Homilies

Back to Homilies menu

The precious faculty of memory is something we may take for granted, until, with advancing years, our memory begins to play tricks on us. The spreading tragedy of Alzheimer’s disease makes us aware of how essential memory is to a human existence, for with the extinction of memory, the personality of the individual is also lost.

But memory is also essential for the life of the spirit. When I looked up the word “remember” in the concordance, I was struck by how often in the gospels the disciples are said to have remembered the words of Jesus, or, in today’s text, what was written about Jesus in the scriptures, those scriptures which acquired new meaning in the light of Jesus’ resurrection.

At the Last Supper Jesus instructed his disciples to “do this in memory of me” (1 Corinthians 11:24 par). When at today’s eucharist we follow his command to “do this,” is it just rote repetition, or is it done truly in memory of Jesus, making present and active in our lives what he did then?

Repetition is an essential part of religious practice: we repeat the Ten Commandments, the Creed, the Lord’s Prayer, the Lord’s Supper, the story of Christ’s death and resurrection. But these repetitive actions should be done mindfully, utilizing the precious gift of memory, which binds together past and present.

Two recent items in the press remind us that our religious past can be exploited for motives which have nothing to do with Christian faith. Dan Brown has just won a law suit in England brought by the authors of Holy Grail, Holy Blood, who claimed that Brown’s DaVinci Code had stolen their idea that Jesus married Mary Magdalene and sired children who founded the Merovingian line of French kings.

The Gospel of Judas, discovered in 1970, has been on the front pages of the newspapers. In this 3rd or 4th century Coptic text Judas is represented as having betrayed Jesus at Jesus’ own request.

These two books, one ancient and one modern, have their own agendas. The DaVinci Code is tapping into the widespread suspicion of institutional Christianity which exists in modern secular society, and which makes people all too ready to accept any theory of conspiracy or coverup which discredits the church. In the process both Brown and his opponents in court have made a bundle of money.
The Coptic text is of Gnostic origin and supports the doctrinal distinction between the ignorant demiurge who created the world and the unknown Father, to whom Jesus longs to return.

We must admit that orthodox Christianity has also at times distorted the record of the past for self-serving motives. But as someone trained in the historical criticism of the Bible, I am dismayed by the inability of many modern men and women to recognize any distinction between history and fantasy. Both have their place, but it is crucial that we know which one we are pursuing.

Jesus is said to have challenged a man working on the sabbath with the words, “If you know what you are doing, you are blessed, but if you do not know, you are accursed and a transgressor of the law” (Luke 6:5D). Do we know what we are doing, as we begin this most sacred week of the Christian year?

back to top