“Do this in remembrance of me!” Our Lord’s command to his disciples on the night before he died is quite simple. Whenever we celebrate the Eucharist, we gather to remember, - to remember our Lord’s death. This act of remembrance is at the heart of the Christian understanding of reality. To “remember ” speaks to us of an event, of real people, rooted in a certain time and place. 

There is nothing abstract or impersonal about all this. This simple act of remembrance has been repeated on countless occasions, in every conceivable human circumstance and for every conceivable human need. This is about history, real history. That means that there is a connection, a connectedness, between the events which we recall in the Eucharist, and the complex events and influences which make up our own lives. Because it is rooted in history, because it is our history, it touches our lives. It makes a difference. The act of remembrance forces us to confront the reality of our own lives, of who we are, of where we have come from, of the people and events that have touched our lives, because they have made a difference to us.

On Sunday afternoon, following our observance of Remembrance Sunday in the morning, we will gather for a Requiem Eucharist to give thanks for the lives of all those people who have helped to shape our lives, particularly those who have a special place in our hearts, those who have shown us love, kindness and generosity, those we miss, those we mourn. We will remember them by name, and yet our remembrance will be tempered by hope. To remember in the context of the Eucharist is not simply to dwell on the past. It also means looking forward to the future - for in the Eucharist, we receive a foretaste of heaven, where every one of us will be gathered together again to share in the heavenly banquet, where we shall be reunited with one another and with those we love. As we share in bread and wine, we celebrate the presence of the risen Christ among us. We receive a foretaste of heaven.