Time & Eternity – The Catholic Thing

In the 12^th and 13^th centuries, monks developed some of the first fully mechanical clocks. Their purpose was simple. The monks would come to chapel seven times a day to chant the praises of God and intercede for the world. Clocks enabled them to do so in a more precise, disciplined, and uniform way. With these time pieces, they could, in effect, harness time and better place it at the service and praise of God.

Now, consider what has become of the clock and our treatment of time. For the monks, time was given to God – in work, study, recreation, and prayer. For us, it’s mercantile and worldly. We punch the clock and bill hours. We hate it when people waste our time, because time is money. But we do not mind killing time ourselves.

The monks developed clocks so that they could consecrate time to God more deliberately. They understood that time has significance because of eternity, because the Eternal One has entrusted it to our stewardship and care, for His glory and our sanctification.

We, with the most advanced watches, timers, and clocks, have cut God out of time. The results are not surprising. As with any created reality, once time is wrenched from the purpose of its Maker, then it becomes either a god that devours us or a slave that we abuse. So, we find ourselves either enslaved to the clock or killing time.

The season of Advent that begins today is all about time. It affords us an opportunity to consider how we view and use ours. “You know the time,” says Saint Paul. (Romans 13:11). Well, we might know what time it is, but we don’t really know what time is.

Advent points us to a future time. It looks to when our Lord will come again. Which is why all the readings have, not the Christmasy theme that most people expect after Thanksgiving, but a warning about the end of the world and Christ’s Second Coming. In this sense, the Catholic Church is the most forward-looking institution in the world – looking to the most distant future, the end of the world.

“[Y]ou also must be prepared, for at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come.” (Matthew 24:44) That’s a sobering instruction. The Church’s view of the future is not the progressive’s arc of history that bends toward justice. There’s no inevitable improvement in human goodness and virtue. On the contrary, the Church sees the world’s situation worsening as we approach the Lord’s coming.

Ironically, Advent prepares us for that dire moment of the future by remembering the warmest and most beautiful moment of the past, the Incarnation. His coming again in glory is simply the fulfillment and consummation of what He accomplished at His first coming. If we prepare for His birth well – if we “conduct ourselves properly as in the day, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in promiscuity and lust, not in rivalry and jealousy” (Romans 13:13) – then we will be able to stand firm for His second.

This happens now. It is in the present that the past and the future meet and take on meaning. Now, in the present moment, we recall God’s past works to prepare for His future coming.

This also explains the Church’s liturgical year, which begins today. Yes, the Church still observes the calendar year that begins on January 1, and the Vatican does have a fiscal year. But the Church doesn’t really measure time by the world or the market. She measures time by her Liturgy – by her yearly walk with our Lord through His life.

Beginning today, the Church undertakes her annual remembrance of Jesus’ life: preparing for and celebrating His birth, contemplating His life, preaching, and miracles – and most of all accompanying Him in His Passion, death, Resurrection, Ascension, and gift of the Holy Spirit.

Time is given to us for this purpose – so that we can come to know Jesus Christ more intimately and conform our thoughts, words, and actions increasingly to His. And because this side of Heaven we will never do it perfectly, we recommit ourselves to trying again – year after year.

Time is not money. It’s much more important than that. It is God’s gift to us so that we can know Him better. It is the opportunity to repent – to leave sin in the past and to cultivate virtue. It is the opportunity to forgive – to leave resentments and grudges in the past and bring charity into the future. It is the opportunity to grow in grace – to increase in our knowledge and love of Jesus Christ and our commitment to Him. If we’re not using our time for this purpose, then we’re wasting it.

The clock began in a monastery and ended up on a time sheet. But we can reverse this. We can use our time – and all our timing devices – not merely for worldly pursuits but for God. We have timers and alarms and reminders on all our gadgets. They remind us of appointments, anniversaries, tasks, and so on. We could also use them to remind us to pray or read Scripture, of a feast, or to go to Confession, and so on.

The beginning of Advent is a summons to be good stewards of time, neither worshipping it nor abusing it, but harnessing it for His glory and our good.