"Do this in memory of me."

As we enter “Holy Week” this Palm Sunday, I wonder if these words of Jesus and some others, said at every Mass have become so familiar to me, that I fail to listen carefully, reflect on their meaning and their possible implications for my everyday life. Readers who like me, are of age, remember how on July 20, 1969, before the romance movie “For the Love of The Moon” (1972) came out, two human beings made history by walking on the surface of the moon. Not long before Edwin Eugene (Buzz) Aldrin, following the late Neil Armstrong’s (1930-2012) famous “small steps,” exited the Lunar Module, he took time to worship God.

Back on planet earth after his real “moonwalk”, Aldrin shared that he was an elder at his Presbyterian Church in Texas. Knowing that he would soon be doing something unprecedented in human history, he felt he should mark the occasion somehow. He asked his minister to help him. And so, the minister consecrated a communion wafer and a small vial of communion wine. Buzz Aldrin took them with him out of the Earth’s orbit and onto the surface of the moon. He and Armstrong had only been on the lunar surface for a few minutes when Aldrin made the following public statement: “This is the LM pilot. I'd like to take this opportunity to ask every person listening in, whoever and wherever they may be, to pause for a moment and contemplate the events of the past few hours and to give thanks in his or her own way.” He then ended radio communication, and there, on the silent surface of the moon, some 250,000 miles - 400, 000 kilometers - from home, he read a verse from the Gospel of John, and he took communion. Even if Buzz Aldrin did not say to God, “I love you to the moon and back,” like a character in the movie “For the Love of The Moon,” his words and deeds on the moon revealed his passionate and uncompromising love for God.

Some two thousand years ago, Jesus knew what was next for Him. Jesus was aware that He “would be doing something unprecedented [and unique] in human history” and in the history of salvation. He chose to spend quality time with His disciples at the “Last Supper,” giving thanks to God the Father, before taking bread, blessing it, breaking it and giving it to his disciples. He instructed them in words and deeds, before he freely embraced the “Way of the Cross.” This holiest of weeks is a prime time to reflect on the meaning of discipleship while we spend quality time with Jesus. As Christians, we are challenged to listen to Jesus with undivided attention, follow His commands, which include to “take up [one’s] cross and follow” Him who loves us to heaven and back, without reservation, wherever we may be.