet, though that could come up, but in the spirit of his act, serve others, not yourself.
The washing of feet, that apostolic act, can take many forms. You may do it when you visit a stranger in the hospital or in jail, you may do it when you pray for someone in need and offer your assistance and your company, you may do it when you speak up for somebody mistreated or given the short stick in the justice department. There are many ways you and I serve others.
The church, German pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer is said to have said, is the only institution that exists for those who are not its members.
“My body for you” - Jesus said. And we are his body. Our body - however broken or imperfect - for you. For you whom Jesus loves, even now, as the past becomes present, in the washing of feet, in the Eucharist, in our work in the world as the people of God.
May we, as the body of Christ in the world, as we receive the broken bread and the poured out wine, as we get the tingle of wet water on our cold feet, remember who we are, and become present at the Lord’s Supper and in the Lord’s world, as those who do love’s redeeming work.
Maundy Thursday 2023
http://www.lectionarypage.net/YearABC_RCL/HolyWk/MaundyTh_RCL.html
Prayer of the Day
Holy God, source of all love, on the night of his betrayal, Jesus gave us a new commandment, to love one another as he loves us. Write this commandment in our hearts, and give us the will to serve others as he was the servant of all, your Son, Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.
Amen.
Prayer of the Day (Alternate)
Eternal God, in the sharing of a meal your Son established a new covenant for all people, and in the washing of feet he showed us the dignity of service. Grant that by the power of your Holy Spirit these signs of our life in faith may speak again to our hearts, feed our spirits, and refresh our bodies, through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.
Amen.
(From Sundays and Seasons, Augsburg Fortress, Minneapolis, Minn.)
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The Rev. John R. Leech, D.Min., serves as a priest associate at the Episcopal Church of Saint Matthew, Tucson, Arizona.
An edited version of this meditation appears online at https://tucson.com/lifestyles/faith-and-values/bringing-the-past-into-present-day-actions/article_e69c28a6-d7be-11ed-94a3-4705199d383e.html
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