Present with Jesus - Anamnesis

Jesus said, "Do this in remembrance of me." David Bennett and Jonathan Bennett make these comments on remembrance: 
The Greek word for remembrance, anamnesis, does not imply simple psychological recollection. Enlightenment rationalistic assumptions have clouded many an interpretation of Jesus' words here. The word anamnesis, as it was often used in ancient times, means to bring the past into the present and the present into the past. In the Eucharist, we truly experience Christ's life, death, and resurrection, and Christ is made present to us, and we are made present to Him. This is far more dynamic than merely remembering something. 
http://www.ancient-future.net/eucharist.html

The Jewish celebration of Passover  is precedent to defend this  description of the liturgical experience of anamnesis.  The CCC states:  "In the sense of Sacred Scripture  the memorial is not merely the recollection of past events but the proclamation of the mighty works wrought by God for men. In the liturgical celebration of these events, they become in a certain way present and real. This is how Israel understands its liberation from Egypt: every time Passover is celebrated, the Exodus events are made present to the memory of believers so that they may conform their lives to them.” Catechism of the Catholic Church, sec. 1363. 

Dave Armstrong in this blog post has done a great job citing the OT authority and Jewish sources which confirm that Jewish thought promotes this liturgical idea of making past events present and real.  Our modern minds have great difficulty making the past present because we live by what Gerhard von Rad calls "the law of historical exclusiveness."   Gerhard von Rad, Old Testament Theology Vol. 1(New York, Harper & Row Trans. 1962), at page 110.   "We have to further consider that in their presentation of religious material the peoples of antiquity were not aware of the law of historical exclusiveness, according to which a certain event or a certain experience can be attached only to a single definite point in history.  In particular, events bearing a saving character retained for all posterity, and in that posterity's eyes, a contemporaneousness which it is hard for us to appreciate."  Von Rad at page 110.




Another version  of this post appeared here August 8, 2012.