Part One: This is not a theological statement nor an offical statement or creed. It's a short and simple reflection on God in ordinary language from a Catholic perspective. After everything's said and done, God is the ultimate Word.
ABOUT TIME
Time begins and time ends. Outside of it, God only knows! So what can we briefly say to describe God?
Before anything came into being, there alone is God - unique, eternal, the unity of the one Perfect Lover, the one Perfectly Beloved and the one Perfection of Love itself, each being distinct, each personal, dynamic and communitable and all that is. In our present common language, we describe the one and timeless God as "The Trinity of Father, Son and Holy Spirit".
God created time. We simply refer to all time as the "beginning", the "now" and the "shall be". In the beginning, God brought into existence space and the whole universe.
IN OUR OWN TIME
One particular creature within the whole of creation, whom we today call humans, were uniquely infused with a divine gift of the freedom to personally know, love and respond to God. Our history has naturally demonstrated, that without freely asking for aid from God, our personal choices would bring disorder to creation and suffering and death to ourselves.
IT WAS TIME
God's eternal love always foresaw our need to be saved by him and from ourselves. Throughout history God entered into particular relationships with various individuals and people, such as Abraham, Moses and the Hebrew and Jewish people. They would be instrumental in providing the context for God to personally enter into this world in a unique way, aiding humanity and creation to its perfected goal of complete union with Him.
SAVING TIME
At a particular moment in human history, the Divine Beloved embodied human existence in the womb of a particular virgin whose name was Mary. God had chosen her from the beginning and prepared her both physically and spiritually for this task.
The divine child conceived in her womb by the power of the Eternal Love (the Holy Spirit) was born from the virgin and named Jesus.
Knowing himself as the Eternal Beloved of God the Father, Jesus described himself as the Son of God and the Son of Man. Among us he communicated through every fiber of his body and presence, through his words, his power and whole life, the eternal and faithful love of God for humanity and all creation, despite our failures and limitations. Called, "Christ", which means the Anointed One - the Messiah, Jesus embodied the Mercy of God for all humanity and creation.
JUST IN TIME
On the night before he made the ultimate sacrifice of his life on the cross which would send divine shockwaves back through the past, into the present and out towards the future of humanity and all creation, Christ gathered a select number of his disciples together. At his "Last Supper", he told them "Do this in memory of me". What he did then, we also do every Sunday. It serves to influence everything we do.
After Christ was crucified and died on the cross on Friday and was buried, he resurrected from the dead in a perfected and glorified physical body. He returned to that upper room where his disciples remained. To their amazement, Christ demonstrated he was not a ghost or figment of their imagination - he was real.
Those first disciples, and many more, recalled how, having upset the natural order of creation, the resurrected Christ talked with them, ate with them and walked with them before he finally left their sight and entered into the heavenly realm.
Before doing so, Christ gave further instructions to his new formed Church - to give witness to him throughout the world in every generation. The ancient Greek term "Catholic" means universal. It's the best adjective to describe the Church as its message of salvation was and still is universal - for all people regardless of culture or place in history. To that end, God shared himself through and with his disciples by sealing their hearts with the divine power and personality of his Perfect Love - the Holy Spirit.
PRESENT TIME
That original small Church, assured permanence by Christ through a promise he made to Saint Peter and his fellow apostles two thousand years ago, remains that one and same Church of today. Described as his one Bride, the Church, although at times having to endure the sinfulness of her members, has never been abandoned by Christ the Bridegroom who loves her as his Bride in good times and in bad times, in sickness and in health.
Through an unbroken historical timeline, the apostle Peter's 265th successor Pope Francis, the present Bishop of Rome, leads and gives witness to that same Church today. At this time throughout the world, there are a 1.2 billion Christians united to the Catholic Church today - united in their faith in the God who saves us.
Catholic Christians can never and should never forget the enduring words Christ spoke to his beloved Church - "Do not be afraid. I am with you always - to the end of time".
MAKING GOOD TIME
Everything we can now possibly do ultimately points away from or towards the perfect divine love of the eternal God - the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Use your time now to find and accept God's healing mercy and love for you. To be united to the mind, body and soul of Christ, especially through what Catholics call the Blessed Sacrament, the Mass, is to enter a sacred space where time and eternity embrace. Offer your own gift of time to God through his Church. Finding and give encouragement along the way on a journey with Christ and his present day disciples towards a new heaven and a new earth, to a world without end.
WHEN I'M OUT OF TIME
Our faith, hope and love will guide us, even through death, into eternity with God. Without him at our side step by step, that could be hell. Let's not go there! Go here instead.