Anglican Communion News Service

The Most Rev. Robert Eames
The Archbishop of Armagh

29 July 2001

In a few moments, in our Eucharist liturgy we will listen again to those words, which are so central to this service and to our recollection of the presence of God. Jesus said "do this in remembrance of me." Remembrance of me. The one direct and complete, and unequivocal direction that our Lord gave to his friends. Although they did not realize it at that moment, Christ was spanning the building of a bridge between the present, the future of their experience and their memories. I want to suggest this morning in our celebration of the Lord's Supper that memory, and how we deal with our memories holds the key to so much of our experience as people.

As you know, the Archbishop of Canterbury is paying a short pastoral visit to Jerusalem, and at the invitation of the Diocesan Bishop, we are privileged to come and present a symbolic presence, which says simply, you are not alone. We have come to show the witness of the Anglican Communion at large, to those who in this part of God's world are suffering greatly at the present time. In this pastoral visit the Archbishop has been at pains to emphasize the unity of the Christian Church and the unity of the experience of Christians, of doing this in remembrance of Christ.

The longer I exercise my own pastoral ministry, the more I am convinced of the statement of which I began. How we deal with our memories holds the key to so much of our present and our future. I do not think of that only on a personal level, but certainly our experiences already on this visit have reminded us of its importance collectively. For traditions, for nations, for religions and for individuals, how we view memory is important. It is important surely in our recollection of our relationship to God and in our reconciliation one with another. My own ministry, over the last thirty odd years has been exercised within those similar tensions, and again I have been reminded that in the process of reconciliation, whether it is within a family, between individuals, or most important of all, between communities, and traditions, memory plays a vital role. For memory can make us into positive, out reaching individuals, or it can further imprison us in the bitterness and the division of the past.

I believe that as we come to that point in our service this morning, of being reminded of our Lord's command, there is something in that about our memories. When Jesus spoke those words to his disciples, he was speaking in a situation, which was already becoming far beyond our comprehension. What did the future hold? What was their role to be? How were any of his promises to be fulfilled? When our God took bread and wine, and used them in a symbolic manner of his forthcoming passion, he was surely bridging for all time the link between the past, the memory, the experience of the present, and the hope for the future.

Whether it is between Jew and Arab, between Israel, between its neighbors, between children and adults in the generation gap, between members of a broken family, between in my own country Unionists and Nationalists, Protestant or Roman Catholic. Whether it is between those who have and those who have not, how we view the past, and how we view our memory is vital.

After one of the frequent atrocities in my own land, I was visiting a Roman Catholic school and at the end of the talk, a sixth former asked me a question, which I have never forgotten. We were talking about reconciliation, and what made for understanding, and he asked me this question. How will I recognize the day that I wake up and reconciliation has happened? The day I wake up and reconciliation has happened. Now we may smile in our sophistication at the assumption of that young man. But when we stop smiling, lets recollect what lay behind the question. He saw reconciliation as a point in history, a moment, a fact, whereas our experience teaches us it is a process. It is an ongoing wave of experience, starting with our memories, leading to our sensitivities of the moment, and pointing to our future hopes. Surely reconciliation in the Christian sense has a great deal to say about that. Of a Jesus of Nazareth who asked them to do a simple act, in remembrance of him, in speaking not just of the past but of a future when they would not see him.

Surely at this time, in this Holy City, we cannot escape the reality of how we deal with our memories. For memories make us what we are, and the way in which we prioritize whether memories in our family circle, of loved ones and experiences in the past. Whether it is within our tradition or our nation, or our religion, it makes no difference. Memory can hurt, memory can continue to divide or memory can teach us the lesson that we must avoid.

In my own country, as I am sure here in Jerusalem, trust is a very fragile component. Of all in our memories, the trust is what is challenged and destroyed, and therefore on the building of the trust, we hope to understand each other. We hope to realize where an enemy comes from, and that we may at least listen. How we deal with those memories holds the key to it all.

Do you remember that lovely incident where His friends turn to him in a moment of tension, and ask, "Lord, what must we do to be like you? What is the secret of being identified with you?" Jesus did not speak of a red carpet leading to paradise, the carpet upon which they would walk, immune to the injuries and hurt of other people. Remember what he said, "If you would follow me, deny yourself, take up the cross and follow me." When they did, far from being removed from the hurt and the memories, and the division of the past., they were lead up a dusty road, to a hill not far from where we are sitting to a cross of suffering they could never forget. Memories they would take to their own graves. But in the command of Jesus, as experience was lead, to lead them from the past to the future, they would prioritize as never before about those things they should remember. Do this, said Jesus, in remembrance of me.

In that central act, which we will celebrate again in a few moments, we know not worrying about the priorities of the past, for already they were enveloped at the foot of that cross. That surely must have been the Christian contribution to a divided world. That surely must be the message that I would continue to bring to the home of tragedy, though the city of hate. Surely that is the same message that this, the city of God, needs to hear this morning. You are my followers. You are my people, for you are made in my image. Jesus said, do this in remembrance of me. Quite suddenly our memories make sense, our present speaks of hope and our future is with God.

Do this in remembrance of me.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.