It has been a long time since I’ve read St. Gregory of Nyssa, but when I saw this video in an x-tweet, something jumped to mind.
If memory serves, Gregory described our experience of the Beatific Vision as a spiral.
I had to think about that for a while, but it makes sense.
Consider that in the Beatific we will always be striving to see the Triune God and be in union. That implies an eternal rising toward, motion toward God, the ultimate reditus,or rather, proodos. One might describe that motion vector as a ray, since we are moving out of ourselves towards God.
However, we are made in God’s image and likeness. Hence, as we behold God we will be learning, coming to understand more about ourselves, considering ourselves in relation to God. One might describe that motion vector as a circle, since we are being introspective.
These two dynamic motions, the ray and circle, are going on at the same time. See where I’m going with this? That would make a spiral.
I’ve sometimes marveled at the fact that which each new technological advance, we find something more to the Mystery which is so alluring and also at times frightening. For example, photography shows us that the Shroud of Turin is a negative image. Supercolliders show us subatomic particles while space telescopes show us so many stars even in just one degree of the sky in one direction that we can’t count them, and that’s only seeing just so far.
Did God make the universe so huge to give us some idea of what “eternity” is? What “all-mighty” might be?
Meanwhile, we await the moment when the created universe will be destroyed in fire, renewed, and submitted by the Son to the Father so that God might be all in all (1 Cor 15:28).
GO TO CONFESSION!
UPDATE:
NASA still has plans to install a radio telescope inside a crater on the far side of the Moon
With no disruption from Earth's atmosphere, it could see further than the James Webb telescope ? pic.twitter.com/6PPp6F0ag6
— Latest in space (@latestinspace) September 3, 2023
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“we have to distinguish between doctrine and ideology. Doctrine is never ideological, but it becomes ideology when doctrine is detached from reality and detached from the people.”
I would have to agree with this, although probably not in the same sense that the Holy Father intended it.
Some time ago The Remnant had a discussion as to if the Earth was the center of the Universe according to Scripture or is it the Sun. It was an explosion of Physicist, Academics and Laymen all giving their opinion.
It came down to this fact..there is no fixed point in space! No way to find out if the Earth and Planets circles the Sun or the Sun and the Planets circle the Earth.
There was a big bang of heads exploding (pun intended). When they could’t argue that fact, they stopped responding.
The synod proceedings will be secret to avoid gossip? Seriously? With all that walking around in the synod hall, how are they are going prevent people outside the doors from hearing what’s going on? Are they going to make the synod participants slip on soft shoes like the goblins did when they were chasing Bilbo and dwarves through the tunnels in the depths of the Misty Mountains?
I have seen it said there’s a rock that is 100 miles wide, 100 miles deep and 100 miles high. Every 100 years a little bird comes to sharpen its beak. When the rock has completely worn away, one day of eternity will have passed.
Father, your discussion about “approaching Eternity” implicitly involves the invocation of concepts of “Space”, but God, as pure, unlimited Spirit – Being-ness, is not in any sort of space. I know, thinking in terms not involving any kind of space is very difficult.
“…created universe will be destroyed in fir…” I assume you are referring to 2 Peter 3:10. I find that this (and the other end time discussions) makes much more sense if this is understood on an individual basis, at death when the spirit departs the material universe and not on a completely universal sense – everywhere all at the same instant.
This post of God’s use of astonomical creation to give to us some perspective of what eternity is like follows another concept expressed by Henry Karlson in Patheos Catholic I read the day prior to reading your post. I get several Catholic website post to my email regularly and I don’t ever recall acually requesting them other than The New Advent, where I read and see your posts occasionally. Being Roman Catholic, I am surprised when I find so many branches of Catholicism. Henry Karlson being Byzantine Catholic was a new one to me. His post was about our nothingness leading to transcendence in the eternal. Where does Catholicism draw the line when being appoached from so many views and what is considered acceptable. I can appreciate the concept you present about God’s creation giving us some sense of the eternal. I can appreciate Henry Karlson’s explanation of how out of nothingness God created us and the universe. I can understand how we are nothing of our selves but contingent on this sense of being, God created out of nothingness. He surmises our contingent being out of nothingness is different from the transcendent nothingness of God. As he expains, it is only our abilty to let go and deny our contingent being in ordeer to experience and partake in the eternal being of the transcent nothingness of God. It is like the Catholicism of Albert Einstein verse the Catholicism of Niels Bohr. Jesus never expressed this qautum catholicism in the teachings I grew up on. He was more a relativity teacher. I can appreciate the two concepts and Karlson expressed the caution of taking a nihilistic view in denying the self to share in the eternal glory of God but he never mentioned the concept of a soul and how our salvation is by the grace of God and not on our efforts of denying our contingent self. Did I miss something or is he just a dwarf planet.