Homily

We live in a world where there are three dimensions: height, length, or width. I once read an article by Stephen Webb about the fourth dimension, which is time. And Webb wrote about time not just as we experience it, but he asks questions about what time might be like in heaven. Time is a real thing, but it cannot be examined or studied in the way that our 3-D world can be studied. It’s true we can measure time, which is why we have clocks and calendars. We may say we don’t have enough time, or that he’s got time on his hands, but time is not something the way that other things in this world are something. It can’t be held, stored, changed, or lost.

Webb speculates that when we receive our resurrected bodies at the end of time, they will exist, we will exist in a new kind of space. We will not be tied to the physical laws of a created world the way we are now. That’s why in the gospels we see Jesus walking into rooms without having to use the door, and disappearing instantly from sight. He can be touched, He can eat food, He is recognized as Jesus, but He no longer lived in this earthly space the same way that He did before the crucifixion. Webb suggests that if our resurrected bodies will exist, then we will also exist in a new type of space and a new kind of time. Right now, we can move through this space. We can go out to the parking lot, or we can go to Mt. Angel. But we cannot move in the same way through time. We can travel in any direction we want but, as the saying goes, the past is a foreign country we can never visit.

Webb wonders what kind of memories we will have in heaven since memories are recollections of the past. And then there is a problem: what about the memories of our sins, the bad things we did in this lifetime, and what about the memories of bad things that may have happened to us, or bad things done to us by other people. If heaven is a state of blessed joy, how can it be so if we will have memories of our sins, our hurts, and our wounds? We may have been forgiven of our sins, and we may have forgiven those who sinned against us, but that does not remove the memories of those harmful and painful realities. In fact, in heaven, with the distractions of living in this present material world gone, won’t the memory of our sins be even more painful? So how can we have pain in heaven? And yet our memories are a part of who we are, so we can’t get rid of them and say we are the same person; there cannot be some kind of spiritual memory-wipe that gets rid of our painful memories because that would change who we are.

Webb suggests that it may be that in heaven, since we will be free to move back and forth in time, which we cannot do in this present life, that we will be able to somehow go back in time, meet those who have hurt us, and those we have hurt, and let God make things right again. That in effect the Lord would help us to change our past pain by healing it, just as a doctor heals a wound to make the patient healthy again. In that way our painful memories are transformed into healed memories and our past no longer holds moments of sorrow for us. Because of grace, we will finally be able to remember our past as healed and healthy sons and daughters of God.

Pretty interesting ideas! And what I enjoyed about reading this article, since I am so stuck living in this 3-D world, is thinking about the glorious and divine life I am called to as a follower of Christ. It challenges the notion that heaven is kind of like Disneyland, but you never have to wait in line for the rides, and you can eat all the ice cream and French fries you want and never get sick or fat. It’s hard to think of existing in a resurrected body in the presence of the Holy Trinity while you are still stuck paying income tax in the U.S. of A. It’s hard to think of existing in a resurrected body when sometimes we have trouble just getting up from bed. We cannot easily understand the idea of eternity as we can understand the idea of Sunday afternoon.

In his article Webb imagines what the nature of heavenly life and painful memories might be in that life. But what about our present life? Painful memories—we all have them. They are often the fruit of our own sins or the sins of others against us, or even just bad things that happened in the past. They have impacts on our lives. We may treat people the way we do because of what they have done to us. We may be weighed down by the burdens of our own past sins, even though they may have been forgiven by God. We cannot always see how these memories affect the way we see ourselves and how we live our lives, but we still understand just how bad memories can affect the way we see ourselves, and how we act in the present, and how bad memories can push us to bad behavior, or keep us from trusting more in the Lord because we are afraid something bad might happen if we do. We’re afraid of creating more bad memories, and maybe we find it hard to trust in God’s loving care.

Friends, we don’t have to wait for heaven to have our bad memories healed. We can ask the Lord for that now. We can ask the Lord especially to heal our most painful memories, not in the sense of erasing the past, but in the sense that they no longer are a source of temptation to sin, they no long tempt us to doubt the love of God for us, they no longer tempt us to hope in our own power rather than to ask for grace, that they no longer push us towards revenge or bitterness, but give us room to have peace and hope for our lives in Christ, despite whatever bad lies in our past.

When painful memories come to mind, let us ask the Lord to apply healing to these memories in such as way that they no longer cause us pain, but allow us to live in the forgiveness and love of Christ our Lord. The Lord may allow our suffering but He never, ever desires our suffering. He never abandons anyone who calls His name. Let us ask Him to heal our bad memories when they pop up, and repair their effects on our lives, so that we can live more freely in the gift of His own divine life. Let us ask Him to heal our bad memories so that we can more clearly see His truth. Let us ask Him to convert our bad memories into thoughts of promise and peace, because this is truly possible in the power of the Risen Lord.