It was a phrase first used by Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel.
He used it to describe how easily the Israelites forgot how God freed them from slavery in Egypt – for when they experienced hardships on the way to the promised land – they complained and grumbled.
The Israelites had forgotten – as Isaiah reminded them – that it was the Lord who opened a way in the sea - -and a path in the mighty waters. . .
After all, that is the role of the Prophets – to remind the Israelites who they are - and how God was– and is– GOOD to them.
And when Moses was delayed in coming down Mt. Sinai – the Israelites once again forgot who their true God was – and began worshiping a calf made of gold.
When the Israelites forgot, time and time again, how good God was to them – and that really is the story line of the Old Testament – when this happened – Rabbi Heschel said they suffered from SPIRITUAL AMNESIA.
Perhaps that’s one of our biggest sins in our relationship with God and with one another – the sin of forgetting – we, too, can suffer from spiritual amnesia.
I wish I could say it was not my problem – but it can be.
It is so easy to forget how profound God’s love for us is – like the father in last week’s Gospel – just waiting for us to come to our senses – and return to his loving and outstretched arms – no matter what we have done—
and it is equally easy to forget that this love is showered down upon us freely – we don’t have to earn it in any way: it’s ever present and ever given.
And when we forget that love has been freely given to us –without reservation – showered down upon us like the dew fall –
then it becomes very easy to respond to the people around us by judging them, criticizing them, even condemning them - as the scribes and the Pharisees did with the woman they brought before Jesus.
It was only when Jesus reminded them that the first to cast a stone should be one that has not sinned – they remembered – and they all went away – beginning with the elders – those who had experienced God’s love the longest.
For Christians plunged into the waters of Baptism: those of us called to be Christ-like –
harsh, critical, impatient, and irritated responses to others — are always connected to forgetting or denying who we are and what we have been given by God – love, grace, forgiveness, compassion, understanding – with a large dose of patience thrown in throughout our lives.
It is clear that no one gives these gifts to others better than a person who is deeply convinced of their own need of these things from God – and who is very aware of the grace and love they have been given - and continue to receive.
Spiritual amnesia – forgetting who we are and who we are called to be – is something we all suffer from.
And the antidote to this spiritual problem comes in three – much like the Trinity:
First – to remember who we are – a child of God. Redeemed by the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Second – to let our lives be guided by our future —– not our past.
Jesus encouraged the woman to forget her past – has no one condemned you? Then neither do I. And invited her to embrace the future: go, and from now on do not sin anymore.
We can’t carry the past around like a millstone around our necks - we need to repent, and then be showered in grace - then embrace God’s plan for us in the future.
As Saint Paul reminds the Philippians and us: we should strive for one thing: forgetting what lies behind and strain forward to what lies ahead.
Or as we sing in Jerusalem my destiny: See I leave the past behind - a new land calls to me.
Each of us can, and must, live confidently knowing that we have been forgiven and there is an eternal inheritance waiting for us when we die – when we will be with Christ for all eternity. >
God loves us so much– God never wants that love to come to an end.
And the third part of the antidote to spiritual amnesia - is that Jesus calls us to be his ambassadors – his representatives – so we are to go and do likewise – as we have been forgiven – so must we forgive.
As we have been shown compassion – so must we be compassionate.
As we have been shown kindness and mercy – so we must be kind and merciful.
Again, no one gives these things to others better than a person who is deeply convinced of their own need of these things from God – and has gratefully received them.
At every Mass during Lent we have begun by asking that God send his mercy down upon us.
Mercy O God, have mercy on us. Send down your mercy to set us free.
God’s mercy frees us to go and do likewise.