Memory has Power

“Do this in remembrance of me.”

Memory is a powerful faculty of the mind.

Memory was considered in the ancient times

as one of the four faculties of the human body

that was considered foundational for the human being.

Best way to remember the four faculties is not Wi-Fi, but WIMI:

Will, Intellect, Memory and Imagination.

Memory is so important that we sometimes take it for granted

until we start to maybe lose it a little bit and start to forget things.

Just think and reflect on how important memory is;

remember we have to learn our name. Right?

Remember who we are.

We remember all the names of our loved ones.

It is an awkward moment when we meet somebody whom we know

and we have forgotten their name.

It’s like coming but it is not there yet and then they’ve left.

Memory is super important but it is not just about names.

We remember phone numbers.

We remember all the knowledge.

Imagine if we woke up every day with a blank sheet

and didn’t remember anything;

we wouldn’t remember how to make breakfast.

It is a devastating thing once memory starts to erode.

That is why I think it is good to reflect on everything.

What we remember sort of defines who we are;

our memory is who we are. 

On the other side, there are some things we do not want to remember.

There are negative experiences that we deliberately forget;

the brain and the mind deliberately puts memories to the side

that it does not process, such as things that are traumatic.

We are familiar with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD),

which is all about the inability to process a traumatic memory.

That is what it is and what happens is it sort of compounds

because they cannot process the event and they are reliving it.

There are other disorders that have the same thing;

it is all about post-traumatic events.

The human body has an amazing capacity with process memories;

every single day, every night, our brain processes

all the memories of that day in a unique way.

Sleep experts tell us that there are two different segments to our sleep.

One is called REM sleep and the other is NREM sleep.

Both are super important.

They have about a three-hour cycle each one of them. 

The NREM sleep is the time where

we process all the memories of the day

and that is where we do our deeper dreaming and process.

If we cannot process the reality of that day

then it will come back the next day to process

because that is what the brain does.

It categorizes and puts things away.

It is fascinating to study and understand.

Our modern understanding of how memory works is powerful

but we have always known how important memory is to humanity.

Our ancient forebearers of the faith, the Jews,

knew how important memory was.

The whole of the Old Testament is a testimony to that memory.

They wrote down what had happened so they did not forget.

Annual rituals, which they did over and over again to not forget;

there were annual rituals that were done by the seasons.

We have all these things that we do not forget

because memory is important;

it keeps alive certain thing

Jesus understands this in an even more profound way

because he comes along and

uses one of the more powerful methodologies

to commit stuff to memory, they are called parables.

Storytelling is a powerful way to keep memories alive.

And we tell the stories over and over again;

sometimes almost without a word of difference.

And we do that for a reason because that memory is important.

For example, look at the parables.

Even outside of Catholicism or Christianity,

some of the parables are well known.

For example, the Good Samaritan.

Everyone knows the Good Samaritan.

We even have secular hospitals named after the Good Samaritan.

There is a tremendous power behind these parables.

But Jesus went even deeper again.

And that is what we celebrate today

on this feast of the Body and Blood of Christ.

This story that we hear in today’s gospel,

the story of the feeding of the crowds,

is told no less than six times in the gospels.

It is the only story that is told that many times in the gospels.

That is the way for us to know, a signal to us,

that this is a really important story.

This is not just one of the parables; or one of the stories.

This is a core story of the people at the time who experienced Jesus.

We need to understand and spend some time on

what is actually happening here

because it is told six times it is important.

Today the one we are reading from the gospel of Luke.

There is symbolism behind the 12 baskets of leftovers;

symbolism in the 5,000;

symbolism in the two fish and the five loaves.

Everything has its symbolism.

This not just accidental.

It is a storytelling mechanism to show importance as to what has happened. 

But at the core of it, this is a Eucharistic story.

There is the bread and wine.

And there is the bread and fish.

Both stories come together on this feast day

because this is what is important to us.

The bread and the wine became the ritual, which we celebrate today.

It could just have easily been bread and fish.

Either one could have won out

but the bread and wine is what won out

because that is what was understood by the people of that time

of how important that is;

but let’s not forget the bread and the fish.

The bread and the fish are about abundance.

It was about that there was more than enough for everyone.

It was about the social justice teaching of the Church,

which is that we are called to share,

which is what we do every time we come to the table every Sunday.

We come to celebrate the presence of Christ;

we come to become the presence of Christ to do what?

To share the abundance of God’s love

that he has given to us with others.

That is the core of the message of the Eucharist.

I did five weeks of teachings on the Eucharist

so I am not going to try and short change

the power of the message of the Eucharist

but here is what is important for us:

Memory is important.

Why we come every Sunday is to remember;

we tell it over and over again.

We repeat this and we repeat becoming what we receive:

the Body of Christ broken for others,

the Blood of Christ poured out for others.

That repetition as a community helps us remember

how important this event is each and every Sunday.

That is meant to build on other things

that we are called to remember.

We are called to remember God in every day not just on Sundays.

It is a communal celebration that we recall

how God loves us every single day.

We come to Church each Sunday to remember communally.

Ignatius Loyola, the Jesuit founder of the Jesuits

understood the genius of remembering as well.

He came up with a prayer called the “Examen”

and he asked all his Jesuits to remember every single day,

at multiple times a day to pause and write down

where God was present in this day.

I ask you to spend a few moments at the end of each day

listing off where God’s grace broke through to you this day;

the three highlights of the day where you experienced God.

It could be in the playing of children;

it could be watching your mother and your father

show affection for each other;

it could be nature;

it could be a thousand different things

but God is coming to you every single day

and comes to every single one of us.

If we do not see it, look again because it is there. 

The third way which I would like us to do today.

Do you remember when we used to have photo albums?

We printed out photographs.

It’s such an ancient thing of the past.

We used to have photo albums and

we would go through the photo albums and

we would remember and laugh about what happened in those photos.

Today is Father’s Day, and I ask you to go back

through your photo albums or on your phone.

Look for pictures of your father.

Remember some wonderful events.

Go through and call to memory;

call from memory to the present those tender moments of goodness

and celebrate them today.

Celebrate the gift of God’s presence in and through your father

and whether your father is alive or whether your father is dead;

or whether your father is alive and estranged from you.

Remember the good times.

Remember the goodness that God has put throughout your life.

Also we celebrate today in the United States of America Church

the launching of the Eucharistic Revival.

The purpose of that is to come to understand the Eucharist

a little bit more so during this next year,

we will be sharing with you different ways

to come to the memory of the importance of this event every Sunday

but again it is built on the memory of every single day

and our family gatherings at home.

Today, we come to do this in memory of Christ

but we also want to remember Christ in our family and in our own lives

because God is always present in his Body and Blood

that we celebrate because we promise to become what we receive.

Do this in remembrance of me.