Time and Space

The book I recently read, Sun Slower Sun Faster, deals with the issue of time. Man is limited because of time. We are always working against the clock or ,as I see it, the clock is working against us. We are separated from others by time. Our grandparents and parents for instance were raised in a different era and seem sometimes remote because of the gap in age and the changes that have occurred between their generation and ours. God who is limitless and infinite entered into time and space. He lived and walked among men, and allowed Himself to be subjected to the limitations experienced by humanity. After his passion, death and Resurrection Christ returned to His Father, leaving us in His "fleshy" form. Once a discussion was started at the dinner table why Christ may have chosen to do this. Why didn't He remain with His people in "fleshy" form to assist them through out all of time? But the truth is He is still with us. He told His apostles "Behold I am with you until the consummation of the world". He is with us Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity in the Eucharist. We can not perceive Him in His Bodily form but He is there. As Sun Slower Sun Faster teaches us the Eucharist makes all Time one. With God there is no time, one day is as a thousand years as the psalmist says. The Holy sacrifice of the Mass has always been and will always be the same sacrifice, that is, Christ's offering of Himself to the Father on Calvary. The Eucharist brings us all together scattered all through various ages and places.

Another of man's limitations is that of space. We are conformed to it. We are separated from those we love because of our different locations on the planet. Like time space sets up barriers. Because of variations in culture we tend to think of people from other places as strange and foreign. Even the way we worship as Catholics varies from country to country. The essence of the Mass itself remains the same though, the offering of Christ to His Father. This transcends all cultural differences and those of past and future generations. All are one in Christ. We are brought together literally as one body by receiving the Body of Christ. Even those who are not Catholic or even Christian are united with us because we all exist within the mind of God. Always we have been in His thought and always we will be.
"There is one body and one Spirit,just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of us all, who is above all and through all and in all." Ephesians 4:4-7