Remembering a time not so very long ago, picture-taking was a seriously-considered activity. Those rolls of film were expensive, as were the flash bulbs. A messed-up photo couldn’t be fixed. One development was the convenience of an automatic re-wind of the roll once the last exposure was taken. Convenient, yes, but embarrassing, too. It was at a wedding. A guest discreetly took a picture during the quietest part of the ceremony, but his discretion was short-lived. It happened to be the last exposure on the roll and immediately the camera began its noisy whirring of the rewind. The guest hastily exited, red-faced, with the whirring continuing under his jacket until he was out of the sanctuary (a 36-exposure film took a long time to re-wind!).
We’ve come a long way in photos and film and cameras, and now phones. Digital has largely cornered the market, with the exception of professional photographers who still prefer the flexibility of film. But we continue to document events and special moments, even of the plated food in front of us! Nowadays, photos (pics) are mostly stored up in one of the clouds but there are some holdouts among us who prefer to develop prints and store them in physical albums, each photo dated and briefly described on the back. Why do we do this? Who so many pictures? For many, like someone at my house, it’s to remember people and occasions, to savor special moments, to relive the sweetness of relationships of yesterday.
Photo-taking was not yet a thing in Jesus’ day, so he left the disciples with a tactile means of remembering him and the life-changing love he had shared with them. Communion, aka The Lord’s Supper or Eucharist, is that means by which churches around the world continue to celebrate Jesus and his love today. Jesus specifically asked his disciples to remember him! I find that incredible, don’t you? The God of Salvation, the giver of eternal life, the Savior, the Lover of our Souls, comes right out and asks to be remembered! It feels like a touch of his humanity showing, knowing that he will soon be leaving them and not wanting to be forgotten. We, 21st Century disciples, will remember him again tomorrow at 10 AM, 3 PM UK. PD