You’re Not A Long Time Dead

The Scottish proverb, “Be happy while you are living, for you are a long time dead,” has become a popular toast. The Bible includes several similar statements:

 And behold, joy and gladness, killing oxen and slaughtering sheep, eating flesh and drinking wine. “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.” (Isaiah 22:13).

And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry. ( Luke 12:19).

What do I gain if, humanly speaking, I fought with beasts at Ephesus? If the dead are not raised, “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.” (1 Corinthians 15:32).

If There is Nothing After Death, What the Hell ?

In addition to satisfying earthly pleasures, many who say there is nothing after this life go further. They conclude that one can do whatever one wants. There is no virtue, there is no sin. There is no heaven and there is no hell. The Book of Wisdom (2:2-11) has some interesting things to say about such people.

Time: Nonsense or Mystery ?

The truth is that you are not a long time dead. The reason this is true is that, once a person dies, they are no longer in time. There is no time, and no long time, after death. There is only eternity. This is difficult to understand since we here on earth live our whole lives, every moment, in time. Everything is past, present or future – all in time.

Scientists, theologians, and philosophers have proposed all sorts of theories to answer the question “What is time?” Most of these theories admit we all know and experience the passage of time – we speak in terms of things in the past, things happening now, and things anticipated in the future – but there is no theory of time overwhelmingly accepted like the law of gravity, Kepler’s second law, and the laws of thermodynamics.

Although some of the best thinkers cannot agree on a theory of time, as catholics we accept not only that all we do happens in time, but that eventually we will all be “outside” time.” We say again and again, in so many prayers, “forever,” “per omnia saecula saeculorum,” “always,” “evermore,” and “life everlasting.” And we know what we mean without any comprehensive, consistent, or complete scientific theory that attempts to explain time. Like so many things that science is incapable of knowing or explaining, we know and accept the mystery of time. We say together during the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass: “I believe . . . in everlasting life.”

St. Augustine believed the measure of change is time, things exist that change, and these are all things created by God. Without saying what time is, he asserted that “there can be no time without creation”. For him, eternity was “a never-ending present,” which is in the best terms we can use, even though even this statement itself relies on a notion of time to attempt to explain something totally apart from and separate from time.  Augustine goes on, “You [God] made all time; you are before all time; and the ‘time’, if such we may call it, when there was no time was not time at all.”

St. Pope John Paul II asked, “What is time?” Like Augustine, he did not present an answer, and similar to Augustine’s understanding, he said: “both faith and reason point, beyond verifiable and measurable data, to the perspective of mystery.” The three great events of the history of our salvation are grounded in this mystery of time; in time past, creation; in the past, redemption and incarnation; and in the future, death, judgment and eternity, hopefully happy in heaven.

We Are Not Mere Mortals

All time is God’s, He made it, and He decides how much of His time we get to spend on His earth. We are not “mere mortals.” We cannot choose when we exit His time (unless we commit the sin of suicide). We will live forever. C.S. Lewis had some insightful thoughts on this “forever.”

There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilizations – these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub and exploit – immortal horrors or everlasting splendors. (C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory).

Time is a gift from God, a mysterious gift. It is He who made us and not only allows us to live, for a while, in His time, but to so choose and act that we can live with Him outside of time, in eternity. This is part of the “image and likeness” in which He made us – from the time we are conceived and then past time into eternity, we will live forever.

For God created man incorruptible, and to the image of his own likeness he made him. (Wisdom 2:23).

Time Is Our Way to Eternity

When we are very intent on doing something, we often do not realize time is passing. It is not unusual for someone to get so involved in something, so engrossed, so focused on what one is doing, or enjoying, that one “loses all track of time.” This fleeting unawareness of time is a small taste of what eternity is like.

It is up to us how we spend each moment – how we employ the gift of time that God has given us.  In an instant we can choose to do an action that helps us achieve that “everlasting splendor” of which C.S. Lewis speaks – or  we can choose to do something that will mean we become an “immortal horror.”

Death puts an end to human life as the time open to either accepting or rejecting the divine grace manifested in Christ. (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1021).

Each of us knows he or she will die. We don’t know when and we know God, in his providence, will decide when we die. So, every moment of our lives we should be ready to exit time. This is the message of the parable of the virgins, the wise and the foolish:

 Now whilst they went to buy, the bridegroom came: and they that were ready, went in with him to the marriage, and the door was shut.  But at last come also the other virgins, saying: Lord, Lord, open to us.  But he answering said: Amen I say to you, I know you not.  Watch ye therefore, because you know not the day nor the hour. (Matthew 25:10-13; emphasis added).

Matthew 25, quoted above, goes on to say how we are to spend our time, how we not only get ourselves home to heaven, but how we treat others on the journey so that Jesus welcomes us:

And when the Son of man shall come in his majesty, and all the angels with him, then shall he sit upon the seat of his majesty. And all nations shall be gathered together before him, and he shall separate them one from another, as the shepherd separateth the sheep from the goats: And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on his left.  Then shall the king say to them that shall be on his right hand: Come, ye blessed of my Father, possess you the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.  For I was hungry, and you gave me to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave me to drink; I was a stranger, and you took me in:  Naked, and you covered me: sick, and you visited me: I was in prison, and you came to me.  Then shall the just answer him, saying: Lord, when did we see thee hungry, and fed thee; thirsty, and gave thee drink?  And when did we see thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and covered thee?  Or when did we see thee sick or in prison, and came to thee?  And the king answering, shall say to them: Amen I say to you, as long as you did it to one of these my least brethren, you did it to me. (Matthew 25:31-40)

You Don’t Go To Heaven Alone

Jesus tells us not only what we have to do to get home to Him, but that we are responsible for everyone we live with – any given moment, any given day,  each of us might be the only one to help someone else get to heaven. Truly, our glory depends on how we recognized and further the glory of others. C.S. Lewis says this is our responsibility, and for us it is bearing the “weight” of the glory of each person God gifts into our daily lives-their glory in addition to our personal glory. 

The load, or weight, or burden of my neighbour’s glory should be laid daily on my back, a load so heavy that only humility can carry it, and the backs of the proud will be broken. It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare. All day long we are, in some degree, helping each other to one or other of these destinations. It is in the light of these overwhelming possibilities, it is with the awe and the circumspection proper to them, that we should conduct all our dealings with one another, all friendships, all loves, all play, all politics. (The Weight Of Glory).

In His wisdom and love, God gives each of us exactly the right amount of time to glorify Him, achieve glory for ourselves, and help all those we live with enjoy His glory with us.