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IT WAS TWENTY YEARS AGO TODAY/WE REMEMBER
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Needless to say, there’s a political/social dimension to this weekend and to this title. But there’s also a liturgical dimension, and I want to tie the two together, if I can.
Memory is one of the greatest blessings of our human existence, and it is also one of the greatest curses. The mantra “Never forget!” is beautiful or terrifying, depending upon how we remember: it can be a reflection of gratitude, or it can be a brooding for revenge. It might be an appeal always to be alert (“Stay sober and alert!”—I Peter 5:8), or it could be a plotting for a “pre-emptive strike” at those we hate. One of the greatest tragedies of humanity is the holding of grudges, not only over generations, but over millennia.
This weekend is, as we all know, the 20th anniversary commemoration of the attack on our country by people who hate us. It was shocking and bold and devastating, but all the more so because we have no conscious memory of such an attack (other than, for a very few, Pearl Harbor). After the Civil War, there have been no battles fought against invaders on our soil. Compare that with France or England or Italy or Germany or Poland or Russia or… But we remember, and we must.
Sometimes, though, the remembering of a tragedy is a liberating experience, and this is what we do every time we celebrate (and I use the word deliberately) the Eucharist. After all, it is the memorial (the remembrance) of the price paid for our salvation at Calvary. The Greek word for this is anamnesis, and the idea is found in every Eucharistic Prayer, right after the Consecration and Memorial Acclamation (an acclamation of “memorial,” of remembrance). It’s why Marty Haugen’s hymn/song “We Remember” is so theologically on point and evocative: “We remember how you loved us to your death…”
We remember, and sadly we seem to have no capacity to forget. But this is the great goodness of God—the One who can totally forget. As it is put in Jeremiah (chapter 31): “I will forgive their iniquities and remember their sins no more.” As the Bible understands it, God’s remembering or forgetting means that something (or someone) either exists or falls into nothingness. And God promises that our sins (!) will fall into nothingness. If only we could emulate our Creator in this regard!
Memorial/memory are crucial for our self-identity. But forgiveness/forgetting need to be more integrated into our psyche than it is. How much better the world would be if we could! Global warming is such a terrible threat to our existence—but lack of forgiveness, lack of capacity to forget hurts and be reconciled, is a far greater catastrophe. We need to be set free from the tyranny of hate-filled memory and be able to embrace one another in the memory (and reality) of common brotherhood/sisterhood.
“It was twenty years ago today…” True. And we remember. But where and how shall we move forward from this memory?
