Some Good Memory

In the parable of the prodigal son we read this: “And he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country; and he sent him into his fields to feed swine. And he would fain have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat: and no man gave unto him. And when he came to himself, he said, How many hired servants of my father’s have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger!” (Luke 15:15-17) I have to think that part of the reason that this son “came to himself” and decided to return to his father was the spiritual reminder that these swine gave him. Pigs of course were unclean in the law of Moses as described here: “And the swine, though he divide the hoof, and be clovenfooted, yet he cheweth not the cud; he is unclean to you. Of their flesh shall ye not eat, and their carcase shall ye not touch; they are unclean to you” (Leviticus 11:7-8). This young man certainly was taught growing up that this was the case. He would have had a natural disinclination towards the animal because of the teachings of his mother and father that the Lord did not want His people to eat or touch swine. He must have felt the Spirit of the Lord many times as he grew up reading the Torah and learning the law he was to live by. As he fed those dirty animals and mingled with them, surely deep in his heart he was reminded that they were spiritually unclean for him and that he was not supposed to be there with them. Perhaps that thought and feeling was part of what helped him to realize that he was in the wrong place and that he needed to return to his father where he could be clean.   

                This reminds me of the final scene of The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky. The main character Alyosha spoke to a group of young boys he had befriended after the funeral of Ilusha, another young boy who had become ill and died. They had at one point been very mean to that boy but Alyosha had helped the group come to love him in the end. He said this to them, “Boys, we shall soon part…. And whatever happens to us later in life, if we don’t meet for twenty years afterwards, let us always remember how we buried the poor boy at whom we once threw stones, do you remember, by the bridge? and afterwards we all grew so fond of him…. And so in the first place, we will remember him, boys, all our lives. And even if we are occupied with most important things, if we attain to honor or fall into great misfortune—still let us remember how good it was once here, when we were all together, united by a good and kind feeling which made us, for the time we were loving that poor boy, better perhaps than we are…. My dear children, perhaps you won’t understand what I am saying to you, because I often speak very unintelligibly, but you’ll remember it all the same and will agree with my words some time. You must know that there is nothing higher and stronger and more wholesome and good for life in the future than some good memory, especially a memory of childhood, of home. People talk to you a great deal about your education, but some good, sacred memory, preserved from childhood, is perhaps the best education. If a man carries many such memories with him into life, he is safe to the end of his days, and if one has only one good memory left in one’s heart, even that may sometime be the means of saving us. Perhaps we may even grow wicked later on, may be unable to refrain from a bad action…. But however bad we may become—which God forbid—yet, when we recall how we buried Ilusha, how we loved him in his last days, and how we have been talking like friends all together, at this stone, the cruelest and most mocking of us—if we do become so—will not dare to laugh inwardly at having been kind and good at this moment! What’s more, perhaps, that one memory may keep him from great evil and he will reflect and say, ‘Yes, I was good and brave and honest then!’” I love this idea that our good memories from childhood can save us later in life from misdeeds. Our memories of being good and feeling the love of God when we are young surely will be with us, even unconsciously, when we are older and are perhaps straying from the path God wants us to take. Those memories can bring us back to Him, and that’s how I see the swine in this story of the prodigal son—they brought back the memories of what was right and led him back to the father who had taught him the laws of God in his youth.

                And so as a parent I must strive to create these good and sacred memories for my children while they are young so that later in life their pull can be stronger than the temptations of the world. One of the purposes of the Holy Ghost is to help bring these memories back to us in time of need: “But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you” (John 14:26). I pray that we can raise our children in such a way that they will always remember “how good it was once here, when we were all together, united by a good and kind feeling which made us” as a family. And when the storms of life come, though the Holy Ghost they will have “some good memory” to help keep their souls connected with God and protected from evil.