As people we all carry our memories of past hurts, past sins, memories of things we have done for which we can not forgive ourselves, a hurt someone else has inflicted upon us or upon a loved one. We all have memories colored with regret, tinged with sorrow, stilling carrying the texture and hues of shame, lament or grief.

And we hear these words from Scripture: “Remember not the events of the past, the things of long ago consider not” (Isaiah 43). These are words spoken to Israel at the end of its exile in distant Babylon. Israel carrying her own memories of how far they had strayed from God, her memory of Jerusalem and the Temple burning, knowing that even though Babylon had set the fire, Israel had ignited the spark.  Remember not  – it seems to me that God is not saying to erase the memory of those experiences, because we hear God lament: “You burden me with you sins and wearied me with you crimes … see, I am doing something new … your sins I remember no more.”  I think that perhaps God is calling Israel not to focus on her own sinfulness to the exclusion of all else. There is a balance to be had – to remember, but to find joy in God’s forgiveness and to find hope in the something new that God prepares for us.

In the Hebrew, the words forgive and forget are etymologically the same word.  As Isaiah indicates in today’s readings when God forgives, God forgets.  And that should be a joyful realization for us. But here’s the problem: we are the ones who remember.  It is as St. Augustine wrote, human memory is the well of sin. Sins of others we will not forgive, and our own sins we will not forget. While I am comforted that Augustine so well knows the human condition. I am far more comforted that God forgives and forgets. Yet, how do we let go of the burden of the past that has been hurtful, regretful and wounding.  And we know that we need to let go.

In some way, each of us is bound up or burdened with some memory of what we have done or failed to do. Bound in the memory of the hurt that has been done to us.  In our own way we join the paralyzed person in the Gospel, bound by our regrets, our lack of peace. In need of someone to bring us to the place of forgiveness, of healing.  A place where we can receive God’s forgiveness and listen to his voice, “See, I am doing something new…”

In the gospel (Mark 2:1-12), the four friends bring the paralyzed person to Jesus. A person about whom society asked, “whose sin was it that caused the paralysis – his or his parent?”  A person bound by a social bias, isolated from the wholeness of life.  What is the first thing Jesus does?  Does he cure the paralytic?  Does he forgive sin? Actually, not that either.  The first thing Jesus does in the process of unbinding is to remind the person who he is. Jesus addresses the person as teknon, a term of endearment which means “beloved,” reminding the person that he or she is a cherished child of God.

Just as Jesus reached down into the sick bed of Simon Peter’s mother-in-law to restore her to her place as matron of the household.  Just as he reached out to the leper and unbound him from his illness and led him back to his people, so too Jesus reached out to the paralyzed man and restores him with the word: beloved.

All that follows arises from the Divine Love of God – Jesus speaking the words:  “Your sins are forgiven.”  A more literal translation is “Your sins are sent away.”  I think I prefer that translation to know that by the Divine Word of God, by the mercy of God, those sins, those burdens are sent away from me …. If only I will let them go.

In the words “Your sins are forgiven” the unbinding begins/continues, the healing progresses. Words that are spoken anew each day in the sacrament of Reconciliation; words that announce there is something new happening.  There is the chance for a new, reconciled future – not an easy process.  But in the healing is the opportunity for a new memory, a healing memory of God’s grace and forgiveness. God does not erase memory, rather God heals memory.

God does these things. This forgiveness and grace is not something that we can conjure up by the strength of our own will. That simply continues God’s complaint of our focus on our ourselves – first on our own sinfulness, and then on our own strength of will. Rather our focus should be on the endless mercy of God at work in us through Christ that enables us to receive this divine gift – and which impels us to extend it to others.

It is a glorious thing that while still having these memories, still remembering, we are able to be freed by love. It is like rising from the mat of paralysis, learning to walk anew. Like resurrection to something new – to discover that to be forgiving is to first have been forgiven. To be merciful is to first have received mercy. To be loved is to first have been shown love.  These things have already been done for us in Christ Jesus.

The season of Lent is upon us and so open yourself to God’s gift of healing love by your practice of prayer, fasting and abstinence.  Open yourself to God’s gift of healing love in the celebration of the Sacrament of Reconciliation.  And remember…

• Remember that you are the beloved of God.
• Remember that in forgiveness God forgets;
• Remember God’s love is waiting to heal you.

May the grace of Lent be a time for our healing, for something new.