Lord, show me your hidden wound.

   St. Thomas Aquinas, like the other masters and doctors of his age, was a man of prodigious memory.  To be an effective teacher of the sacred sciences, one needed to have an encyclopedic knowledge and recall both of sacred scripture, as well as the writings of the early fathers and the teachings of the popes.

   Once upon a time, a man could be considered to be learned in the entire sum of human knowledge--theology, medicine, law, rhetoric--a claim that would be made by scarce few today.  Indeed, when I was in graduate school, it was commonly claimed that the knowledge in the field of the life sciences doubled approximately on the order of every 6-8 years.  This claim underscored the necessity of constant study of the latest articles and trends in the field, lest we fall hopelessly behind as a serious scientist and our professional knowledge become 'obsolete'.

   As we have organized and cataloged all sorts of information for quick search and recall on our computers and small devices we can carry on our person, the art of memory and memorization is falling by the wayside.  I was never good at memorization when I was at school, even before the advent of smart phones.  Simply stated, I was lazy and undisciplined.  But educators of days gone by clearly understood the value of memorizing information, poetry, and other facts, as it trained and formed the mind in an orderly way.  Imagine what St. Thomas Aquinas might have been capable of, given the technology of today.

   Aquinas understood that there were two types of memory active within the human mind.  An intellectual memory as one, and a sensate memory as the other.  Both need to be stretched.  The intellectual memory was one of taking in facts and committing them to one's person.  We know that one plus one is two, and remember that fact, because it exemplifies an abstract truth that is true in all places and at all times... our minds are formed to the truth by that kind of memorization.  The sensate memory is not what it sounds like... it is not a memory of the taste or smell or sight of mom's cherry pie cooling in the window-sill... Thomas puts those 'memories' in the realm of the 'imagination' which is a whole different thing.  But the sensate memory stores the relative truths that we can apprehend from the world presented to us through the senses.  One plus one will always yield two, no matter what we see or hear or think.  The sensate world though, presents facts to the intellect that are saved to this 'working' or 'instrumental' memory, as I would call it.  These memories do not bear necessary correlation with objective truth, but are relative truths as the intellect sees them.
   Lent is a time to renew minds and memories, attuning them more perfectly to recognizing and proclaiming the truth of God and his ways.  A few weeks ago we heard Moses reminding the people to "hear the statutes and decrees which I am teaching you to observe" and to "not let them slip from your memory as long as you live, but teach them to your children and your children's children" (cf Deuteronomy 4: 5-9).  Jesus then calls us to remember the not only the letter, but the smallest part of the letter of the Law, and then to watch as he fulfills it completely (cf Matt 5: 17-19).  In the coming two weeks of Passiontide, we are focused more precisely on the events of the passion, death, and resurrection of our Lord, that we may know again the depth of his love for us, and be transformed by that love.  The Sacred Liturgy at the center of this observance is the 'living memory' of this love, made present (re-present-ed) for us today.
   Human memory has no higher destiny than to be the repository of God's living Word.  As we recall the great things God has done for us, we are inspired towards thanksgiving and evangelization.  The authentic Christian tradition deeply honors and reveres learning and wisdom, and the memories that are formed by God's inspiration.  That is why the stories of the saints tend to be so compelling.  This is why we tell our vocation stories.  This is why the Church has been the seedbed of generations of great thinkers and artists and political activists and everyday people who have simply responded to the invitation of God revealed in the beauty of simple truth.