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So what did we celebrate? First of all, the word �celebration� does not mean �party.� It comes from the Latin word �celebratio,� which means to �gather in memory.� It all started Thursday night when Jesus celebrated the Passover in the very Hebrew tradition of �memory,� which to the Jew does not mean to look on the past, but to �make a reality present.� The limited word �memory� or �remembrance� is a translation from the word �anemnesis.� But what was �made present?

Jesus took bread and wine made from agricultural grain and fruit produce and declared it �flesh and blood.� He was finally reconciling the sacrifices of Cain and Abel through the communal Passover meal where everyone should take part to have death pass over. It was a true sign of forgiveness. He proclaimed that the blood, no longer sprinkled on the sinner or placed over the lentil and doors of the house, but actually consumed, to be His as the blood of the �eternal covenant.�

Drinking blood to this point had been forbidden, for it would be �communing� with a lower life form, an act of bestiality. Jesus was human. And then He told the disciples that He would be killed. But the disciples probably wondered, �If He were to be killed, how could this be the presence of an eternal covenant�? How could he really be present in such a sign and symbol? A covenant only lasts as long as the person making it! Sure enough, Jesus was taken away, tortured, and killed, which only would add to the confusion. But he said in effect, �do this to make me present.� How could this be? He is dead!

But, three days later, the women came back saying that they had seen Him. Then two men who had known Him, heard Him teach, saw His suffering and die saw a man they did not recognize... until He had done what was told to the Apostles that would �make his reality present.� As soon as He broke the bread for them, He disappeared from their sight, bu