Collective Amnesia

Many theologians and philosophers maintain

that we humans have a common mistaken identity;

we have forgotten who we are.

We have forgotten that we are children of God,

a child of God ,each and every one of us.

We have collective amnesia of who it is we truly are.

It is a common problem and every generation suffers from it.

I suppose that is why all the famous fairy tales and the mythic stories

tell of this story and the plot is similar;

that the royal son or daughter or some royalty

does not remember who they are;

their true identity is hidden from them.

The plot thickens as they come to rediscover who they really are;

an heir to the kingdom.

The plot travels along the quest for the discovery of their true selves.

Even scripture speaks of this archetypal story over and over again.

We hear it in today’s readings.

The first reading from the Prophet Isaiah and the gospel.

We hear the echoes of the very first chapters of the Bible;

first Genesis to third Genesis where, in the story of creation,

they were made children of God created in his image;

male and female he made them.

Then they are in the Garden of Paradise and they lose their way.

The rest of the plot is a re-discovery of who they really are;

children of God.

The first of the two readings about the vineyard of the Lord,

which in the first reading is the people of Israel.

They have forgotten who they are.

They have turned away from God and they have sinned.

In the gospel we hear about this vineyard again,

the vineyard of the Lord and how they have rejected the prophets.

They have rejected the Son of God

even a prolepsis of what will happen to Christ himself.

Of course, the spiritual quest for each and every one of us continues.

That spiritual quest to remember who we are;

to remember like Adam and Eve in the Garden

that we were created in his image to be stewards of God’s creation;

to remember and not have collective amnesia.

This remembering is critical.

Every Pope over the last 100 years of modern time has spoken

about how each one of us is a child of God created in his image.

Pope Francis in his encyclical Laudate Si took it up a notch

and reminded us that we are stewards of all of creation

and in particular stewards of all creation and the poor.

And that these two go together.

When we do not take care of creation

and when we forget who we are, children of God,

honored servants in his kingdom,

then we do like the tenants of the vineyard.

We plunder and take and take and we forget

that we have a role,

that we are just stewards of this creation.

Pope Francis, a month ago, called for a whole month of reflection.

He called it a Season of Creation and

it was to end on the feast of St. Francis of Assisi,

which happens to be this very Sunday.

Pope Francis called us to that primordial memory;

that original sort of vision that God had for us;

that we would care for one another;

that we would love one another as a fellow child of God.

And that we would then care for creation,

knowing that all, all creation, is sacred

because it was created by God.

So what are we to do?

Every one of us can approach this in different ways.

We could try to consume less and

understand that everything we consume

has an impact on our environment;

has an impact on climate change.

Who among us could deny that these recent fires here in California

that have caused so much damage to our environment,

is a continued sort of reminder of the damage

we are doing to our environment.

Yes, we could consume less.

We could also pay attention more to,

for us here, these beautiful hills around us

even though they might be covered with a little bit of smoke right now

and realize the beauty of creation;

to look at flowers and plants;

gourds and pumpkins.

And just realize the beauty of what God has created

and as St. Paul is to the people of Philippi

to be grateful and thankful to God for his creation;

to remind ourselves of our role that we are just stewards

for a very short period of time of this creation;

and that the people who often get affected by climate change the most

are the poorest of the poor.

Therefore, we need to remind ourselves of our responsibility

to be kind to the poor and to creation.

I do not think it is easy to do this because

we can get caught up in the world

and the speed at which our world goes.

If we could find some quiet space to come into the quiet

and to come into the silence;

to see and to hear God speak to us;

and to remind us of his original vision for us;

that we are all children of God;

that every one of us has a soul.

We cannot bring that soul to ourselves or to somebody else.

The soul is already in us and

the Spirit fans the flame of that soul.

Today, maybe we can spend some time in the silence,

in the quiet with creation and

to be ever grateful for what God has given us;

to treasure it; to honor it and to see its beauty.

And to acknowledge all is gift from God in the quiet.