The Memory
The soul’s memory, unlike its finite counterpart, is not subject to corruption, just like the soul’s incorruptible nature. Mental faculties including memory, the seat of which is in the brain, invariably deteriorate with time. There is always a point, usually age related when man becomes forgetful and sometimes reaches the stage of senility, proportional to the length of one’s lifetime. Worse, he could be afflicted with a number of irreversible and progressive disorders of the brain that destroy the memory like Alzheimer’s disease. On the other hand, the soul’s memory remains intact, 100 percent retention, up to the end of time, when man faces the Day of Judgment, as this is the time when it will be called to do what it does best—to divulge its secrets before the tribunal of truth and justice. Jesus said: “I assure you, on judgment day people will be held accountable for every unguarded word they speak. By your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned.” [Matthew 12: 36- 37] There is no way out for one who possesses perfect memory, a memory that remembers every spoken word uttered in this lifetime. If this is not the case, the Last Judgment would be argumentative like in our current judicial system, where the common excuse is “I have no recollection” or “I invoke the Fifth Amendment” or a plea of temporary insanity. No, the Last Judgment because of the soul’s perfect and incorruptible memory will be as easy as separating one animal from another, as Jesus said. “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, escorted by all the angels of heaven, he will sit upon his royal throne, and all the nations will be assembled before him. Then he will separate them into two groups, as a shepherd separates sheep from goats. The sheep he will place on his right hand, the goats on his left.” [Matthew 25: 31- 33] Once the faculty of memory had done its function on the last day, the Day of Judgment, what will happen to it? That depends on what group one will be in, either sheep or goat, on the right or the left, the blessed or the accursed. Scripture has it: “THEN I SAW NEW HEAVENS and a new earth. The former heavens and the former earth had passed away, and the sea was no longer. I also saw a new Jerusalem, the holy city, coming down out of heaven from God, beautiful as a bride prepared to meet her husband. I heard a loud voice from the throne cry out: This is God’s dwelling among men. He shall dwell with them, and they shall be his people and he shall be their God who is always with them. He shall wipe every tear from their eyes, and there shall be no more death or mourning, crying out or pain, for the former world has passed away.” [Revelation 21: 1- 4] This is the eternal bliss of the elect, perfect, full to overflowing, and never-ending in the New Jerusalem. The memory had been wiped clean, for the memory of earthly life is but a hindrance to the infinite joy of the redeemed. No more memories of frustrations and disappointments, of harrowing defeat and heart wrenching setbacks, no more remembrance of tragedies and pain, of mourning, of loss, foremost is that final, irreversible separation from loved ones, friends and acquaintances who were deemed wanting and thus excluded in perpetuity from the life of God and the company of God’s people. A new life, a new beginning with an immaculate state of being, founded on the Absolute Truth, persisting in that One Eternal Day in the Holy City of God. In this most blessed paradise, there is no past to remember or a future to look forward to but only the peaceful security of the present moment where infinite love and joy are lived to full, unchanging as it is the state of perfection. In such a blessed state, the memory is superfluous for the latter is only a function of time, a necessity while man is traveling through it, for it registers the choices he had made. A corollary question is: what will happen to the memory of the dammed who are consigned to hell? For now, suffice to say that they will keep it for infinity. Call it the everlasting souvenir from the past, as forgetting is the luxury that they will not be granted. Like it or not, they will have their memories as eternal testament of their crimes, against God and his people. Prisoners of the past, without a future to look forward to, for theirs is an anguish-filled present, never-ending, never-changing, only persisting through eternity. This will be treated more fully in the discussion on the realities of hell.
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