Open Theism Discussion Board

> Section ONE: 
> 
> * "The kingdom of God is not simply awaited as something that is to come; 
> it is also perceptible as something now present. The resurrection and 
> regeneration in Christ as well are not only awaited in the future, but are 
> also already offered in the present... The period of the presence of Christ 
> and his Church is the period of the 'last days.' It is the period during 
> which God and his kingdom are made manifest in history. It is the beginning 
> of eternal life, which cannot be interrupted by death. ..... Thus, the eschata 
> are at once present yet awaited, experienced yet expected." (p. 51-52) 
> 
> * "Participation in the kingdom of God brings about an eclipse of time, 
> just as the presence too of the kingdom of God, turns all understanding of 
> logical sequence of time on its head." (p. 54) 
> 
> * "The Church still stands as a sign of eternity in the world and guides 
> the world towards eternity. The institutions of the Church...transport the 
> mind of man 'from things present to the things to come.'" (pp. 54-55) 
> 
> * "The Church is not subordinate to time, but leads from time into 
> eternity." (p. 55) 
> 
> * "For those who become "sons of light," and "sons of day," and behave as 
> sons of light and day in their lives, the "day of the Lord" is already come. 
> These people are already living the "day of the Lord" and contemplating his 
> glory. These things, of course, do not come about simply as a result of a 
> formal receiving of Baptism and the Holy Eucharist, but rather through real 
> communion and union with Christ. And just as Christ is not limited by time 
> and space, so the experience too of his presence, or the experience of his 
> "day," is not confined to the 'eschata,' the last times, but is offered here 
> and now. The eschata will not present entirely new things, but will manifest 
> in their full and perfect form those things which exist and are offered 
> already as a sort of betrothal in the Church." (p. 50) 
> 
> 
> Section TWO: 
> 
> * The Church cannot preserve her identity in history without developing 
> organically in time and space. And the Church's preaching cannot be offered 
> unaltered to the world without adapting in an appropriate way to her 
> respective environment. (p. 64, 66) 
> 
> * The question of the correct consideration of tradition is, in the final 
> analysis, a question of the correct consideration of time and space. 
> .......The question of consideration of space and time is a question of 
> whether, and to what extent, man refers the question to a transcendent 
> reality. Without this reference, any understanding of space and time is 
> fragmentary and limited. ....... The only real possibility of reference to a 
> transcendent reality is offered in Christ. It is in the person of Christ that 
> the temporal is united with the eternal, the finite with the transcendental. 
> Union with Christ within space and time. It is a union which brings about the 
> relation to a transcendent reality and true communion. ....... The union with 
> Christ comes about in the Church by the grace of the Holy Spirit. ....... 
> Christ, who recapitulates the past, the present and the future, keeps 
> perpetual and indissoluble communion with all the members of his Body, the 
> Church. The tradition of the Apostles, the Fathers and the saints of the 
> Church ministers to this communion between God and man, and finds in it its 
> summary and final expression. 
> 
> * "Tradition without a direct or indirect link with Christ has no meaning 
> in the Church, and the importance of the various traditions is in direct 
> proportion to the extent of their relationship to Christ." (p. 63) 
> 
> * "All the traditions that are associated with Christ have a eucharistic or 
> worshipful character. This is why they are offered 'in a mystery" (p. 63) 
> 
> 
> Section THREE: 
> 
> * "St. Nicholas Cabasilis points out that for the saints, the future is 
> already present in is life, but its presence is not full and complete, as it 
> will be in the life to come." (p. 84) 
> 
> * "The Church with her feasts and services actuates the work of divine 
> economy within time, thereby sanctifying the transforming of time of everyday 
> life...she integrates it with, and directs it towards, its eschatological 
> fulfillment--the kingdom of God. 
> 
> The Church’s feasts, preeminent among which are the feasts of the Lord, 
> are not mere commemorations. They are opportunities...for communion with 
> Christ and the Church. ....... In following the...cycles of feasts...and the 
> daily cycle of day and night offices, the faithful worshipper lives the whole 
> work of divine economy and comes to share in the life of the kingdom of God 
> even in this present life. 
> 
> Distinction is made between the movable feasts and fixed feasts of the 
> Church. 
> 
> The Immovable Feasts are tied to a fixed date in the Church’s year which 
> begins the first day of September. They present us with specific redemptive 
> interventions of God in the history of man, or with historical persons and 
> events in the life of the church: the Annunciation, the Nativity of Christ, Th 
> eophany, the Transfiguration, feasts of the Theotokos, and the feasts of the 
> angels and saints. These feasts serve to sanctify time and transform it in 
> the light of the kingdom of God. (p. 87) 
> 
> * "The Moveable Feasts constitute a special sequence which stands apart 
> from historical time and guides man above and beyond it. Fashioning a new 
> dimension of time as though suspended above that temporality to which history 
> is subjected, it thus offers limitless vistas to the man who is shackled by 
> time. 
> 
> * "Apart from the movable feasts, which highlight, above all the 
> eschatological character of the Church and her passage from time to eternity, 
> there are also, as we have seen, the immovable feasts, which stress the 
> sanctification of time and the presence of the eternal within it. The Annuncia 
> tion, the Nativity of Christ, Theophany, the feasts of the Theotokos and the 
> feasts of the angels and the saints stress above all the presence of eternity 
> within time itself. 
> 
> 
> IN SUMMARY: 
> 
> * "Liturgical time transfigures physical time and transports us from symbol 
> to truth, from the transient to the eternal, from creation to the Lord of 
> creation. ... Behind the symbolism is the one symbolized. ..... Thus the 
> function of time is to refer creation to the uncreated Creator." (p. 105 ) 
> 
> * "...the mystery (sacrament)...preserves...the memory of all the events in 
> the divine economy, and of the events in the history of mankind in their 
> eschatological perspective." (p. 102) 
> 
> * "In this way, all time becomes sacred time. Every day and every moment is 
> sanctified because it becomes a bearer of eternity. In the same way, all 
> space becomes sacred because it is sanctified by spiritual worship." (p. 104 ) 
> 
> * Eternal life is not abstract or imaginary. It is God himself, who became 
> man and manifested himself to the world in Christ....for a Christian, the 
> memory of God is made concrete in the memory of Christ and his regenerative 
> work in the world. So the content of the memory of Christ is the Church 
> herself as the Body of Christ, the enter and essence of which is the mystery 
> of the Holy Eucharist." (p. 103) 
> 
> * "By taking part in the Divine Liturgy and approaching for Holy Communion, 
> the believer experiences the unique and eternal event of his regeneration in 
> Christ. Without ceasing to be in time, he nevertheless shares in eternity. 
> Even one participation in holy Communion would be sufficient for his 
> regeneration. ... Each one of these approaches is the one unrepeatable 
> approach to the mystery of his union with Christ. It represents his approach 
> to, and his progress within, the ties indestructible and constantly renewed 
> communion which deifies the Church. Furthermore, whatever happens in time and 
> is of truth, no longer belongs to time, but to eternity. And what ever is 
> repeated in time and is of truth, is not confined to time but extends into 
> eternity. Thus every Holy Eucharist is a repetition of the unique and 
> unrepeatable Eucharist of the Last Supper." (p. 102) 
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Post Edited (PotOnWheel) : 4/5/2010 4:59:56 PM (GMT-5)