Fr Jim Cogley
Our memories are so much part of who we are. Some are pleasant while others are far from being so. These are the ones we try to repress and deny yet the more we do so the more they come back to haunt us. The Resurrection accounts show this happening quite clearly. After a night of fishing the disciples catch nothing. The Risen Jesus stands on the shore and tells them to try again and when they do the nets fill up. This awakens the positive memories of when they were first called to be disciples, also by the Sea of Galilee. The next memory is not so pleasant, for Peter at least. The sight of a charcoal fire was definitely going to bring him back to the night of Jesus arrest. Earlier in the day he had protested undying loyalty but Jesus had told him that before the cock would crow he would have denied him three times. Standing beside a charcoal fire, and afraid of being found guilty by association, he swore three times on oath that he didn’t know Christ. Suddenly he was now being confronted by the memory of his betrayal, but this time it was for healing.
Healing is not pretending that the hurt never happened but it is about coming to the place where it no longer affects us.