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Good Morning, In my life I’ve been under the knife a number of times – from having my appendix out to a triple heart by-pass. I’ve dreaded every one of them and have been a nervous patient as I’ve recuperated from all six operations. But what’s surprised me has been my ability eventually to forget the fear and the pain once the surgery had done its work. I’m amazed at how after an operation those first cautious movements of the body gave way , months and years later, to carefree actions – stretching, lifting, running. It strikes me that the human spirit has a capacity to forget. And I’ve begun to wonder if that capacity to forget hasn’t a part to play in our hope for the future. I don’t mean forgetting people – those you love and have lost especially in the Pandemic. Grief is a journey without destination for there can never be closure to the love that binds you to those who’ve engraved their name on your heart. Nor do I mean that we shouldn’t learn from the past – our mistakes and our successes. I mean the involuntary letting go of the minute memories of fear and pain that squeezed out of you the very breath to pray. This forgetfulness seems to me to be a gift saving us from reliving every minute of the painful past in all our waking moments. To forget is both human and healthy. It’s also a mercy - with its roots in God. This and every Easter Christians think of Christ on the Cross praying for the forgiveness of his tormentors. He was appealing to the forgetfulness of God who, out of an enduring mercy, promised, “I will remember your sins no more”. That pledge to forget the pain of our past, for his sake as well as for ours, was a voice of hope. This last year we’ve endured countless afflictions and some much, much more than others. Lives and livelihoods have been lost. Our future will be shaped by our past. But our capacity to remember no more some of the details of our distress will free up internal space to think of a future with new possibilities. The forgetting of some things might well become part of our resurrection.