ACT OF MEMORY
March 2005
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind was one of the
films we discussed at Soul Café last year. The film, as
you may remember, is about forgetting. It seems a medical doctor
has perfected the art of erasing selected parts of your memory
and for a price will blow your mind and leave a nice spotless
space where a memory had been.
Not all science fiction remains fiction. A New York Times article
describes medical research on drugs which intentionally erase
selected parts of a person's memory, opening a new branch of
medicine called "therapeutic forgetting." The researchers report
that in a traumatic situation "when stress hormones like adrenaline
. . . are elevated, new memories are consolidated more firmly,
which is what makes the recollection of emotionally charged events
so vivid, so tenacious, so strong." One can understand why the
last days of Jesus and the resurrection on Easter morning were
burned into the memories of the early disciples. When a loved
one dies, somehow the memories of their last hours are etched
into memory so that years later we can recall them vividly. As
the early church grew and the resurrection story circulated,
the dramatic rising of Jesus amplified all the other recollections
of his life and they became precious to the church.
When the church gathered on Sunday in the homes of the faithful,
the act of breaking bread and pouring wine elicited the memory
of Jesus' last supper, and Jesus became alive once more in the
hearts and lives of his disciples. Today, we still have as part
of our communion liturgy the words of the "anamnesis," literally
"a not forgetting." It is an act of memory in which the mystical
presence of Christ becomes real to us.
During Holy Week and Easter this month, I invite you to make
Christ real in your lives by remembering him in worship and making
him present in your day to day activities. As Christians, we
do not follow a memory, but a Savior who is very much alive in
the world today and who continues to act through those in whom
he dwells.
Dr. Harry L. Serio
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