“Thou wast not, then, yesterday, nor wilt thou be tomorrow; but yesterday and today and tomorrow thou art; or, rather, neither yesterday nor today nor tomorrow thou art; but simply, thou art, outside all time. For yesterday and today and tomorrow have no existence, except in time; but thou, although nothing exists without thee, nevertheless dost not exist in space or time, but all things exist in thee. For nothing contains thee, but thou containest all.” Proslogium, Ch. XIX, Anselm of Canterbury.
I have often come back to these words of Anselm over the past decade. Much of his writing really was of little interest to me, but this has stuck in my mind. It is true, Anselm’s philosophical proof for God’s existence has been easily refuted. These words, however, have been a jumping off point for much of my own philosophy and theology.
What Anselm is saying is quite easy, once you wrap yourself around the antiquated prose. To start, the following must be understood:
1. To be contained by something is to be limited by that thing.
1a. To exist in time is to be contained in time.
2. God is unlimitable.
3. The unlimitable God, therefore, cannot be contained by time.
In addition, Anselm takes for granted that while God is contained by nothing, all things are contained by God. Thus, time is contained by God.
So, to unwrap the opening paragraph, since God is not contained by time, but rather contains all, and thus time, God is outside of time (and thus space.) Therefore, God merely IS. It cannot be said of God that God Was or God Will be. God IS. All things that have ever happened in the past, all that will happen in the future, all these are now to God.
In this understanding then, when we speak of Jesus Christ’s Incarnation, that incarnation is simply God, the Son of God, stepping out of the eternal now of God into time and space. For a time, God exists in time and space.
And so, it is possible for humanity to participate with God in the eternal now because as we experience those element’s of Jesus life, death and resurrection through worship and prayer, we step out of time and space into the presence which is God. We encounter the eternal now of Jesus when we read of his life, and put ourself into the present of the story.
So, when I contemplate what the Christian cults call Eucharist, that Last Supper of which Jesus partook, when I too partake of Eucharist, I am not doing in memory of him, but rather participating in the now of his gift.
On The Road II 