It is my hope that my readers are gradually getting a real understanding of ANAMNESIS. I truly believe that if we understand this idea, our worship becomes much more meaningful. The full participation in the Eucharist is an encounter with Christ that should enable us to live it “again differently in our own lives.” Anamnesis is an active remembering of the events of our human salvation. Through this way of worship we no longer see the life, death and resurrection of Christ as a past event which has no relevance to our present lives. Rather, our worship that actively remembers these events engages us in a new and different way to live our present lives.
Yes, I realize that this might be a difficult idea to comprehend without further thought and consideration. It is, however, the key to transforming something that we repeatedly do perhaps by rote to something that we actually experience. Our Divine Liturgy challenges us to look beyond time and to experience our union with (i.e., communion) our God.
To further help us understand this idea, I would remind my readers that our entire liturgy prepares us for and helps make real this remembering, which is what we do when we gather to worship God with Christ in the Holy Spirit.
Our act of actively remembering begins when we GATHER as an ASSEMBLY of God’s People. It is followed by reading and proclaiming the word of God and reflection on its meaning for our lives. The action then continues with the bringing of the gifts to be offered, (The Great Entrance), followed by the kiss of peace and then the confession of faith. All of these various actions are essential to our active remembering what is to follow and should bring us to a level of awareness wherein we can participate again in the actions of Christ that took and take place at a meal wherein He makes possible our communion with Him and one another. The Anaphora is but a part, albeit a very important part, of our remembering. Hopefully by the time we reach this point in the Divine Liturgy, we have laid aside all earthly cares and are prepared to enter into fuller communion with Christ Himself so that we might truly be ready to offer THANKSGIVING to God for the gift of life and for the salvific actions He has taken in time and history to help us enter into this deeper, conscious union with Him.
In the next several weeks I shall further explore the mystery of anaphora.