This is sort of a continuation of the previous post, but it gets a brand new title anyway.
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But basically, what is Time? I visualize time as a sort of envelope enclosing the material universe, creating the possibility of an entirely different mode of existence within the all-encompassing Being of God. Time is measured by motion, (preferably regular) and motion is sequentiality; even if nothing material existed, if there was a human-like intelligence, and it thought something, then time would be divided into the epochs before the thought, and after the thought. And, of course, as thought elicits thought, soon there is an entire intellectual history, a long, sequential chain of before and after; Time exists as soon as there is sequentiality.
But then, what is Eternity? Certainly not sitting on clouds strumming harps, as in the popular image of Afterlife. We cannot imagine anything that is not sequential, except stasis, and cannot imagine stasis except as tedium. Surely the Life of God is beyond that, or we could not truly desire it.
C.S. Lewis has an interesting image in the book "The Last Battle". Aslan, standing at the doorway, calls for "Time", and the giant who had been seen sleeping in a cavern of the Underworld in "The Silver Chair" stands and throws his shadow over Narnia. Aslan says "While he lay dreaming, his name was Time. Now that he is awake he will have a new one". Those words intrigued me when I re-read the book recently, though I had never particularly noticed them before. In this image, Time and Eternity are seen as the same entity, but Time is unconscious, a state of diminished energy. What it will be like at the awakening is unimaginable, but it will be real Life. No doubt we will then realize that all our previous life has been a working our way through the rind, and only now for the first time getting a taste of the real fruit. To participate in the Life of God will be a dynamic, not a static experience.
When the Fathers say that Time is an aspect of the Fall, I do not take it to mean that there was no sequentiality in the first-created world; in this sense, there are two aspects of Time, one the law of sequentiality, which applies to all material things, and the other the condition of Corruption, in which decay is the universal principle, and all things are subject to change, for nothing can endure. What the Fathers mean by Time in this sense is this condition of ceaseless change, but there is a transcendence of Time which is beyond the simple overcoming of the Corruption our First-Father was made subject to, and that is in the experience of the Uncreated Light of God, in Eternity.
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But basically, what is Time? I visualize time as a sort of envelope enclosing the material universe, creating the possibility of an entirely different mode of existence within the all-encompassing Being of God. Time is measured by motion, (preferably regular) and motion is sequentiality; even if nothing material existed, if there was a human-like intelligence, and it thought something, then time would be divided into the epochs before the thought, and after the thought. And, of course, as thought elicits thought, soon there is an entire intellectual history, a long, sequential chain of before and after; Time exists as soon as there is sequentiality.
But then, what is Eternity? Certainly not sitting on clouds strumming harps, as in the popular image of Afterlife. We cannot imagine anything that is not sequential, except stasis, and cannot imagine stasis except as tedium. Surely the Life of God is beyond that, or we could not truly desire it.
C.S. Lewis has an interesting image in the book "The Last Battle". Aslan, standing at the doorway, calls for "Time", and the giant who had been seen sleeping in a cavern of the Underworld in "The Silver Chair" stands and throws his shadow over Narnia. Aslan says "While he lay dreaming, his name was Time. Now that he is awake he will have a new one". Those words intrigued me when I re-read the book recently, though I had never particularly noticed them before. In this image, Time and Eternity are seen as the same entity, but Time is unconscious, a state of diminished energy. What it will be like at the awakening is unimaginable, but it will be real Life. No doubt we will then realize that all our previous life has been a working our way through the rind, and only now for the first time getting a taste of the real fruit. To participate in the Life of God will be a dynamic, not a static experience.
When the Fathers say that Time is an aspect of the Fall, I do not take it to mean that there was no sequentiality in the first-created world; in this sense, there are two aspects of Time, one the law of sequentiality, which applies to all material things, and the other the condition of Corruption, in which decay is the universal principle, and all things are subject to change, for nothing can endure. What the Fathers mean by Time in this sense is this condition of ceaseless change, but there is a transcendence of Time which is beyond the simple overcoming of the Corruption our First-Father was made subject to, and that is in the experience of the Uncreated Light of God, in Eternity.
8 comments:
"What the Fathers mean by Time in this sense is this condition of ceaseless change, but there is a transcendence of Time which is beyond the simple overcoming of the Corruption our First-Father was made subject to, and that is in the experience of the Uncreated Light of God, in Eternity."
Could change in the eschaton be being eternally conformed to the image and likeness of our changeless God?
And as for the rest of creation in heaven like water and plants, unless those are metaphors, I assume they move but don't change. Or else it would be like some bizarre hallucination. Just speculating.
Great post!
Hello, Andrea Elizabeth; sorry I haven't responded to your reply on the Wendell Berry post.
As to your question, maybe, but who could say what that experience is really like? Is it possible to be eternally modified and conformed to that which is unchanging? One of my concerns in writing this post was to make the idea of Eternity sound more like Life and less of a cold abstraction. Although we know it is much more than we can ever know, sometimes the knowing of that makes Eternal Life in God seem vague and remote, and therefore boring; I think that's where these angels on clouds come from. I tend to think that when (or if!) we reach the Heavenly Kingdom, we will have reached our full potentiality; but no matter what the size of the vessel, it will be brimming with Life. It's probably a little presumptuous to think we will ever be moving deeper into the mysteries of God; the full Truth of the Divine Being will ever be beyond us, but that is the exquisite joy of being a Creature, to always be filled with awe and reverence before the Mystery which is beyond your nature. Some, no doubt, will participate more fully than others, our role in the heavenly economy appointed according to the spiritual capacities developed in this life; some seated on the steps of the Throne, others filling other places. So if you see someone walking around the grounds of Paradise picking up cigarette butts and gum wrappers, that's me!
Of course, there are bodies in Heaven; that is certainly implied by the resurrection, and there will be a new Earth (but no sea). What I had intended to imply in this post was the conception that bodies in Heaven retain some aspects of temporality (but without corruption); otherwise, it's hard to imagine how they could still be bodies. But how can we know? No doubt anything we can think of it will be surpassed by the reality. Still, even in this life, Saints experience the Uncreated, and would therefore, I assume, be (at least momentarily) in the Eschaton. That is what our experience on Earth tends to be, fleeting visions of the heavenly; perhaps Heavenly Life is like swimming in a sea of Life, whereas our experience now is of occasional showers.
Maxim,
No worries. I was probably too snarky anyway. Blogging sometimes turns into purging for me, and for that I'm sorry for those who are in my vicinity. But I sure feel better afterward, and for that I'm grateful to those who can stand it and provide a cool cloth, at least by praying for me. (sorry again - once a nurse always a nurse). I'll be the one mopping in heaven.
I think you succeeded in expressing how incorrect the boring, lazy view of heaven is. Perhaps tired, struggling people think that is the alternative to a stressful life. St. Maximus talks about "ever-moving rest", and I wonder what that would be like. Will the Saints be tirelessly creating things, thinking new thoughts, etc?
It is sobering to think that "when (or if!) we reach the Heavenly Kingdom, we will have reached our full potentiality". We need to have this thought in this life to keep us on our guard against sin, and to seek God continually. Perhaps, also borrowing loosely from St. Maximus, a 'habit of' seeking and growing in Christ/"virtue" is what will not change and what we will continue to do. But if we have a habit of being distracted from Christ, and stagnation, or worse, corruption, then we will be unable to focus on Him in heaven?
I once heard of a man with a near death experience who said that he saw his departed grandfather and twin brother who were both about 30 years old, and that there were curtains, sort of like water, of love that you could see and feel.
The tone of the post didn't bother me; I wanted to respond, just didn't take the time to do it.
Unable to focus on Christ, or unable to bear the light of His presence? Which would be an adequate description of Hell.
I have to confess, I am suspicious of most NDE's. So many of them appear to be delusional.
I'm more suspicious of NDE's since becoming Orthodox, but that one didn't sound too far off to me. Orthodox are suspicious of all "experiences",but still, my experiences helped seal the deal for me to never want to leave the Church and I'm grateful for them, but I wont dogmatically say they are for sure from God. I leave room for the possibility that they could be delusions.
I accidentally hit the publish button before I finished my name, not that it was unclear who wrote it.
We can't be too critical of those things which brought us to understanding, but we can't uncritically accept them as unmigitated truth, either, for God sometimes works in situations of imperfect truth to lead us to a fuller understanding; there is no deception of the Devil so dark that God can't find a place to let through a ray of light for the benefit of a heart that may be receptive to it.
It sounds as if you are saying that you yourself have had an NDE, or some similar experience? I certainly don't wish to condemn anything which has helped bring you to truth; I had many experiences and insights which helped move me in the direction of Orthodoxy, but which I found, when I actually became Orthodox, to be only partial or distorted truths. The important thing is that we not absolutise our experience, but always be in humble submission to the teachings of the Church.
The problem with many NDE's is that they present a distorted picture of the afterlife, in which souls are immediately "Embraced By The Light" (to allude to a book in which these delusory teachings are most starkly presented). This is in contradiction to the ancient teachings of the Church, which speak of the time immediately after death as one in which the soul undergoes a period of rigorous testing, for which we prepare ourselves in life by prayer and ascetic labor, and in which we are succored and upheld by the prayers of the faithful on our soul's behalf. The deception of the usual NDE lies in that they rob those that accept them of the vigilance that is needed as we prepare for the dreadful hour of death.
I agree with you that God can draw us even amidst partial truths.
I haven't had an NDE, I was speaking of experiences in general. It's interesting that Orthodox are skeptical of feelings, visions, and even other manifestations, yet at the same time we emphasize knowing God experientially instead of just intellectually. Perhaps the difference is that we experience Christ Sacramentally and bodily in the Church with or without corresponding feelings and manifestations.
I don't want to discount some of the NDE stories of experiencing God's love or other experiences of assurance at the hour of death, but I agree it would be worse to be falsely assured than have a healthy concern for striving for and maintaining a soul fit to enter God's presence.
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