Do This in Memory of Me: Remember

By: Laura Catherine Worhacz

​"Saint Joseph adored, interiorly at least, everything that Jesus said and thought. The Holy Spirit revealed all to him so that, joining with these thoughts and words, He might glorify the Father in Heaven together with the Son, our divine Savior. In this way, the life of Saint Joseph was a life of perfect adoration. From close union with this holy adorer, I shall learn to adore our Lord and to live in intimacy with Him. I shall then be the Joseph of the Eucharist as he was the Joseph of Nazareth."
​ - Saint Peter Julian Eymard (Eymard Library, Volume 8 pg. 36)
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Hosanna, hosanna in the highest!

Every Holy Week, it has been a tradition for my family to watch The Passion of the Christ. One of my favorite portrayals in the film is the flashbacks.

​When Jesus is in His Passion, He thinks of running into His mother's arms. When He thinks of His love for us, He thinks of Holy Thursday and leaving us His life in the Eucharist. Saint Mary remembers being saved from being stoned and recalls the hand of God reaching down to her to lift her to the Cross.

How blessed we are to enter Holy Week and celebrate another Palm Sunday tomorrow. What about us? Where do our flashbacks take us?

In the silence, we can go there... Sometimes the places we are taken to are quite painful; sometimes, we recall graces embedded in our hearts that take us to the mystical. All of which create us in the divine plan and help us see God's love in all things.

To identify with all the experiences of life is healing for our souls. We find peace in the acceptance of our lives. We need grace to see the work of God in our lives. The Sacrament of Reconciliation sets fire to our longing to give in return for God's love for us.

What about flashing back to our first encounter with the Eucharist, to the moment we were given the grace to know Jesus in the mystery of the Sacred Host? How did our hearts burn with a desire to be with Jesus? How we longed to be in the presence of the living God.

Holy week is a time to be made holy; there is time for us to grow while still on this earth. On Holy Thursday, we are to remember how Jesus washed the disciple's feet and offered the first Eucharist: "Do this in Memory of ME." On Good Friday, we venerate the Cross and think of the divine person, Jesus Christ, dying for each of us so personally. On Holy Saturday, we wait in preparation for the Easter Vigil when the Resurrection from the dead is revealed to us.

The Sacred Triduum, the mystery of salvation, invites us to live in the Passion, Death, and Rising of Christ. Saint Joseph lived this mystery in intimacy with God. All that was revealed to him Saint Joseph kept sacred. Indeed, he reminisced often, flashbacked to the dreams he had, thought of the terror he fled from and protected his faith in Christ.

May this Holy week bring our lives to the Praise and Glory of Our Father who art in Heaven. Lord help us to be guardians of the Eucharist.

Author

Laura Catherine Worhacz is a Lay Associate of the Blessed Sacrament and author of Consecration to Jesus Through Our Lady of The Blessed Sacrament.. She is also the Director of Mothers of The Blessed Sacrament. She lives in Trinity, FL with her husband and their two daughters.