Part II: Redeeming the Days
the recapitulation of time and eternity in Christ; the Church's mission to transfigure time and space.
This is part of a larger series on time and eternity. This installment focuses on the recapitulation of time and eternity in Christ, and the function of time in the Church. The Third will discuss time, eternity, and God’s eternality from a more metaphysical perspective. Because the Orthodox Church does not believe in an academic theology divorced from the mystical experience of God, it is possible a fourth installment will appear in time (no pun intended) focusing on the spiritual importance and applicability of the Church’s teaching on time to our own lives.
Christ: The Alpha and Omega
All of what we have covered thus far, from the fall to the conceptions of time developed among the nations, was known by God before the ages, and the creation came to be with the goal of its redemption and transfiguration.
In other words, creation, and therefore time, comes to its fulfillment in Christ. The implications of this are much greater than they may appear at first glance.
We often reduce the economy of salvation to “Jesus died for your sins, so believe in Him and you'll be saved, i.e., go to heaven when you die.” This is not the Gospel. Perhaps it would be if death were natural, but death is unnatural.
The Gospel is the message of God the Word’s victory over sin and death; eternal life does not occur to disembodied souls in heaven, but in our glorified bodies in a renewed creation.
If time was always made to open up to eternal life for mankind, then the Gospel and the whole of the divine economy of man’s salvation is, therefore, the redemption of time and its reopening to eternal life.
On the Cross, Christ pronounces “it is finished.” What is finished? In passing, we may simplify this to His death for our sins. While that is certainly true, to leave it at that would be a failure to see beyond a strictly literal, modern historical reading. Christ calls us to look deeper. Let us return to the beginning.
Time and History: Recapitulated in Christ
Christ intentionally, meticulously retraced the actions of Israel during His earthly sojourn. He fulfills all of the types and struggles of the Old Testament by recreating them in righteousness. In doing so, Christ recapitulates the journey of Israel, putting an end to their unfaithfulness by His faithfulness. Thus, the incarnation of the pre-eternal Logos gives history its meaning.
In Genesis Joseph is carried into Egypt, where Israel becomes enslaved, in bondage to the gods of Egypt and their king. God then brings Israel through the Red Sea into the Sinai desert for forty years, where they commit three major acts of unfaithfulness: they grumble against God for food; they worship the golden calf; they demand a sign of God’s protection and providence.
By contrast, Christ is taken by Joseph into Egypt, revealing Himself by passing through the waters of the Jordan before going into the desert for 40 days. In the desert, He refuses Satan’s temptation to grumble against His Father for bread, He refuses to worship Satan, He refuses to jump from the pinnacle for a “sign” of God’s protection.
Christ is not here playing a game of images, Typology is more than just a similitude of symbols, but expresses a real participation.
And this is precisely what we are seeing in the sacrificial system: the participation of Israel in the economy of salvation fulfilled in Christ.
God does not need our whole burnt bulls and goats, but “a broken spirit, a heart that is broken and humbled,” and yet God commands Israel to offer a plurality of sacrifices.1 While in these we do see patterns which teach us things about Christ, to presume that God made generation after generation offer sacrifices - killing those who offered even incense improperly2 - just so that you and I could say “look at how the two kids of the Day of Atonement ritual tell us about Christ’ two natures,” is.. a stretch to put it nicely.
These are not mere symbols, but sources of an anticipatory participation in the coming mystery. It is in performing these sacrifices - an action of faith - that the people of Israel bought into the incarnation. It was by these, actualized on the cross, that He came and released them from the tomb. “Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered his son Isaac upon the altar? You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by works.”3
This was the calling out of Israel to Christ on the Cross, “remember us O’ Lord when Thou comest into Thy kingdom.” Now clearly this was not equal to the Eucharist, nor did it overcome death as that would not happen until they were fulfilled in the coming of the God Man, but it allowed them a level of participation in potentia; they are actualized in Christ and in the liturgical life of the Church, the reconstituted Israel.
This was always the “plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in Him, things in Heaven and on Earth.”4 Christ recapitulates all of human history, giving full meaning to the cosmic cycles recognized by Jew and Gentile alike - taking these seeds of truth to full blossom.
“Because He had created a completely pure time in which man could take shape, and because this first time was stained by sin and was corrupted when man transgressed, despoiling the time to come, God took hold of the first times for the purpose of rectifying man, so that at the same time as he purified man… He also purified the age to come, even from its point of departure.” - Gregory of Nazianzus, Paschal Homilies III
Philo of Alexandria, a prominent Jewish thinker born in 15 BC, tells us that rebirth of reaction during springtime marked the anniversary of creation for the Jewish people. Springtime is a sign from God meant to remind mankind of the time of paradise and the promise of redemption.5
It is then no coincidence that the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ, the paschal lamb slain before the foundation of the world, takes place at the first new moon - the first-born moon of spring. God does nothing by coincidence. St. Gregory of Nazianzus tells us that “Christ must rise from the dead at the precise instant of time at which sin entered.” Christ rises indeed.
He rises with Adam and Eve from the tomb, along with all of those who waited during the time of expectation. At the moment in which Adam was cast out of Paradise, the New Adam shepherds mankind - those who have gone forth and multiplied in faith of His coming - back into Paradise.
Christ fulfills man’s original vocation in the Harrowing of Hades. The anniversary of creation and man’s fall into death becomes the anniversary of rebirth and the descent of life on mankind. Christ has broken the historical continuum without breaking time and has become the very axis of history. He has not reversed time but has opened it up by His Presence.
Christ the Logos, as fully God is present in the Ever-Existence (What the Fathers call the Aidion6) of the Holy Trinity; being fully man He is present in temporal existence with us. Christ grabs hold of these moments of creation and the fall and redeems them by breaking the hold of death on them and restoring them to the paradisiacal moment in a cyclical return. All the cycles of time in nature and in Scripture come to their fulfillment in Him.
“Cyclical time is released from the despair that drove man to flee into the impersonal and is henceforth inserted into the liturgy of the Living God, whose Incarnation has sanctified and made clear the meaning of each instant of cosmic time. Cyclical time is no longer rooted in nostalgia for the beginning: instead it is oriented, in the eschatological perspective, towards the expectation of the End, in which we are already participants in Christ.” -Olivier Clement, Transfiguring Time, pg. 93
Thus, the dawn becomes an image of the coming of the Sun of Righteousness, who will be our light when night will be no more.7 Dusk becomes a reminder of His ascension, and that this world is passing away, giving way to the new, transfigured heaven and earth. This is the time we, as Christians have since the earliest times, sing an ancient hymn to Christ: “O Gladsome Light,” in recognition of and thanksgiving for God’s providence and protection of His creation.
In the original world order, God made the light of resurrection appear on the first day after the Sabbath in accordance with the sequence of time. Sunday is the first day as well as the eighth day, the beginning and the end, the moment eternity gives birth to time and the moment when eternity welcomes time back into itself. Time becomes history, and by the forgiveness of future sins all time is fulfilled. Therefore, “it [mankind's time of waiting] is finished.”
Human nature is taken on by the Son of God in His Person and purified, deified by coming into contact with His divinity. Christ, as perfect man, becomes the bridge which restores life not only to mankind, but to all creation.
His redemption is not a mere forgiveness of individuals, but a redemption of the cosmos themselves.
Redeemed Time
And yet, time continues. Death remains, does it not?
This is something which puzzles a lot of people who, perhaps even nominally Christian their whole lives, are unfamiliar with the teaching of the Church and the experience of God’s grace within Her. The Resurrection of Christ creates a sort of incision in fallen time, an opening into a redeemed time which serves as a vessel of eternity.
These two times now run parallel in the lives of two different races of men: the race of fallen Adam in which death reigns, and the Christian race, sons of the Most High who are predestined to eternity. Time emerges from the tomb of Christ as a sacred instrument in which mankind can again move towards the Eternal God.
This is absolutely essential because love requires a free response, a freely willed movement towards the lover - one cannot force another to love, as that would be a false love, slavery. The purpose of time and space was always to provide man with the means of reciprocating God’s love.
Redeemed time, then, becomes what time was always meant to be: the interval between God’s proclamation to man of His inexhaustible love and man’s response, man’s rushing into the loving embrace of the Ever-Existent One, that love is Divine Eternity. “And this is the life-everlasting, that they would know Thee, the one true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent.”8 Bodily death, which previously led only to the abyss of nonbeing, is now the gateway to being, to eternal life.
All that remains is for you to enter into the bosom of the Church, the Bride of God. There is no better time to do so than now, because now is all we have ever had.
Time and the Church
Man’s vocation was always to fill the earth and subdue it, to bring the world into Paradise. As the New Adam and the pinnacle of what it means to be fully human, Christ takes on this mission. The Church, as the living and glorified Body of Christ, is the vessel of this work. The true Ark of Salvation.
The Church is not a human organization or a sociological phenomenon, but a diachronic (trans-temporal) organism in which the Parousia - the Second Coming - is already present.
Pentecost is crucial in our understanding of this. Christ, the head of the Body, directs and works synergistically with the Church through the action of the Holy Spirit in time and history. And where Christ unites time and eternity by being both God and Man, the Spirit makes Christ’s eternity present in the time of the Church through her sacred liturgy and the mysteries. By doing so, He actualizes the rebirth of its members and guides their steps into the fullness of the mystery of Christ.
While the Church moves within secular fallen time, it experiences time differently, having a time of its own. This time is a reflection of the Presence of God - which is Divine Eternity - as we will discuss in part III. Secular time still serves a function, being a gateway into the Church; but the Church itself, as the wellspring of Life, flows into eternity. This is a fundamental transformation of the structures of time.
Liturgical Time
The liturgical cycle of feasts and services of the Church actuate the work of the divine economy in the present, sanctifying the time and lives of this generation of believers. Simultaneously, she integrates the lives of individual Christians into the life of Christ, orienting them towards the eschaton.
This all may sound far out to those used to thinking of time in Newtonian terms, but even modern science abandoned this notion of absolute time when Einstein demonstrated that time is relative to a number of factors.9 Time is not an objective measurement but a deeply existential journey, delving into the essence of human existence and the very fabric of life. This is precisely why the fundamental notion of the temporal momentum, understood by human life and existence, defies incorporation into the laws of physics.
The Church’s diachronic life allows a real participation in the life of Christ and His redemption of history. This occurs within the daily, weekly, and annual cycles which make up the Church’s liturgical calendar. The immovable feasts mark specific dates of Christ’s salvific interventions into history, rooting the Church in historical time; the moveable feasts stand apart from historical time and raise man above it.
We see this most of all in the feast of feasts: Pascha - Easter in English. Pasha itself has no fixed date and is the central axis upon which the rest of the year is fixed liturgically - just as the planting of the Cross on Golgotha is the axis of history. The action of the Holy Spirit ensures that these are not mere commemorations, but points of tangible participation. When we celebrate Christmas, we are made present at His birth, and on Pascha made present at Christ’s rising from the tomb.
This is expressed in the recurring proclamation of “today” in their hymns and prayers.
“Today the Virgin giveth birth to Him Who is transcendent in essence.”10 “Thou hast appeared today unto the whole world, and Thy light, O lord, hath been signed upon us.”11 “Today is the fountainhead of our salvation and the manifestation of the mystery which was from eternity.”12
These are not vain symbols, or some high theological point divorced from experience - which theology, in the Orthodox conception, can never be - but is confirmed by the miracles which accompany these events, such as the revelation of the Holy Fire in the Holy Sepulcher every Pascha, by the Jordan reversing its flow every Theophany.
These are the fruits born from the Church’s tithe of time.
Whereas in the Old Covenant Israel tithed ten percent of its material possessions to God, in the New Covenant, we offer - in addition - our spiritual possessions. One tenth of the life of the Church is taken up in the intense fasting, prayer and repentance of Great Lent.13 Like the forty years Israel wandered in the desert, this is a time when the Church purifies herself in preparation of coming into the land of promise.
We each go into great lent carrying the burdens of the past year, our setbacks and defeats - paying no attention to “our victories” which belong wholly to God alone - and in the wine press of prayer and fasting the Lord relieves us of our burdens that we, together with all the saints, may enter into the joyful feast to come.
Liturgy: the Cosmic Cycle fulfilled
The liturgical cycle of the Church is also the fulfillment of the cyclical cosmic vision and hope for escape which archaic religion tried in vain to offer the people of the nations but was incapable of doing by its enslavement to death. In the divine liturgy, the Church prays for seasonable weather, for the abundance of the fruits of the earth, and for peaceful times.14
When missionaries arrived in Alaska, for example, the native Aleuts and Tlingit people themselves saw the Church’s sanctification of creation and thanksgiving to God for the fruits of the earth as a natural fulfillment of their own ritual life. They saw this connection because it was there: It was always Christ, the Logos of all creation, whom nature was proclaiming and whose energies filled all things. The seeds of truth contained in archaic creation stories and in the natural world were planted there by God to lead them to the Church at the fullness of time. It is for this reason that Paul says none will be blameless at the judgment. 15
The Church blesses the sowing of fields and the harvest of its fruits, it blesses the rivers, lakes, and seas. Day after day we gather to offer thanksgiving to God and to pray for our cities, towns and villages and this takes place hour after hour as the world turns - redeeming the days themselves. Many have said that the whole world is upheld only by the unceasing prayer of the Church, and when the Church’s liturgy ceases to be served, so does time and history.
The faithful exorcize the cosmos by building temples and shrines, placing icons in their homes, planting crosses on hillsides, beaches, on the trees of the forests; monastics go out into the deserts, ensuring that even these are not safe havens for the demons. In doing so we roll back the spiritual deserts of the world, holding at bay the chaos which seeks to envelope the world and everything in it. The creation awaits the coming of the sons of God, and in the Church’s worship and evangelical life, it comes and restores the cosmos to its Logos, Christ, who will make all things new when He comes again.
The Mysteries: Theophanic Time
“Wisdom built her house, and she has supported it with seven pillars. She offered her sacrifices; She mixed her wine in a bowl and prepared her table. She sent her servants, inviting people to the bowl with a lofty proclamation saying, “he who is without discernment, let him turn aside to me’; And to those in need of discernment she says, “Come, eat my bread and drink the wine I mixed for you; forsake lack of discernment and you shall live.” - Proverbs 9:1-6 (LXX)
In the mysteries of the Church time itself is deified and becomes the kairos (the opportune time or instance for a thing) of communion and a gift or man’s renewal.16 This occurs with particular clarity in the eucharist when the Holy Spirit makes the bread and wine into the actual deified flesh and blood of Christ.
As Nicholas Cabisilas reminds us, “true communion consists in this: that the same thing is present simultaneously to both parties.”17 In the eucharist, man transcends space and time to become one with Christ and all who have partaken of Him. This makes effectual Christ’s words, “that they would be one, as you and I are one.18
The Eucharist as a memorial is not a mere remembrance in the sense of a mental recall of a time or place - as we imagine it now in our hyper materialistic worldview. In the Liturgical memorial the Holy Spirit makes us really present in the event, not as a reversal of time but by making them - by the Presence of He who is everywhere present and fillest all things - contemporaneous.19
In this way the bread and wine offered at the Biblical Last Supper are truly the Body and Blood of Christ on the Cross, and it is this bread and wine which is placed before us in the sacred space and time of the Divine Liturgy. In the eucharist, the very unity of the Body of Christ, the Kingdom is revealed and we know Christ in the most intimate of ways. This is again seen in the words “and this is eternal life, that they would know you, the One True God, and Jesus Christ who you have sent.” 20
This is repeated throughout the mysteries of the Church - appropriately named - so that by them we already see the age to come, if only dimly.
If the Church is the Body of Christ and the place of meeting between God and man, then Holy Tradition is the life of the Body, preserving its diachronic (trans-temporal) unity across space and time. Tradition preserves the Church’s unity in history, and initiates those who approach into the mystery of communion with Christ. This life is the life in Christ, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit as it carries out the work of Christ in time. Tradition makes us contemporaneous with those who came before us and those who will come after us.
For the Orthodox Church the Divine Liturgy elevates us to where the Seraphim, the Cherubim, and all the Saints from ages past cry out Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord of Sabaoth, Heavan and Earth are full of Thy Glory! Hosanna! Hosanna in the highest!
The Saints: A Golden Chain of Sanctity
The saints, being themselves vessels of the Holy Spirit, bear witness of Christ’s working in the world by manifesting His love, His goodness, mercy, etc. Each generation of saints plants the Cross - the Tree of Life - in their own time and space. The walls of our temples bear witness to the redemption of days past, and in the Eucharist, they join us in our prayers and work to sanctify our own time and space.
Each generation participating in the life of Christ, manifesting His energies in the world, is joined to the next, creating what St. Simeon the New Theologian calls a golden chain of sanctity from Pentecost to Parousia. For the faithful living in the unfolding present, under attack by the forces of the world, the saints are a pure source of water. Their lives serve as an instructor and guide on our journey to the heavenly kingdom which begins here and now.21
Conclusion
And so, Christ enters into fallen time, the time of absence which resulted from the fall, and redeems time, opening it back up to the time of presence experienced in Paradise. These two parallel times exist simultaneously in creation, which is groaning, awaiting the coming of the sons of God. The Church serves as the gateway for mankind to enter into this redeemed time, which opens up the eternity of God. As time moves forward, cycle by cycle, it is sanctified by Christ and His Church, like the ark sailing on the waters of the flood, waiting for the moment it comes to rest in the new heavens and earth.
And so, time is revealed as a creation of God created for our benefit. Time and space were created to allow man to move towards - or away as history has shown us - from God, though time and space are not equal to movement. Christ is Chronocrator, the Lord of Time. It is incumbent on us to use the time we have been given properly. We must respond to God’s call of love. He has surrounded us in this vast living masterpiece of the universe, as an expression, a gesture of His love. All that we must do is respond.
“Let the heavens be glad, let the earth rejoice, for the Lord hath shown strength with His arm, He has trampled death by death; He has become the firstborn of the dead; He has delivered us from the depths of hell and has granted the world great mercy.” - Troparion of the Resurrection, Tone 3
Psalm 50/51
Leviticus 10:1-2
James 2:21-22
Ephesians 1:10
Philo of Alexandria, the Special Laws
We will dive deeper into the meaning of Aidion in part three.
Revelation 22:5
John 17:3
Stephen Hawking, A Brief History of Time, 1998
Kontakion of the Nativity
Kontakion of the Theophany
Troparion of the Annunciation
Dorotheos of Gaza; Discourses, XV
Liturgy of John Chrysostom
Romans 2:14-16
What the Fathers, and the Orthodox Church today, call the Mysteries (Mysterion) are, broadly speaking, synonymous with the sacraments of western theology. There is a fair bit of nuance which differentiates them. But that’s not a topic I can do justice to in a footnote.
Nicholas Cabisilas, The Life in Christ; Saint Vladimir Seminary Press
John 17:11
The Apostles knew precisely what Christ meant when He said “do this in remembrance of Me.” It was an explicitly sacrificial commandment, mirroring the exact verbiage used in the Torah. We miss it on account of translation and culture. This is why Sola Scriptura is such an absurd doctrine. It robs us of understanding - as reading it an interpretive act in which we interpret symbols in the context of our own time and culture unless guided otherwise - and in doing so, it robs the Gospel of its power.
For an Orthodox critique of Sola Scriptura, see “Sola Scriptura: An Orthodox Analysis of the cornerstone of Reformation Theology,” By Fr. John Whiteford; Conciliar Press
John 17:3
Elder Macarius of Optina, Fr. Leonid Kavelin; St. Herman’s Press, 1973