The Fragile Persistence of Time: An Advent Reflection

Albert Einstein, Edwin Hubble and Walter S. Adams observe the expansion of the universe, and of Einstein's mind

Time has been flying. I’ve heard it said that as we age we tend to perceive time differently than when we were children, with the weeks and months passing by at an increasingly rapid rate as the years progress. Even taking this possibility into account, I feel as if time is passing with a preternatural swiftness. A little while ago I was speaking to one of our secretaries, who was minding the daughter of one of our other secretaries as she did her work in the office, about this very fact. The girl is thirteen years old, and I remembered that it seemed like I was 13 for ever, and turning 14 would never happen. Maybe because it was during my 8th grade year, and I found my junior high school years particularly awkward — unpleasant even, that time dragged on. Once I did turn 14, though, I could feel the years speed up. Now, like many, I'm well ensconced in middle age and it's hard to believe that my school years were so long ago. I've known people in this 90’s who say the same thing. This doesn't change the fact that there does seem to be a speeding up — and whether this is a natural result of aging or some spiritual sign, I can't say.

We are at the point in the year — the last weeks of Ordinary Time and, now, the first weeks of Advent — when the Church asks us to meditate on time in a particular way: specifically on the reality that time has an end. An objective of many scientists over the years, including Einstein, has been to prove that matter is eternal, the universe stable — without beginning or end. With that theorem proved it would mean that God was truly an unneeded hypothesis. Yet Einstein looked through a telescope one day and saw that the universe was expanding and so, bright fellow that he was, he understood that the Almighty couldn't be dismissed quite so easily. Whether he came to believe that time had an end, I can not say, but he clearly knew in that moment that it had a beginning. That time having a beginning necessitates that it has an eventual end, I'm not enough of a philosopher to argue, but Faith tells us that indeed it does. Such thoughts often fill us with dread, since time is all we know. While the words of Jesus on these matters rightly give us pause, we should emerge from our meditation with a sense of hope rather than fear.

We should also walk away from any meditation on the End Times aware that there is no date set on the calendar for when the world as we know it will come to an end. I believe that it was St. Augustine who wrote that the Lord allows all eras to believe that they are, or at least may be, living during the apocalypse so that they may stay ready and alert. If we knew that Jesus’ return wouldn't happen until 2525, to pick a random date, it would change our entire way of dealing with both heavenly and earthy realities. My guess is that we would both put off conversion, in spite of the knowledge that our own personal end is certain though it's timing unknown, and leave the injustices of the world to sit, since we would know for certain that the Lord would be back to put it all aright. But we don't know if this is the time of Visitation, so we are more likely to stay ready. We do (or should) concern ourselves with the commonweal, since the odds are we will be filling out the totality of our days in the world as it is, as will our children — and we want this to be the best world it can be for us and for future generations. If the Lord does return, he will want to see faithful stewardship. 

Strangely, many people seem to be more easily preoccupied over the End of Days than over their personal end. The odds against this being the time of the Lord’s return are incalculable, while the the chances that we will die are certain. What these two events have in common is that we can't say for certain when either will take place. Another similarity is that we shouldn't be morbidly curious about either. Maintaining a healthy awareness — yes, but idle curiosity or getting caught up in esoteric speculations are a waste of time. 

There is another extreme, promoted by some contemporary spiritual writers, that says that we shouldn't think about these things at all, especially about Jesus’ return and what Heaven will be like. We need to be completely invested in this world while we are in it, and any thoughts of the world to come are a distraction from the vital works of justice and peace that we should be performing in Jesus’ name. This attitude is essentially a tip of the hat to Marx, and his critique of religion as escapist narcotic. Well, I never thought much of Marx, and never understood why we need to answer him — or, more precisely, placate him and his disciples. The beauty of Catholicism is that it isn't nearly as black and white as her critics, and it would seem even some of her practitioners, would claim. Being invested in this world doesn't have to mean ignoring the World to come. Jesus certainly talked about it enough, while also making it clear that we are to be proactive members of our earthly society. The two realities are actually linked, with how we dedicate our self to justice and peace here and now effecting how we will live in eternity. 

We shouldn't get side tracked by fantasizing of the world to come, true. At the same time we are given these times of the liturgical year to pay special attention to the deeper, unseen realities. Advent, Lent and Easter are like little transfigurations that are meant to give us glimpses of the future. These glimpses are meant to give us hope. Our work in this world can seem hard and unproductive. We can put blood, sweat and tears into a project, just to see it fail. We can be frustrated like the apostles at the bottom of Mount Tabor who struggled unsuccessfully to exorcise a demon. Jesus and the chosen three had just come down from the mount of Transfiguration, Peter, James and John having seen the Lord in His glory. After the brief ecstasy came the return to the hard, drawn out slog of life. In this particular case, they returned to see the disciples fighting with one another over what was going wrong. But with that glimpse of Jesus with Moses and Elijah on either side, they could see that  all the sacrifices would be worth it. They saw that we don't live in a closed in system, and all the efforts, even the failures, lead to something greater if we put our trust in Christ.

While our hope is in eternity, we do still live in time. Advent is given to us as a glimpse of the future, but also a reminder that the moment is now to respond to God’s call. In these first weeks of Advent we meditate on John the Baptist’s call to repentance. It is a call that is time sensitive. More on this giant figure of the Baptist and his warning to repent now, while there is still time, coming soon.