Tag: Heaven

CDVI – Aeviternity Recap

I’ve written a lot about Aeviternity and it’s stretched out over a long period of time so I need to do a recap so I can keep my thoughts straight and make sure I still understand it.

Here are links, if you would like to review yourself:

1- Understanding Aeviternity
2- More on Aeviternity
3- Afterthought on Aeviternity
4- Becoming
5- Aeviternity and the Resurrection
6- Playing forever in a theater near you
7- Inglorious Resurrection

What is the experience of Aeviternity?

Aeviternity exists outside of time, but below true Eternity. Time is a measure of change, but because the Aeviternal order is not fallen the way our temporal order is, that makes me think that the Aeviternal order operates in some kind of Agency-space, rather than space-time. This is because Angels can make choices, can move around, can carry out their jobs–and these things are flexions of Agency. So time for Angels ticks based on the choices they make and not by the inexorable changing nature of space. I have described this as “Zero-entropy Agency-space”–the Zero-entropy part describes the fact that the aeviternal order is not fallen, so simply existing–standing there and doing nothing–doesn’t cause boredom or exhaustion, they have infinite energy because entropy is Zero.

It is possible that the “energy” that fuels Aeviternity is more directly the grace of God, because both the existence and the operation of all things rely directly on God anyway–in Aeviternity it will be made more clear.

How does this affect our understanding of Hell?

If Aeviternity is zero-entropy, how does eternal torment work? We can imagine the horrors of hell by the fact that those in hell will understand perfectly that God exists and they chose wrong. Another possible source is the fact that an imperfect soul will be reunited with a perfected body, and the dissonance there, I could imagine, would be extremely painful. The perfected body can still be subject to torture and privation–it is a body, after all–so if we can simply exist and not spend any energy we can also suffer eternally without ever losing energy for suffering.

How does this affect our understanding of the Resurrection?

In Eden, our perfected bodies will be reunited with our perfected souls. In the outer darkness, perfected bodies will be reunited with imperfected souls. Because in Eden both soul and body are perfected, it does not mean we are a creation again–it means the soul has been completed, and is perfectly conformed to God; it means the body is completed, and perfectly conformed to God; it means that any action contrary to God while still free agents will be impossible because we will be perfectly united to Him. It is impossible to perfected souls the way cheating on ones wife is impossible to a husband. Imagine making such a commitment with perfect resolve. He would have the freedom to cheat but it would be unthinkable to him.

How does this affect our understanding of ourselves?

Everything that is true in Aeviternity must be true here as well. A wise man is a man who has made many decisions, just like how in Aeviternity “time” is measured by the operation of Agency.

We get to live our lives as an act of creation, making the choice that Angels get to make the moment they are created: For God or against God. Being an “Act of Creation” means that we get to form our souls, it is a way we share in the image of God. When we die, if by the grace of God we get to join God in Heaven, our souls will be perfected and then we will be “completed”–no longer “becoming” but complete. Our souls are complete at the moment of death, and purgation removes imperfections the way firing clay makes it keep it’s final shape.

How does this affect our understanding of Eternity?

Eternity–God’s point of view–see’s every moment with perfect clarity, is the author and designer of everything. He know’s what the final movie will look like, He knows how each scene goes. Aeviternity is like the writers room. There’s things going on there to help make the movie better but it’s not part of the movie. Temporal reality is the movie.

I hope this summary is helpful–I was losing track of everything.

AMDG

CCCLXXXIII – Afterthought on Aeviternity

Wait a minute–if Entropy is Zero, what is Hell? What will Hell be like when Finity is reconciled with Aeviternity?

Entropy = Zero means that it costs no energy to simply exist, time is not exhaustive and the world is not tending to disorder. So time ceases to be a useful measure, and boredom would be impossible presumably because you aren’t “watching the clock”–and once we are there we are devoid of our natural hubris and sloth so presumably we will be both industrious and creative with how we use our time.

Hell is an interesting thought experiment though. Souls which choose hell are not purified by purgatory, so retain the wounds and scars inflicted by sin, and so presumably retain their hubris as well. The idea of eternal torment is interesting because if Entropy is Zero how is there a conception of time? What value is pain to an Aeviternal soul? I think the torment comes in two ways. First–in perfect knowledge that God exists and we are irreversibly separated from Him. Second, in something like an eternal fire. I don’t know where we get the conception of Fire from–so much of our idea of Hell comes from Dante’s Inferno I think–but given that Christ uses the imagery of fire I think it is acceptable to think about.

There are two kinds of people–people who learn from suffering, so it fuels their growth; and people who despair from suffering, so it prevents their growth. I think purgation is the kind of productive suffering that helps people to grow, while hellfire would be the kind of unproductive suffering that feels pointless and leads to despair. Dante is probably right that there are levels of hell and unique qualities to it according to our various sins. A proud person might face hellfire and think “How could God do this to me, of all people? Does he know who I am?” A slothful person might accept the hellfire out of an inability to do anything about it. So in Aeviternity, even without time, the suffering would serve to make us eternally conscious of our weakness, and eternally conscious of our separation from God. While purgation serves to make us conscious of our weakness so we can be perfected, it is the hubris that puts people in hell that prevents the suffering from being productive.

After the Eschaton, when the souls in Hell are reunited with their bodies, the torment probably would take on a more visceral character, in that they will have resurrected bodies–but not perfected bodies–and so their bodies will be subject to torture and privation. While souls in the company of God will get perfect peace and clarity and joy; souls in hell will have painful suffering to add to their list of woes, in addition to the spiritual sufferings they endured before the resurrection. Probably worse than all of this will be the awareness of the New Eden and the presence of God and the wailing and gnashing of teeth will come from being unable to get in.

This makes a vague kind of sense to me, so I hope it has to you as well.

AMDG

CCCLXXV – The Urgency of Forgiveness

I’ve written about Forgiveness before. I’ve even approached the specific subject matter of this post before, without saying it quite this way. It’s on my mind so I’m going to write about it and you’re just going to have to deal with it.

I have a, perhaps, idiosyncratic view of forgiveness. I believe that forgiveness is unilateral, and reconciliation reflects the bilateral component. I described it once as anger being a fire burning beneath our feet, and forgiveness is the conscious choice not to feed it anymore. Forgiveness is, in other words, a choice not to be angry, a choice not to hold a grudge. One need not speak to someone with whom you have had a falling out, and one need not speak to them to stop spending emotional energy on the wounds that a falling-out have caused. Reconciliation is when this person returns to you and asks to normalize your relationship, and an important part of reconciliation is some penance to right the wrong, and a resolution never to commit the wrong again, as we know from the sacrament.

It is important to contemplate forgiveness because it is in the prayer which Christ Himself gave to us–the Our Father: “Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.” Forgive us in the same way that we forgive.

How do we forgive? That’s not a question I can answer for you. But forgiveness is the proper antidote to Anger. It is also vitally important to our salvation. If you forgive readily–regardless of whether or not you reconcile–then God will forgive you likewise readily. Can you imagine that? If you are anything like me, you can anticipate going before the judgement seat heavily laden with our own sins, heavily scarred by the sins and grievances of others. If in this life we forgive unilaterally, immediately, lovingly–can you imagine how it would feel to crawl before the judgement seat and hear that same forgiveness returned to you? Can you imagine having your burden lifted, you scars healed, without negotiating? Can you imagine God refusing to hold a grudge, and welcoming you home like the prodigal son was welcomed by his father?

The reconciliation will come–purgation isn’t easy, but at least you know on the other side of it is Heaven. I read somewhere that our guardian angels go back and forth to bring us refreshment and encouragement while we endure the cleansing fire of perfection. Once we are in, there’s no going back–we’ve made our choice and what a sweet choice it is.

Now, this may all sound like a sweet and naïve belief, but I can see no other reading of the Our Father–Forgive us in the same way that we forgive. If we can bring ourselves to forgiveness–to unilateral, immediate, loving, unconditional forgiveness–then we can heal ourselves, heal the world, and hope all the more in the glory of the Resurrection. If we would like to heal the wounds of the world, and do so with urgency, then we would do well to forgive with urgency.

AMDG

CCCXXVIII – On Music

The following was a comment on Wood’s blog which is long enough to be it’s own post. I’ve been thinking about this for some time and even thought about making a post on it, but couldn’t figure out how to approach it. Well, Wood broke the dam and my brain spilled out. Here’s the fruit of that:

I have been thinking about music and this is an excellent opportunity to speak my mind on the subject.

[A] priest [friend] complained recently that a parish he was stationed at had trouble distinguishing between “Christian Music” and “Holy Music”. Hymns can bring tears to my eyes–Samuel Barber’s Adagio for Strings/Agnus Dei is one of them. The Ave Maria is powerful. Hillsong United, Chris Tomlin–these are Christian musicians, but not–beautiful, not holy. Not in the same way as Barber’s Agnus Dei or Schubert’s Ave Maria.

When I was younger, I used to hoard music–I got a subscription to Amazon music and I would download everything. Songs that I liked I supposed I would like forever, I wanted to catalog them. But changes in music formats and music delivery systems made hoarding music impractical. I have no idea where all those songs are that I hoarded, or if I am even still technologically capable of listening to them.

There was something in me that recognized that Music touches something beyond mere sensory experience–there is something Transcendent about it, for good or ill. Pink Floyd’s Time is one of my favorite songs, and it is not particularly holy or reverent, but it touches me in way that is unique to me. It took me a longer time still to realize that songs that touch my soul will not touch other people’s souls the same way. Something that stirs me will not stir someone else. I may not feel holiness emanating from Hillsong United or Chris Tomlin (NB: I enjoy both Hillsong United and Chris Tomlin–don’t want you to think they are bad musicians), but someone else might be moved to tears by them. (Still doesn’t make them appropriate for the musical liturgy of the Mass).

What I have settled on recently is that Music is the spice of life. It adds flavor and feeling to an experience, like it adds flavor to a meal, but it takes very little, and it is gone very quickly. You remember the meal, but will probably not remember the seasoning with the same vividness. Yet the seasoning is inseparable from the experience of the meal. So the purpose of music is to help people see themselves, see other people, see God, or see other things with greater clarity. As you say, Music helps tune our souls to something. When we die and, God willing, go to Heaven, we are not going to care what songs we listened to–we will get to participate in the greatest music that is the chorus of Angels: Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God of hosts, Heaven and Earth are full of Thy glory.

I may forget Pink Floyd’s Time when I’m in Heaven, but in some way Pink Floyd’s Time will have helped me to get there–either by helping me see Beauty, helping me understand myself, or merely by making the fleeting experience of Earthly existence a little more enjoyable.

I didn’t expect to riff off your post so much but all these thoughts were pent up in my head and they just spilled out. Thank you for this post!

AMDG

CCCXIX – Thoughts During A Meeting of the Legion of Mary

FATIMA

The Second Apparition of Fatima happened on June 13th. Our Lady of Fatima offered warnings for the trouble to befall the world, and offered many (MANY!) resources available to us to help avert or soften the time of troubles. The culmination of this medicine–which is still an option open to us, I think–would be the conversion of Russia and an era of Peace.

What goes somewhat unstated is that Our Lady was not just randomly threatening calamity to test our piety. She is Our Blessed Mother, coming down to our common home, Earth, and saying “This place is a mess, clean it up…

…or I’ll Fix It For You.”

We have not yet gotten our house in order, which means we still have a chance. I hope she has not already started counting to ten.

JUDGEMENT

It occurred to me that when we face our particular judgement, it is probably not a simple “Do you want to go to Heaven? Y/N”.

A certain member of my family is addicted to dipping tobacco. The story goes that one New Years Eve he threw his can of dip over the balcony and shouted “Never again!” Early the next morning he was on the ground scooping the dip back into the can.

Obviously, freeing himself of addiction is the better choice. It takes work and diligence and short term suffering but the long term reward is health and a more enjoyable life. In that moment, this member of my family was unable to make the choice.

When we face our particular judgement, I imagine we are offered our favorite sin, or purgatory. Purgatory is an indeterminate period of suffering, but with a long term reward of the Beatific Vision. Or–the short term satisfactions of our favorite sin. If we can’t say no to that, then nothing else matters, no other exigencies or extenuating circumstances. If you can say no to that–the sacrament of Reconciliation is a good way to practice flexing that muscle–then surely other considerations are weighed.

A lot of the intercessions of our Lady–the Brown Scapular and other devotions–seem to be aimed at delivering us from this initial test.

PRAY

One of the Legionaries used a phrase I like: “Proceed with Prayer“. I don’t think they were using it idiomatically, just as a practical solution to how to solve an awkward problem. But I thought it was a good phrase. Whatever problems you face, remember that you can proceed with prayer. Whenever you don’t know what to do, or how to move forward, you can always proceed with prayer.

There are a lot of things wrong in the world. There are a lot of things right in the world, too, lets not forget. If we want to help tip the scales to right the world, we need only proceed with prayer.

AMDG