IN MEMORY OF ME

 Have you ever heard the strains of a song and been immediately transported back to the first time it moved you?   Where a certain event comes to mind or feeling envelopes you?  I wasn’t even born when Glenn Miller’s ‘Moonlight Serenade’ was written but I practically swoon when I hear those opening chords.

In Bl. Maria Celeste’s life that ‘strain’ was being a “Viva Memoria,’ a Living Memory of Jesus.  She just didn’t remember Jesus, she experienced him in her inner most being.  And with that awareness of his intimate presence she was transformed into a living image of the Redeemer.  In all the moments of her life: the joys, the sorrows, the struggles, she strove to live by participation-union the life of the Redeemer doing all “In Memory of Me” who so loved her and the world God created. 

At the end of May we celebrate Memorial Day. Many people go to parades and wave flags and then have the first bar-b-que of the season.   Others, who lost loved ones in service to our country, go to cemeteries and plant flags or lay wreaths honoring those who gave their all.   Their memorial stones are a tangible reminder
of the sacrifice of those who laid down their life for love of country. 

Jesus, for love of all humanity, laid down his Godhead to become Incarnate and lived and breathed like any other person.   Out of God’s immense love  God gave us the Only Begotten Son, that through Christ’s life, death and resurrection we are made divine in life.  To show us the way to this union with Jesus in God, we must follow in the footsteps Jesus and live in memory of Him. 

The reception of the Eucharist nourishes us for the journey.  Being a Viva Memoria is akin to what happens in the Eucharist when we hear the words, ‘Do This in Memory of Me,’ where what is remembered becomes, in the very remembering, the actual Real Presence.   Likewise, when we live “In Memory of Me,” we carry on the loving, salvific plan of God by becoming, in our own time and place a living eucharist: a living image of Jesus for the world.

Remember God’s immense love for you.  What ‘strains of song’ echo in your heart when you think of God’s immense love?  How can you follow Jesus and live your life “In Memory of Me?”