I must admit, I was not wildly in love with Charles Williams’ Descent into Hell when I first started reading it, or even after I had read it, but I’m finding a fascination with his strange understanding of time. I believe it is an idea that grips every human being in a moment of awe and wonder at how the dimension of time works, ends, begins, or just is.
As Christians, we believe and understand that God is not bound by the dimension of time like we are; He is the same yesterday, today, and forever, the beginning and the end. The moment that we realize in the book that Pauline is actually taking on the burden, the fear, of her ancestor 350 years after his martyrdom seems so far-fetched; yet, at the same time it makes all the sense in the world. Thomas Howard put my thoughts on paper about this idea in Williams’ work when he reminds us about the faith that saved Abraham is still the same faith that saves us today. The Cross has been our point of salvation since Adam and Eve. Faith in the Savior is what saves no matter what time is doing because God is greater than that.
So, Pauline carries a burden 350 years after its victim has died and yet it was still taking place. Just because we are bound by time does not mean that history is. People who visit the Pearl Harbor memorial have often said they get a strange feeling when they are there, standing over the graves of our lost soldiers because in that moment it is as if time has stood still and they are still dying. What if we could carry the burdens of those who have gone before us? What if I prayed for God to strengthen our brother Paul while he was in prison? As crazy as it sounds, God is not bound by time and can still, or did, answer that prayer. One more thing, I found it interesting that Pauline shares Paul’s name and his writing is what her salvation in the story was based on; sharing each other’s burden.
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So are you then suggesting that we should pray for the dead or for past events? Yes, God is eternal and he is above and beyond time...but at the same heh,time, he is also within it. This is very important and critical to our understanding God. God is not looking over past, present, and future like Boethius supposed, but rather is he is in the eternal "present." God is always in the present; his name? I AM, not I WAS or I WILL BE (even though that is true), he is eternally in the "now." We as human beings are on a time line and for us at least time is linear. Therefore, the notion of praying for the dead or something in past, is I believe, unattainable.
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't say that it's unattainable. Sure, it sounds crazy to pray for a dead person, but God's power is not only in the "now." I agree that His names are in the present tense, but who are we to say that someone like Paul can't hear our prayers? It's not up to us to decide where God's boundries of time exist.
ReplyDeleteNo, it is not. But we are never asked to pray for a dead person or a past event. We are asked simply to recall into our memories; to take not of their example. Even if God is the way Laura describes, we are not and we are not commanded to view or influence time in this manner. Since, we are not then we must assume that we cannot or that even if we do it is unattainable.
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