Remembering the Ones Who Are Suffering

Christians should not forget that they are God's people in the Eucharist. Easter is a reminder for the church to listen and remember the voices of those who are suffering.

FRANSISKUS PATI HERIN

Easter Celebration at San Juan Lebao Church, Larantuka, East Flores Regency, East Nusa Tenggara on Sunday (9/4/2023.

On Easter Day, Christians celebrate the day when Christ defeated death after he gave Himself for the redemption of sin. The remembrance of the resurrection is important for the reconciliation between humans and God. In other words, the anamnesis of remembering plays an important role for the future of humans.

Anamnesis has a word root close to amnesia, or forget. In remembering something, forgetting often goes hand in hand. Some opinions say that the past must be forgotten to be able to advance to the future, but remembering the future requires remembering the past.

Remembering an event that becomes the culmination of Christ's victory against death will be given hope. Not only victory needs to be remembered, but also the cross, memoria of passionis, which existed before the resurrection, memoria resurrectionis. The temptation to forget is always there when dealing with a painful past.

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On 11 Jan. 2023, President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo acknowledged that there had been gross violations of human rights and mentioned 12 events in the 1965-2003 period. Of course this is a good step after a long time and many victims were looking for recognition that violations did occur. Acknowledgment is the first step in remembering, because acknowledgment means accepting memories of past events which indeed occurred. Furthermore, the recovery process can be started.

Christianity, like many other religions, is based on calls to remember. Anamnesis has a stronger meaning than a psychological understanding of memory. In anamnesis, people not only recall an event of the past, but are also called to support and experience the teachings of Jesus and make them actual with the current context.

The Eucharist was not a new tradition that Jesus created but a continuation and renewal of memory in Easter supper for the people of Israel.

There is an active understanding in anamnesis, especially in the Eucharist. The last supper was a unique event that was institutionalized by Jesus himself to remember Him. The Eucharist was not a new tradition that Jesus created but a continuation and renewal of memory in Easter supper for the people of Israel.

The meaning of the liberation of God's people from slavery in Egypt is brought to the present through the acts of God's redemption in Christ, so that the future can be undertaken with hope, and past events must be remembered for the future.

KOMPAS/P RADITYA MAHENDRA YASA

Father Florentinus Hasto Rosariyanto SJ lights a candle while presiding over the Easter Vigil Eucharistic celebration at the Catholic Church of St. Anthony of Kotabaru, Yogyakarta City, Saturday (8/4/2023).

Unforgettable

Christians should not forget that they are God's people in the Eucharist. This is the basis of calling to remember in the Christian tradition. Johann Baptist Metz, a German Catholic theologian from the 20th century, reminded us that the act of remembering in the Eucharist was also to remember suffering.

The church as a community cannot exclude the voice of suffering from its context. The voice of suffering reminds people of Jesus Christ's suffering on the cross. The memory of others’ suffering has the implication that the church is expected to act as a community that remembers others’ suffering.

The PGI 2023 Easter theme, He Precedes You to Galilee; Do Not Be Afraid!, was made in the awareness of the news of the resurrection that brings hope, reported from the periphery, a city far from Jerusalem.

Easter is a reminder for the church to listen and remember the voices of those who are suffering.

Testifying from the periphery indicates recognition of suffering: a global economic recession, war in various places, and the political temperature of the Indonesian people will increase toward the 2024 general election. However, Easter reminds us that Christ has preceded the people and will accompany the people in various challenges.

Easter is a reminder for the church to listen and remember the voices of those who are suffering. In Indonesia, where many human rights violations have occurred, remembering those who are suffering is the responsibility of the people.

KOMPAS/HERU SRI KUMORO

Good Friday Service at the Cathedral Church, Jakarta, Friday (7/4/2023). Good Friday is commemorating the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.

Various cases of human rights violations that have not been fully resolved remind us to embrace those who are marginalized. The purpose of remembering is reconciliation, and this is the reason why memory theology is needed in a country such as Indonesia, which has many forgetful people.

The Eucharist is the act of remembering carried out in the community. By remembering that the church will realize the memoria passionis in its own context, the church accepts the injured memory, then brings it into a collective memory. Finally, the memory of suffering gives birth to a new social memory that sees the wounds in light of hope in the memory of the resurrection.

By recognizing the past, the people also have the opportunity to enter the reconciliation of healing in the knowledge that God also remembers.

Memory transformation

The transformation of negative memory into positive can be experienced and celebrated in the Eucharist; victims and perpetrators are invited to share their memories together in the community of believers.

The element of communal togetherness in the Eucharist enables us to convey painful memories to God. When we know that God remembers, personal memory is remembered by the community of God before God who remembers everything.

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God not only remembers, he has also left for those who were on the periphery the symbol shown by the City of Galilee. After the memory is conveyed, painful memories will be recorded with new feelings no longer with trauma, but with hope.

However, there is one thing that is certain in the celebration of Easter: In the commemoration of the resurrection of Christ, we believe that God also remembers us. By remembering the resurrection of Christ, we also remind Him that we are waiting for Him to come back. Happy Easter!

Binsar Jonathan Pakpahan,

Lecturer at the Jakarta School of Theological Seminary (STFT Jakarta) and HKBP Reverend

This article was translated by Hyginus Hardoyo.