REMEMBER ME

Sunday's lection is part of the church's tradition about Jesus's last words on the cross. You find one statement in Matthew; one in Mark; three in John; and three in Luke. Sunday's Lukan passage is also the basis of Jacques Berthier's famous 1978 Taize hymn, "Jesus, Remember Me."

Social scientists tell us the worst punishment for Filipinos is solitary confinement. Many Filipinos turn on radios and televisions when they are alone, not to listen or watch, but simply to create a semblance of community. God did not create us to be alone. No one deserves to be alone. Worse, no one deserves to be forgotten.

This was the plea of the man who was crucified with Jesus: Remember me. We often forget that many people do not fear death. What they really fear is oblivion; that they will be forgotten; that no one will remember them.

God's gift of grace creates communities. And these communities of grace are founded on a shared commitment to memory and remembrance. God does not want anyone to be alone. God does not want anyone to be forgotten. You and I, as followers of Jesus are challenged to race against erasure and to dedicate our lives to celebration, to commemoration, to ritualization.

And to always remember.


*art, "Dismas," (Thomas Puryear Mims, 1906-1975), at the Benton Chapel (Vanderbilt University). Tradition names the repentant man crucified with Jesus as Dismas or Dismus.