Sunday, March 9, 2014

time is not the devourer of all things

"Hence the Christian is not afraid of the clock, nor is he in cunning complicity with it. The Christian life is not really a “victory over time” because time is not and cannot be a real antagonist. Of course, the Christian life is a victory over death: but it is a victory which accepts death and accepts the lapse of time that inevitably leads to death. But it does this in a full consciousness that death is in no sense a “triumph of time.” For the Christian, time is no longer the devourer of all things. Christian worship is at peace with time because the lapse of time no longer concerns the Christian whose life is “hidden with Christ in God.”
Merton, Thomas (2010-04-01). Seasons of Celebration (p. 47). Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Kindle Edition.

2 comments:

  1. Good quote about time by Asha Tyson this a.m. on Gratefulness website: http://www.gratefulness.org/word/index.htm

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    1. thanks for that good quote, James. It seems to me that our squirrel-iness about time is rooted in fear of death. Time running out. Not enough time. Tick tock. I'm reaching thru Merton's thought on time to find another way of knowing time. Interestingly he places it right in the center of Liturgy (which is not my strong suit).

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