FORGETTING IS IMPOSSIBLE

It is certainly something good for me that I found my vocation in an area that is as far removed from science as possible. I get to think thoughts scientists rebel against. They want proof and I only ask for theories that sound and seem logical but, in the end, may not hold water. But they get me through the day even if at the end of the day I have more questions than answers. I can live with ambiguity. I suspect scientists cannot.

Faith is like that. It allows us to live without having all the answers even as we struggle from day to day with questions that beg for answers. God-questions abound for the believer and unbeliever alike. God-answers are few and far between. People of faith can live without the answers. People who lack faith, who demand answers and want empirical proof, simply write God off. That’s their choice.

Yet we people of faith still have to live in the real world where seemingly simple faithful and loving actions are difficult because what our faith asks us to do is well-nigh impossible. We are asked, for instance, to not only forgive the person who has sinned against us, deliberately and knowingly, but also to erase the memory of that sin from our minds, or at least to act as if it has been erased. But, no matter how faithful, how loving, how much we want to, we cannot. Forgetting is impossible. Everything we have ever said or seen or done is locked in our brain somewhere waiting to be called to mind once again. All it needs is some trigger and, bang, there it is for us to relive all over again.

Some, many, even most, of those memories are pleasantly recalled. It’s the bad ones that give us so much grief, the ones we wish we could erase but cannot. They haunt us and can make daily living difficult especially if the one we have hurt is someone we love, which is usually the case, is it not? The old song says it so well: we only hurt the ones we love, the ones we shouldn’t hurt at all.

All of which brings us to Easter and resurrection and new life. We believe that Jesus died on the cross on Friday and was raised to life on Sunday, on Easter. We believe that new life can come from death, whatever that death. We believe that even when bad horrible, awful things happen to us, especially those of the intentional kind, there is always resurrection – or at least there can be.

But new life, resurrection, does not come all on its own. It takes the grace of God as well as both our desire to live that new life and to cooperate with God’s grace make to resurrection happen. If we want new life to come, if we want resurrection, we can make it happen. If we do not, it won’t. God won’t force us to do anything we do not want to do. It’s as simple as that. Forgetting is impossible. Forgiveness is not.

That does not mean it will be easy. It won’t be because that which caused the pain and hurt will never be forgotten, but it can be forgiven. It is only in forgiveness that resurrection and new life takes place. Easter reminds us that with God’s always-offered grace and our willingness to accept that grace and do our part there can always be resurrection – no matter what the scientists may say. Happy Easter.