Open Reflections

για Ελληνικά πατήστε εδώ

If historical events in the past, events linked to ways of thinking and acting typical of their times, have been a source of conflict and division, Christians must consider memory above all the sanctuary where the living witness of the Risen Lord is preserved. It is memory which gives rise to Tradition, to which our Churches owe so much. To memory is also entrusted the Sacrament which is the guarantee of efficacious grace: “Do this in memory of me”, the Lord exhorts us at the Last Supper.

For Christians, memory is too lofty and noble a sanctuary to be defiled by human sin. Certainly, sin can painfully damage the fabric of memory, but it cannot tear it asunder: that fabric is like the seamless garment of the Lord Jesus, which no one dared to divide.

Let us spare no effort in making it possible for memory once again to illuminate the great things which God has done for us. Let us lift our gaze from human pettiness and sin, and let us contemplate in heaven the throne of the Lamb, where the eternal liturgy of praise is chanted by men and women of every people and race, clothed in white robes. There they contemplate the face of God, no longer “per speculum et in aenigmate”, (in a mirror dimly), but as it is in reality. There, on high, memory gives way to fullness, and there are no more tears, nor death, because the former things have passed away.

This is what Saint Pope John-Paul II said, among other things, in his address to the Catholic Bishops of Greece (4 May 2001).

His prompting to guard the memory and the recall (anamnèses) free from sin touches man’s innermost being, his heart and his intelligence; in other words the inner space where the personal and collective events are worked out and form the thoughts and decisions which will shape the future.

The purification of memory is the work of the Holy Spirit. In our memory we keep the Risen Lord, and although the Resurrection happened about 2,000 years ago, His Resurrection inundates with its light everything that enters it. Therefore, we must not allow negative things to take root inside us. Christ said: “The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life (John: 6, 63).

Keep whatever is useful

And we also thank God continually because, when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as a human word, but as it actually is, the word of God, which is indeed at work in you who believe.

Rejoice always,  pray continually,  give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.

 Do not quench the Spirit.  Do not treat prophecies with contempt  but test them all; hold on to what is good,  reject every kind of evil.

 May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.  The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do it. (1 Thess. 2, 13 and 5, 16-14).

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