Steps to God – Forgetfulness
Steps to God
One of the things that lead a person to sin, or encourage him to sin, is forgetfulness. As one of the saints said: sin is preceded either by lust, or by negligence, or by forgetfulness.
Forgetfulness¹
That is, when a person forgets the existence of God, the justice of God, the knowledge of God, and God’s love for him and His beneficence toward him. Or he forgets death or eternity, or forgets that sin is death and that its consequence is death.
If a person remembered that God exists, that He is before him, sees him, looks at him, and reads his mind and heart, he would not be able to sin… As righteous Joseph said: “How then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?” (Gen 39:9). His feeling that he was before God who sees him prevented him from doing evil… But we often forget the existence of God, and that He is before us, seeing us.
The person who sins not only forgets God’s seeing him, but also forgets God’s justice and His retribution, and God’s goodness that hates sin.
Many remember only God’s love and forget His justice… And when they forget God’s justice, they become negligent with sin.
God’s justice requires that the price of sin be paid, and the wages of sin is death. If it is not taken from the sinner, it is taken from Christ. Thus, the meaning of sin is that we cast our filth upon Christ so that He may carry it!! If a person remembered this, he would not sin. But he forgets…
The person who sins forgets eternity and judgment, and remembers only his present moment. He forgets that awesome day when he will stand before the righteous Judge to give a full account.
In ancient times, God left us to the moral law in our depths to guide us, before He gave us a written commandment. Therefore, we see Cain feared his crime (murder) and denied it, before there was a written commandment saying: “You shall not murder” (Exod 20:13). And Joseph refused to commit adultery before there was a written commandment saying: “You shall not commit adultery” (Exod 20:14).
Then God gave us written commandments so that we would not forget…
And He commanded us to meditate on them day and night: “But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law he meditates day and night” (Ps 1:2), so that we would not forget.
Rather, He said to us about them: “You shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates” (Deut 6:6–9). All this so that we would not forget them.
God also commanded that this law be read in the assemblies every Sabbath, so that the people would not forget it. He surrounded obedience to it with blessings and disobedience to it with curses (Deut 28). These blessings and curses were read to all the people from two mountains, so that they would not forget them.
And we still read this law in the churches in every liturgy… so that the people would not forget it. And the interpretation of this law became the work of the prophets, apostles, shepherds, preachers, and all the clergy. God repeated the law in the Book of Deuteronomy and said to the people: “Take heed to yourselves, lest you forget the covenant of the Lord your God which He made with you” (Deut 4:23).
Entrance into God’s people in ancient times was marked by circumcision. It was a sign in the human body, so that he would not forget that the body of sin had been cut off from him and died, and that he no longer lives according to the flesh.
In the same way, baptism came in the New Testament, reminding us that we have died with Christ: “Buried with Him in baptism” (Col 2:12).
But the sinner always forgets the covenant he made with God in baptism, when he renounced Satan and all his evil powers, and all his deception and tricks. He forgets that his old man has died, and that “as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ” (Gal 3:27).
The sinner forgets that he has put on Christ, and forgets that he is the image of God…
Yes, it is very difficult for a person who remembers that he has put on Christ to sin. It is also difficult for a person to remember that he is the image and likeness of God, and then sin while he is in the likeness of God!
Who can sin if he remembers that his members are the members of Christ!? He says with the apostle: “Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a harlot? Certainly not!” (1 Cor 6:15).
Who also dares to sin if he remembers that he is a temple of the Holy Spirit of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in him (1 Cor 6:19)?
But we sin when we forget all this. Therefore, the Lord reminds us.
We sin because we forget that we are temples of God, that we are children of God, and that we are the image and likeness of God. And in our sin, we are not His image… Therefore, see what the apostle Peter says to remind us: “Therefore I will not be negligent to remind you always of these things… Yes, I think it is right, as long as I am in this tent, to stir you up by reminding you” (2 Pet 1:12–13).
The Church also establishes feasts, occasions, and all rites to remind us…
We celebrate the Nativity of Christ, for example, not merely for joy, but to remember that the birth of Christ was the beginning of the story of our salvation. We cry out with Simeon the elder: “For my eyes have seen Your salvation” (Luke 2:30), and we rejoice in this salvation. The joy of Christmas is not a worldly joy!
Likewise, when we rejoice in the Resurrection of Christ, we rejoice in the victory over death that sin brought. We remember this, and our hearts are comforted.
Thus also all the rites of the Church are for our remembrance.
We look at the candles and remember that we are the light of the world, and we remember the saints who were like candles, melting in order to illuminate the path for others.
We look at the incense and remember that prayers rise upward with a sweet fragrance like incense.
We look at the images of the saints and their icons and remember their pure and holy lives, so that they may be an example for us… Likewise, when we hear the Synaxarium, we remember those beautiful biographies to teach us.
See what the Church does to remind us always of the sufferings of Christ.
One week every year is called Holy Week or Pascha Week, during which the Church is clothed in black, and the believers stand outside the sanctuary, outside the choir of the saints, just as Christ was outside the camp. All the prophecies concerning the Passion are read, and all the events of this week are proclaimed, and all the hymns are chanted in sorrowful tunes. And what else?
The Church sees that this annual remembrance is not sufficient, so it establishes for us another weekly remembrance, and even another daily remembrance…
Every week, it gives us the fast of Wednesday and Friday.
On Friday we remember the crucifixion of Christ, and on Wednesday we remember the conspiracy against Him. And since the Church sees that this also is not enough, it reminds us of the sufferings of Christ every day in the prayer of the Sixth Hour, in which we say: “O You who on the sixth day and at the sixth hour were nailed to the Cross for the sin which our father Adam dared to commit in Paradise, tear up the record of our sins, O Christ our God, and save us…”
In addition to all this, the Church reminds us of the sufferings of Christ through the Cross, which we see continually in the Church and in the hand of the priest… and in every liturgical occasion, and we celebrate it again.
God, from ancient times, loves to remind us of the matters beneficial to our salvation, because forgetting them causes lukewarmness or falling.
From old, when the people were saved from the sword of the destroyer by the blood of the Passover lamb, and God said to them: “When I see the blood, I will pass over you” (Exod 12:13), God made this Passover matter “a memorial… an everlasting ordinance” (Exod 12:14), so that people would not forget the blood necessary for salvation.
He commanded them to recount all this to their children, so that they might remember and benefit.
When our parents Adam and Eve sinned, He set for them a punishment to remind them…
He said to Adam that he would eat his bread by the sweat of his face, and to Eve that she would conceive and give birth in pain. And although Christ came and saved Adam and Eve and their children, this punishment still remains so that we would not forget…
So that we would not forget our first sin, its results, and God’s work for our salvation…
Does anyone complain if he toils for his bread, or if a woman labors in her pregnancy and childbirth?! It is undoubtedly a holy toil that reminds us of our sins, so that we humble ourselves and do not forget…
Believe me, even names in the Old Testament carried meanings of remembrance for many people…
(Abraham) was called by this name, meaning father of a multitude, so that he would remember God’s blessing to him in the abundance of children, and that in his seed all the tribes of the earth would be blessed. And all the sons of Leah and Rachel bore names with certain meanings that reminded of God’s work and His beneficence (Gen 29).
She named, for example, her son Simeon, and said: “The Lord has heard…” (Gen 29:33).
Jacob, the father of the patriarchs, called the place where he saw the ladder and the angels Bethel, that is, the house of God, to remember that God appeared to him there.
There are people—unfortunately—who remember only after falling.
Such was Peter, who remembered the Lord Jesus Christ’s warning to him after he denied Him. And such were the Marys who carried spices to the tomb, having forgotten that the Lord spoke about His resurrection. Therefore, the angel reminded them, saying: “You seek Jesus who was crucified. He is not here; for He is risen, as He said” (Matt 28:5–6). The women forgot that He would rise; therefore they carried the spices.
The Church continually reminds us… so that we would not forget and fall.
And when the Church sets for us seven prayers every day, this is not a burden or a weight placed upon us, but something beneficial for reminding us.
We remember many occasions such as the birth of Christ, His crucifixion and death, and the descent of the Holy Spirit. We also remember death, the Second Coming, and the necessity of repentance…
May we also remember God’s beneficence toward us, and it would be good if there were a record for it, in which we record God’s work with the Church and with individuals, and record the miracles that happen to us through the intercessions of the saints.
The kings of Persia used to record important events in their chronicles, and one of these events was remembered, as the king did with Esther and Mordecai.
May we also record, so that we may remember…
For the remembrance of God’s beneficence leads us to a life of thanksgiving.
And the remembrance of death and judgment leads us to repentance and vigilance.
And the remembrance of God’s presence leads us to modesty and reverent fear.
And the remembrance of our weakness and previous falls leads us to carefulness and watchfulness…
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An article by His Holiness Pope Shenouda III – Al-Keraza Magazine – Ninth Year – Issue Thirty-Eight – 22-9-1978.
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