June 7, 2006

Simultaneity

Warning: Today's post is a little far out.

I find the end of today's Gospel fascinating. Mark's Jesus, defending the truth of the Resurrection to the Sadducees, quotes God's words to Moses:

I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.

So what's that supposed to prove? Just because the God who is our God today is the same God who was God of the patriarchs, how does that demonstrate the Resurrection? "He is not God of the dead but of the living," Jesus continues. Does that mean that the patriarchs are still alive? That doesn't seem to follow either. I can say, "this is Abraham Lincoln's house," but that doesn't mean he is still alive.

As we exist in creation we are time-bound; time is a creature as much as we are. But as we exist in the mind of God there is no before or after; God is everyone's God in the same eternal instant. The Resurrection is, of course, proper to the end of time, the end of time that Jesus' own Resurrection inaugurates. But for God it's all in the right now. The Resurrection is just God's permanent idea for us, even though for us it seems like something in the future.
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1 comment:

Faithful, or even just thoughtful criticisms are always welcome. Uninformed rudeness to other posters or to the Lord and His Church is not.

I also reserve the right to reject comments promoting things like private revelations and fringe points of view, if it seems to me like they are being presented in a misleading way.

If you raise a disagreement with something I say but I do not respond, please do not feel slighted or insulted, or imagine that this automatically means I disagree or agree with you. It's just that I don't find the comment box to be a constructive medium for certain forms of debate.