Time and Eternity; "God, the Universe, and Everything"

I had been Catholic for about 12 years when I found myself working for the City and County of Denver, Colorado.  My office was on one end of the 16th Street Mall, a pedestrian shopping area.  A short shuttle ride down the mall was Holy Ghost Catholic Church.  I made the decision to, as often as possible, attend the daily noon Mass at Holy Ghost.

Holy Ghost was a strange place, the Church, a late 19th century gothic revival structure was surrounded above and on three sides by a modern high-rise office complex.  It seems that some years back the Church sold the aerial rights to the property, thus allowing developers to build over and around this venerable old church,  The interior wasn't just a different environment it was a whole different world!

Monsignor C. B. Woodrich, "Father Woody," the long time pastor of Holy Ghost, gone to his reward long before I discovered his urban parish, had a heart for the poor providing food, shelter, and clothing to the local homeless population.  He was known for opening the church doors on freezing winter nights, filling his pews with the grateful snoring of downtown Denver's  "huddled masses."  This kind cleric would send them off next morning with a sandwich and a hot cup of Joe!  Well when Father shuffled off the mortal coil, the  Oblates of Mary took over the parish and continued Father Woody's legacy.  As a result you could often find your way to the church by following the trail of half eaten bologna sandwiches, and it was not uncommon at Mass to share a pew with a peacefully slumbering homeless gentleman. 

Beyond the heavy bronze clad doors, the interior of Holy Ghost was, a combination of high gothic and moorish   architecture, a cross between Chartes  and the Alhambra!  Cold stone and rich dark stained wood.  Upon entering you knew you'd set foot on holy ground!   Enthroned  above the high altar presiding over worshipers, penitents and the occasional seeker of shelter from the storm, was Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament of the Altar, the Holy Eucharist, which, at last, brings me to the heart of my story!

I made it my practice, as often as my schedule would allow, to go to Confession and assist at the noon Mass.  Quite often I would arrive early enough to spend time in prayer before the Blessed Sacrament!  Well one day on my knees in prayer, my eyes fixed on Our Precious Lord, like tunnel vision, the church fell away, the dark, rich paneling began to spin around the Blessed  Sacrament, the monstrance  disappeared and only the white disk of the consecrated host remained!  Then, as if in a flash, I understood!  I was looking into the very center of the universe!  Space and time had lost all meaning in the eternity of that moment!

I saw all of human history, all of mankind coming from somewhere out beyond my vision, and flowing into that small disk, the Eucharist!  And all subsequent  history flowing from it, from Him!  Jesus is the center of the universe, the beating heart of all creation!  Everything that came before the incarnation militated toward it and everything since flows from Him!  There is no other reason, no other person...I knew in that moment what Saint Paul meant when he said "I have determined to know nothing among you, save Christ Jesus, and Him crucified!"  I could, can to this day, only emulated St. Paul, Christ Jesus and Him crucified has become my heart cry, my motto, my very reason for being!

As I said, adoring Our Lord in the Sacrament of the Altar, I understood!  I looked reality in the face!  I saw the Divine liturgy, the Holy Mass, like never before!  For years I'd heard priests, theologians and scripture scholars go on about representing Calvary, of making the cross present! But, I'd never grasped the concept!  It's all wrapped up in eternity!  We have a hard time grappling with the "E" word!  Eternity is foreign to us!  We are sequential beings, second follows second, minute, minute, as one wag put it: " the only constant is change!"  Even our language is insufgicent! We speak of everlasting life, of eternity past, of spending our eternity! 

We are very nearly incapable of expressing eternity.  We are prisoners of time!  So, please excuse my clumsy attempt at communicating what I know put struggle to communicate!

The Divine Liturgy,  the Mass, is, in fact, time travel!  When we assist at Mass, we travel back in time!  We, are, to borrow a protestant  theological term, "positionally" at the foot of the cross, we stand shoulder to shoulder with Saint John, kneel with our Blessed Mother Mary as the one sacrifice of Calvary unfolds in front of us, in real itme!  You see that's the mystery of eternity!  Time is swollowed up in eternity!  God, being eternal is perfect, complete, and changeless, He knows everything, in that one eternal instant of being!  The Crucifixion is eternally before him, and, at Mass we are taken out of today, taken into eternity, and then  deposited back into time at the foot of the Holy Cross! We participate in the ctucifixion!  We do not resacrifice Christ on the cross, as our Protestant brethren would have you believe, no!  We actually participate in the one unique sacrifice of Christ on the cross!  We participate in the single most important event in all of time and eternity!  Christ was crucified once for all and we are there, at the foot of the cross, every time we assist at Mass! 

Determine to know nothing save Christ Jesus, and Him crucified!!  Know that and you know everthing!