"When I Forgive, I Forget" -- True Statement or Bad Theology?

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Mattapoisett64

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I’ve seen the “When I forgive, I forget” saying on holy cards, confessional guides, and even heard it at parish missions. I have also read sentences referring to the “sea of God’s forgetfulness.” It has always puzzled me in that, while a comforting thought, it seems to contradict our understanding of the Particular Judgement, the General Judgement, and even the immutability of God (who presumably - not changing - does not go from a state of “remembering” something to “not remembering” something.)

How are we to understand absolution and sacramental forgiveness in terms of God remembering our sins - or not? And what does that imply about the Judgements?
 
It is very clear that God forgets our sins - for example “as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us” (Psalm 103:12). Meaning that they are literally as far away from us (and from his memory) as they can be. He doesn’t keep them in his pocket to rebuke us with them or remind us of them even after repentance - that goes against the concept of mercy.

I don’t see how the idea of God forgetting our sins that we’ve repented of changes the Particular or General Judgement. It’s our unrepented and unatoned sins that we will stand accused of, and these sins only that may ultimately send us to purgatory or hell. Kind of like a gameshow where ‘parts of the show not affecting the outcome may be edited’. 😃

What would the purpose be of God dredging up sins that have been confessed, forgiven and atoned for, and that play no part in the decision he makes as to our fate? :hmmm:
 
Because of God’s ability to know all outside of time, I would say that He never really “forgets” our sins (otherwise He wouldn’t be all knowing). HOwever, what I believe when one says that a sin is “forgotten” they mean that the confessed sin will never be mentioned again by the forgiving party. Heck, Satan has an easy time with reminding me of past hurts by others when I have forgiven them (especially when the same person does the same hurt and asks for forgiveness again). That’s where the whole 70x7 thing comes in.
 
Mattapoisett64 said:
I’ve seen the “When I forgive, I forget” saying on holy cards, confessional guides, and even heard it at parish missions. I have also read sentences referring to the “sea of God’s forgetfulness.” It has always puzzled me in that, while a comforting thought, it seems to contradict our understanding of the Particular Judgement, the General Judgement, and even the immutability of God (who presumably - not changing - does not go from a state of “remembering” something to “not remembering” something.)

How are we to understand absolution and sacramental forgiveness in terms of God remembering our sins - or not? And what does that imply about the Judgements?
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While it lacks precision as you rightly say especially if you include the fact that there is still temporal punishment for sin it is a very good analogy for the way in which God treats sins. In fact if I remember correctly there was a private revelation about this fact that when the sister proposed to the priest that she was having visions of Christ he asked her to ask him what he last confessed. After speaking this request to Jesus his response was “I have forgotten,” and it was through this response that the priest believed her experience. For some reason I think it was St. Faustina but I don’t remember for sure.
 
mosher said:
While it lacks precision as you rightly say especially if you include the fact that there is still temporal punishment for sin it is a very good analogy for the way in which God treats sins. In fact if I remember correctly there was a private revelation about this fact that when the sister proposed to the priest that she was having visions of Christ he asked her to ask him what he last confessed. After speaking this request to Jesus his response was “I have forgotten,” and it was through this response that the priest believed her experience. For some reason I think it was St. Faustina but I don’t remember for sure.
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I’ve heard a different version of this story. I’d like to know the origin.
 
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