Remembering through the Eucharist

By friar Wayne Hellmann, OFM Conv.

Memories abound! For the friars 2026 promises to be a year rich in memories. 2026 is separated by 800 years from that day in 1226 when St. Francis, on the eve of October 3rd, “fell asleep in the Lord.” In addition, our own Conventual Franciscan Province celebrates a centennial since our founding as a province in 1926. Along with these two principal events, we also remember beginnings of other important ministries.

Memories are important. Without them, we lose our identity, our roots, and even our basic relationships, especially among our loved ones and among the many who have prepared the way for us. Spiritual and relational amnesia does not help move us forward.

Celebrations of jubilees and anniversaries within families, religious communities, and within any identifiable society cultivate memories. These memories connect us and help us face challenges of the present and project us into the future. This is what we friars will be about in 2026.

The cultivating and telling of stories are crucial. Of course, this is why we treasure the Scriptures, full of stories about experiences with God and with each other. Through the centuries, we have learned that these human words, inspired by the Holy Spirit, reveal to us the Word of God. This does not mean the work of the Holy Spirit is confined only to the stories of the Scriptures. What about our own more immediate stories? Might not the Holy Spirit already sent to us be working therein?

In our own Catholic tradition, memories and stories are of special importance. Catholic faith is not simply a personal faith. It does not begin with you or me. It is rather inherited from the ages and in a manner that is shared with the many across all ages. Catholic faith is based on a shared memory. It flows principally from the memorial celebrated in the Eucharist: “We celebrate the memorial of His passion, death, resurrection and ascension into heaven.” Out of that memory “we look forward to His coming again.”

This memorial, which we find in Eucharist, is a memorial of Jesus’ Passover to the Father. This is not simply a memory about nor a representation of the Last Supper. However, the Last Supper is important because therein Jesus interprets for us the meaning of that memorial, namely that in his Passover He is the Lamb whose “body is given up for us” and whose blood as blood of the new and eternal covenant is the “blood poured out for us …for the forgiveness of sins.”

In this memorial, by the power of the Holy Spirit, Jesus draws all of us to share in his Passover to the Father so that with Him and through Him we make our way to His Father. His invitation is universal because in celebrating His memorial, we are one with Him and with all who follow Him to the Father.

Thereby “we become one body and one spirit in Christ.” Thus we remember the Blessed Virgin Mary, the apostles, the martyrs, the saints, all who have died, and also all of us still on our earthly pilgrimage, with special mention of our pope and our bishop, who in their ministry are called to be the visible signs of our unity.

In celebrating Mass, we are all participants present to Jesus and are with Him in His Passover. This is why we remember the examples of holy men and women throughout the ages. Such is the reason for canonizing saints, to help us hold them in memory whenever we celebrate the memorial of Jesus present to us in Eucharist.
2026 will be a year of memories for us. May these stories increase appreciation of our Catholic faith and deepen participation in the memorial we celebrate in every Eucharist.