In our studies in Philosophy at Allen Hall Seminary this term, we have been exploring themes in the philosophical origins of the universe, and the interface between religious and scientific accounts of creation. These are weighty matters, which cause the brain to hurt from time to time. However, one of the vexing experiences of the consequences of creation is time … “like an everrolling stream, it bears its sons away” … to quote the famous Remembrance Day hymn. To our common everyday perception, time is continuous, consistent, and reliable. However, there is no reason to think that this is the case in other distant parts of the universe, especially as we approach black holes. These phenomena give us hints of what the conditions may have been in the early stages of the ‘old universe’.

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Albert Einstein taught us to rethink our concepts of time and space, or spacetime, as a continuum which helps define our expanding universe. As we have ended the Christian Year with the celebration of Christ the King, then we contemplate the universal Lordship of Jesus in both space and time. Looking backwards and forwards, Jesus is the culmination of salvation history in both directions. In terms of space, and the possibility of life on other planets, then Jesus would also be Lord of those communities also. Just how He would reveal Himself and make Himself known to those lifeforms is open to vast speculation, but these are the natural consequences of our faith: we do not worship a local deity, but a Universal King.

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The Sunday Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, Universal King, is an annual and solemn reminder that we have an objective belief and trust that God is in control of the “changes and chances of this fleeting world”, that we “may repose upon [the] eternal changelessness” of the Lord (DW:DO - Compline). Our liturgical cycle, unlike the passage of time, is not linear but cyclic. We have come full circle and completed Year B, and now embark on Year C – the Year of St Luke. Each of our liturgical cycles is complete and contained, and allows us an ‘immersive’ experience of the visible phase of Jesus’ time on earth. However, that completeness stretches out beyond the confines of the pages, and into eternity. The eternal, yet once-for-all sacrifice of Jesus on behalf of fallen and sinful humanity, is not simply a historical event in human spacetime, but an eternal event: “The Church constantly draws her life from the redeeming sacrifice; she approaches it not only through faithfilled remembrance, but also through a real contact, since this sacrifice is made present ever anew, sacramentally perpetuated, in every community which offers it at the hands of the consecrated minister”. (John Paul II, Ecclesia De Eucharistia, 12) 

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Each time we attend mass then, we enter the eternity which is God’s superessential nature: “The eternal offering he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption” (Hebrews 9:12).

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The concept of eternity, arising out of an expanding universe 13.7 billion years old, is not something that we consider all too often. The reality of the eternal dimension of the mass is brought into focus as each Advent we wait in anticipation for the Incarnation – the God/Man event - which draws earth and the whole of creation up to heaven.

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