Various authors in our present refectory book have been approaching the complex issue of the interaction between time and eternity. Although, as Christians, we regularly speak of the end of time, this does not necessarily mean that time will cease—unless, of course, God were to allow his wondrous creation to slip back into nothingness. How eternity and time coexist and interact is one of those mysteries we can only speculate about. Since the angels we celebrate today presumably dwell in eternity but are also very much engaged with this world of space and time, they must know the answer. Furthermore, the angels qualify our understanding of that so-called “eternal rest” that we wish for our beloved dead. Eternal life, it would seem, is anything but a laidback life of ease and pleasant inactivity. For, the angels, apparently, are anything but inactive or passive before God’s throne of glory. We will, naturally, have to wait and see what this time/eternity existence entails, but one thing we can assert about the meaning of “eternal rest” is that it is rest from all suffering, pain, want, longing, weariness, and incompleteness. Even now, if we strive to imitate the angels in their complete openness to God’s love, eternity will intersect with time and we will begin to know something of that “eternal rest” as we experience for ourselves that Christ’s yoke is easy and his burden light—and, indeed, is a foretaste of eternal rest.
Luigi says
Christ’s word(s) seem too simple to be believed at times, but there they are “…My yolk is easy and my burden light.” Our LORD’S words, should be all the more believed. We tend to give a lot attention to difficult passages; trying to attain to that standard, as we should. But then, we skim past the easy ones, as though it were Jesus waxing poetic or saying something cute. I think too, we tend to disbelieve when the simple truth is staring us in the face.