The word "eternity" is no longer popular. Does eternity not belong to that well-known opiate that intoxicates a person and prevents them from engaging in the present and devoting their efforts to worldly tasks? Although the glory of Marxism has faded, its principles still influence us. We are afraid of fleeing from reality. There is so much to do here and now in the present. Is it not wiser to do what is possible right now in the moment, rather than dreaming of an uncertain eternity? - Such reflections are evidence that our understanding of eternity is flawed.
What is eternity?
Let us first reflect on what eternity is not. Eternity does not mean that time is unlimited. This is how we imagine eternity. We envision it as time that has neither beginning nor end. God lives and reigns "from eternity to eternity." There is no boundary either to the right or to the left. If we understand divine eternity as being without end, we make God very small. Characteristic of time is the sequence of events. Time means change, development. To live in time means always development, something is becoming. However, God is. In God there is no growth or ripening. God has everything and at the same time is everything. In God there is no past nor present. God always lives in the present.
Thomas Aquinas quotes Boethius, who distinguishes between "nunc fluens" and "nunc stans." "Nunc fluens" (flowing, fluid presence) is the moment between what was and what is coming. The present moment flows away like water in a river. "Nunc stans" (standing presence), on the other hand, is immobile. It is precisely this "nunc stans" - moment that characterizes the divine essence.
Characteristic of time are movement, change, fragmentation, while eternity is characterized by stability, density, perfection. Time is often compared to the base of a high mountain. The peak of the mountain is indeed a unique moment of eternity. From the top of the mountain, God sees, with a single glance, all events in time, generation after generation, parading before his eyes. Or we can recall W. A. Mozart (1756–1791), who had - according to contemporary witnesses - entire symphonies "stored" in his head before he then immortalized them on paper "in time."
For many people, the concept of eternity is associated with the idea of boredom. In the immobile moment of the present, there is no room for exciting discoveries. When everything is concentrated into a single moment, nothing new can happen anymore. These same people often have difficulty believing in the promise of eternal bliss in heaven. How can someone be happy in heaven when for all eternity they have nothing else to do but sing "holy, holy, holy"? Does not this need for change and variety spring from a feeling of dissatisfaction, from the awareness that we are always missing something? If all gaps are filled and all needs satisfied, then we no longer chase after something new.
God radiates calm and peace precisely because he is eternal. Connection with Him gives us flavor, and needs tied to time are uninteresting to us. Then we say: "Whom have I in heaven but You! And when I have You, I desire nothing on earth" (Psalm 73:25), none of the limited satisfactions that time gives us.
By so often praying that our deceased "rest in peace," we tend to associate the concept of calm and peace with death. However, God's peace is not the peace of death, but rather the absolute harmony of full life. What we call "prayer for peace" is precisely the means to at least for a moment immerse ourselves in this eternity and enjoy the total absence of any feeling of dissatisfaction.
The antithesis of eternity: flowing time
"Time flows like water," we often say. What captivates us most about the thought of time is its transience. Here on earth, everything is fleeting. Events are like clouds that come and immediately float away. Sometimes, when we feel happy in life, we would like to say with Faust: "Stay a while, you are so beautiful." However, time mercilessly continues to flow, regardless of our entreaties.
Especially when we look back on the past, it seems as if time is rushing by. To a child, a grandmother seems to live indefinitely long, and the thought that one day they will be as old as their grandmother is utterly unbelievable: it is like having the whole eternity ahead of them. But the grandmother remembers her childhood as if it were yesterday, and her whole life seems like a fleeting dream. Everything is completely gone. (Ecclesiastes 5:9–13)
Who among us has not at least once been overcome by the feeling of regret that everything will someday pass away, yes, that most of it has already passed? The share of the past in my life is increasingly large, while the future is increasingly small. The past seems to constantly devour the future. In the end, only the past remains, the unreal, the dream.
In essence, it is not true that man is the master of time. Time only flows through our fingers like sand. One cannot catch it. Time cannot be tamed. It may seem to us that it is nearing us: it is on its way, but as soon as it reaches us, it is already gone. Time is slippery like an eel. We will never manage to grasp it; it will only relentlessly slip out of our hands.
Bare - naked - time, i.e. time stripped of its dimension of eternity, is a curse: it plays hide and seek with man. Against our will. However, man could also play, and that voluntarily. Perhaps he would find a way to break the curse of time. We can let time flow and even float at the same time. Why do we actually try to stop the flow of time? After all, we long "for a better country, a heavenly one" (Hebrews 11:16). "For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the one that is to come" (Hebrews 13:14). And it is precisely there that time leads us! If time did not flow, or if it flowed more slowly, the time of waiting would be much longer. Do we perhaps prefer the prelude to the symphony?
The transience of time can be a blessing for those of us who, along with St. Paul, forget what lies behind and stretch out our hands toward what lies ahead and run toward the goal (Philippians 3:13–14). Indeed, it seems that time itself eagerly reaches out. It does not pause even for a moment, but hurries toward the goal.
Perhaps the fleetingness of time is nothing but the hurried ardor to reach the moment when it dissolves into eternity.
The dimension of eternity in time
But is time really bare, naked? Was it not man himself who "stripped" time and made it so fleeting? The moment of eternity is embedded in time. Time is clothed in the garb of eternity.
Instead of imagining time and eternity as two horizontal lines running parallel to each other and therefore never intersecting, we should see eternity as a vertical line that remains in constant contact with time. The vertical line of eternity stands still while time flows horizontally. At every moment, time touches eternity, and this touch gives time a profound dimension.
Already the ancient man knew that the changing reality contains an element of eternity and permanence. Plato's teaching (427–347 BC) is an attempt to explain why people feel something absolute in their best moments in a world so much variable and fickle. The world of senses is not the entirety of reality. While Plato's ideas create a world of their own, highly exalted above the variable world we perceive with our senses, the New Testament presents a greater realism. Eternal truth is not in the background but in the midst of our reality. The dimension of eternity is a fundamental element of the reality in which we live.
This holds true already at the level of creation. Everything is created not only by God but in God. "In God, all things were created in heaven and on earth" (Colossians 1:16). "For in Him we live and move and exist" (Acts 17:28–29). God is the "inner light that enlightens every man" (John 1:4–9). Traditional theology speaks of the substantial presence of God in all creation. By the act of creation, God gives all created beings a share in His own being. God is the essence of all creation and guides its course to the end.
Every believing person knows that this is true. However, even those who do not believe in God can sense and to a certain extent experience the deep dimension that connects time with eternity - provided they do not let themselves be blinded by the constant change of things and events. Gabriel Marcel (1889–1973) says: "In history, there is a certain transhistorical depth." When we learn to look at creation from this deep perspective, the transience of things need not trouble us. The clearer and freer our vision is from demands and desires, the more clearly we see how the eternal essence shines through everything.
From the Swedish magazine KARMEL 4/92
translated by Dagmar Chvojková
