Memories and Restlessness

Yesterday we had some amazing memories of the events of 75 years ago, celebrating the end of the second world war in Europe. Memories are often key to who we are, so it can be devastating to people and their loved ones when parts of our memory is lost. Memories help us to make meaning and build up our sense of who we are.

St Augustine in his book Confessions uses his memories as a means of self-questioning; who am I, what am I here for, as we may do as well. He felt that our self-searching cannot be resolved, it merely makes us restless and so we are tempted to fill the gap with things that tell me that I have ‘arrived’ and that I have attained the goal.

Augustine said that we need to accept our hunger and restlessness and that in loving God our whole life’s experience, good and not good, is transfigured. ‘What I can do is to walk with Jesus Christ in the risky territory of this world trusting him and not my effort’. In doing this ‘I come to see others in the light of God, to love them more as he does and to long for their good as it were mine.’

In this time of pandemic, as we think back to those who gave sacrificially in the war and look ahead thinking about the ecology of our planet we realise increasingly that there is no good for me that does not involve good for others.

O Lord our God,
let us find hope under the shadow of your wings.
You will support us,
both when little,
and even to grey hairs.
When our strength is from you, it is strength.
When our own, it is weakness.
We return to you, O Lord,
that our weary souls may rise towards you,
leaning on the things which you have created,
and passing on to yourself,
since you have wonderfully made them;
for with you is refreshment and true strength. Amen.

St Augustine