Every year at Gettysburg or Yorktown people dress up in period costumes, use vintage weapons, recover old marching songs to re-enact the battles that occurred there. The nostalgic memory serves to emphasize how important those events were in our nation’s history. St. Paul insists that is NOT what we are doing when we celebrate the Eucharist. We are not merely remembering what Jesus did in the long ago and far away, we are sharing in it. The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the Blood of Christ? We are participants in Jesus’ breaking the bread and sharing the cup at the Last Supper just as were the apostles. Jesus is really present with us in the present tense.
