Lethe & Eunoë: Memory & Forgetfulness

     

       There are two rivers flowing from Dante’s Paradise, the River Lethe and the River Eunoë. The River Lethe is the river of memory where we remember our sins and enter into penitence and purification by the Blood of Christ. The River Eunoë is the river of forgetfulness where we remember our sins no more. 

            Do you remember the Dying Thief? “Today you shall be with me in Paradise” (Luke 23:43). What a grievous life the man must have led; his sins had weighed heavily upon him and he rebuked the other dying thief saying, "Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we indeed justly, for we are receiving the due reward of our deeds; but this man has done nothing wrong” (Luke 23:40-41). The weight of his sins had nailed him to the cross and nothing could atone, not even his own death. Mercy is his only plea, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” It is surrender and hope in Jesus alone that brings him into Paradise.

And what is Paradise? Paradise is that walled garden where in the cool of the evening the Lord God walked among the trees, and the trees of the garden lifted up their leafy arms rejoicing in His presence.

O let the Earth bless the Lord :
yea, let it praise him, and magnify him for ever.
O ye Mountains and Hills, bless ye the Lord :
praise him, and magnify him for ever.
O all ye Green Things upon the earth, bless ye the Lord :
praise him, and magnify him for ever.
O ye Wells, bless ye the Lord :
praise him, and magnify him for ever.

There, in the midst of the paradise of God, the tree of life still stands and the dying thief with his terrible memories and guilt was the first to eat of that tree as a result of the immediate self-sacrifice of the Christ who hung on the cross beside him.

There are two rivers flowing from Paradise: One is the River Lethe, the river of memory, the remembrance of our sins and of purification through the blood of Christ. One must drink of the River Lethe first before one is prepared to drink from the River Eunoë, the river of forgetfulness and kindly thoughts. He who drinks from both of Dante’s rivers Lethe and Eunoë, remembers his sins “only as an historical fact and as the occasion of grace and blessedness” (Dorothy L. Sayers, introduction to the translation of Dante’s Purgatorio).

Teresa of Avila, like many of her contemporaries drank deeply from the River Lethe and the remembrance of sins. Do all do that today? Some drink not at all and mistakenly think that they can drink from the River Eunoë and repress and forget the realities of their sins. It doesn’t work that way. Drink from Lethe first and from Eunoë second. When one drinks from Lethe, the river of memory and purification, then one is ready to hear the words of Teresa, “He guilds my faults.”

As miserable and imperfect as my deeds were, this Lord of mine improved and perfected them and gave them value, and the evils and sins He then hid. His Majesty even permitted the eyes of those who saw these sins to be blinded, and He removed these sins from their memory. He gilds my faults; the Lord makes a virtue shine that He places in me—almost forcing me to have it.” (The Collected Works of St. Teresa of Avila, Vol. One, The Book of Her Life, (Washington: ICS Publications) 1987, p. 69.

It is not that sin is any less sin, but sin must be seen through the eyes of grace. Never underestimate your sin, nor the work of grace in your life. God Himself almost forces us to live by grace, rather than by self-accusation.

Similarly Catherine of Genoa observes,

“I then saw others who were fighting against their evil inclinations and forcing themselves to resist them. But I saw that the more they struggled against them, the more they committed them . . . You cannot defend yourself and I cannot defend myself. The thing we must do is renounce the care of ourselves unto God who can defend our true self” (“Life and Teachings”, ed. Foster, Devotional Classics, p. 213).

            The psalmist says, “Protect my life from the fear of the enemy” (Psalm 64:1b). There is a common thread. Fear and compulsive flight from sin don’t help. Let Him gild your faults. Rely on grace, not only for the past, but also for the present. You cannot defend yourself, and I cannot defend myself. Relax into His hands. Catherine also speaks of the gradual unfolding of self-awareness. We are shown only what we need to see, and are accepted even with our imperfections and limited self-knowledge. He protects us from complete self-knowledge, which is more than we can bear. Transformation is a process.

            Drink deeply from both of the rivers that you may be cleansed, restored, and made whole. In drinking from the River Lethe know for certain that you come to the God of love who has already provided the sacrifice, who draws you to Himself, in order to restore you. “How much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God” (Hebrews 9:14 KJV).

            Drink deeply from the River Eunoë. God never intended that you live with old guilts long since cleansed. “As far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us” (Psalm 103:12). There is such a thing as Divine Forgetfulness, “For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more. (Hebrews 8:12 ESV). He who drinks from Dante’s rivers Lethe and Eunoë, remembers his sins “only as an historical fact and as the occasion of grace and blessedness”