Catholic time travel? Are you kidding me? According to the rational mind, we live in the present age, and time travel is only something we read about in sci-fi novels or see in the movies. But in reality, everyone participates in time travel when we look up at the stars in the night sky. The light from those stars took billions of years to reach us, and what we see may in fact no longer exist. Stars burn out all of the time. One day, every star in the sky will burn out, albeit many, many years in the future. So when we look up in the night sky, our eyes are really time-traveling into the past. But time travel occurs in our modern world in other ways, too!
The Mass
At every Holy Mass celebrated every day (give us this day our DAILY bread!), time travel occurs for Catholics. What was present at the Last Supper on Mount Zion in the upper room now becomes spiritually and physically present to us here in the 21st century. Contrary to Protestant misunderstanding, the priest does not “re-crucify” Jesus on the altar, as if His one-time sacrifice on the cross wasn’t enough. No, the one-time sacrifice of Jesus at the Last Supper, completed on Mount Calvary, now becomes present to us again. Jesus’ words at the Last Supper, “Do ‘THIS’ in remembrance of me,” mean exactly what they say. The word “THIS” doesn’t mean re-creating a future symbolic re-creation of the Last Supper just to think about in thanksgiving for a past event. Rather, “THIS” means to re-create the original Last Supper daily, as a memorial sacrifice of Jesus Christ in honor of His Father in heaven. The Jewish Passover meal was all about remembering and re-creating. The father of the family would ask, “Why is THIS night different from all others?” In other words, the original Passover meal in Egypt was made present once again for all Jewish families all over the world, in whatever time they lived. The Passover meal sacrificed a spotless lamb to God the Father in a liturgical rite to free the Jews from slavery to Pharaoh; in the same manner, the Mass makes present the one-time sacrifice of Jesus, the spotless Passover Lamb (Pilate said, “I find no fault in Him”), to God the Father to free us from slavery to sin and Satan. The Greek word for “remembrance” used in the New Testament is “anamnesis,” which in Hebrew is “zikkaron.”
“Zikkaron” means “A liturgical making-present of a past saving act, where God performs again, in the present, what He did in the past.”
Think of this like you would at Christmas, as if Jesus actually came back as a baby in the flesh every year! Now, we just “recall” the birth of Jesus every December, as in a purely memorial fashion. But if Christmas were “zikkaron,” or “anamnesis,” the physical rebirth of Him through Mary would take place again and again!
Examples of “Zikkaron” or “Anamnesis” in the Old Testament
- Exodus 12:14 — Passover
“This day shall be for you a zikkaron.”
Every generation celebrated the Passover not as a mental recalling of the Exodus, but rather as a present participation in it.
“The LORD did this for me when I came out of Egypt.”
Every Jew participates in the original Exodus, because the liturgical rite makes present the past event.
- Leviticus 24:7 — The Bread of the Presence
The frankincense placed on the Bread of the Presence serves as a “zikkaron” before the LORD. Here the frankincense makes the covenant between God and His chosen people truly present in the sanctuary for every generation.
The trumpets over the sacrifices bring Israel before God as a “zikkaron.” This event is a liturgical re-presentation of the covenant relationship between Moses and the people of God with God.
“He has made His wonders a zikkaron.”
In other words, the chosen people of God are one through time and space, no matter when they are born. They all participate in the original Passover, the Exodus, and the journey into the Promised Land, regardless of when they were born and died. Almighty God is not bound by time and space. This eternal view of God is shared with His people through the miracle of “zikkaron,” or “anamnesis.”
The Sacrifice of Thanksgiving (“Eucharist”)
11 “And this is the law of the sacrifice of peace offerings which one may offer to the Lord. 12 If he offers it for a thanksgiving, then he shall offer with the thank offering unleavened cakes mixed with oil, unleavened wafers spread with oil, and cakes of fine flour well mixed with oil. 13 With the sacrifice of his peace offerings for thanksgiving he shall bring his offering with cakes of leavened bread. 14 And of such he shall offer one cake from each offering, as an offering to the Lord; it shall belong to the priest who throws the blood of the peace offerings. 15 And the flesh of the sacrifice of his peace offerings for thanksgiving shall be eaten on the day of his offering; he shall not leave any of it until the morning.
Since the Eucharist replaces the mannna as the daily bread from heaven in the New Testament, the one-time sacrifice of Jesus becomes present to us just as Moses’ first Passover became present to every Jew through time and space. The Eucharist is truly the daily miracle of the Catholic Church, and Jesus says that if we partake of it, we will live forever!
The Crucifixion
Most of us tend to think that the crucifixion of Jesus happened 2000 years ago; but time does not exist in heaven, only eternity. Every event that ever happened in our past is eternally present to God. Mind boggling, isn’t it? The crucifixion of Jesus is happening at every moment in God the Father’s eyes. So when we look at a crucifix NOW and meditate on the sufferings of Christ, we are giving Jesus aid and comfort THEN while he was on the cross. And he knew our compassion for Him from the cross, because, after all, He is God! With all of the mocking and jeering of Him that was taking place during the crucifixion, knowing that He is getting some consolation through time and space from His followers NOW should give each and every one of us great comfort.
The Rosary
A great way to pray the Rosary is to put yourself in the mystery alongside Mary at the Annunciation, the Visitation, and the Wedding Feast at Cana, for example. In other words, use your imagination to “time-travel” back to her time on earth and visualize the experience with her. Imagine her amazement at being called “Full of Grace;” watch her expression change when Simeon tells her at the Presentation that “a sword will pierce her soul, so that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed;” hear her sobs when Pilate pronounces the words of the death sentence, on God, her Son.
I like to be with Mary at the Annunciation. Imagine a teen-age girl seeing the Archangel Gabriel and him telling her that she is to to be the mother of Jesus!
Standing side by side with Mary at the Visitation when John the Baptist leaps for joy at the sound of her voice fills me with the excitement of that very holy moment.
Being with the blessed Mother in her sorrow during the way of the cross helps me to appreciate just how much my sins contributed to the suffering of Jesus. Seeing His pain through the lens of Mary’s tears at the time is a great way to experience the true meaning of Calvary.
The Holy Rosary includes 20 total mysteries. Experience time-travel in your mind to put yourself with Mary, and you will slowly but surely advance to higher and higher levels of spirituality.
The devil loves to come into our brains though the use of imagination, which is really our weakest link against him. But by forcibly using your mind to time-travel back to the time of Jesus while saying the Rosary, you are denying the devil his daily bread of temptation. Right now, your mind is easy pickings for his suggestions. Through the power of the Rosary and meditation on its mysteries, you can deny him his sustenance, which is a good thing!
Marriage
The Eucharist isn’t the only sacrament where time-travel takes place. Our marriages should also be front and center in our lives each and every day. That sacred vow you took so long ago before God and the priest and family and friends still stands as tall today as on the day when you said the words. You said that you would love, honor, and obey your spouse till death. Of course, now that you’ve lived with that person for so long, the thrill may indeed be gone, but the vow before God still stands. If you break that vow through infidelity, you will have a lot for which to answer. Whenever we are tempted to break our vow of holy matrimony by looking at porn, other women or men, or even worse, flirting and cheating, we should use that ring on our finger like Frodo did in the Lord of the Rings to go into the invisible realm. Only instead of the invisible realm, we should look at our ring and time travel back to the actual day of our marriage and imagine Jesus Himself marrying us. We made a vow before Him that was eternal, and if we break it, we will be no better off than the Israelites in the desert who broke their vow to God and died of snakebites.
Catholic time travel in the Eucharist, looking at the crucifix, saying the Rosary, and remembering your marriage will save your soul from hell and bring you closer to Jesus faster than any other way. All we have to do is use our minds the way God intended for them to be used.
