Saturday, January 11, 2014

Christ the Builder of Eternity

Currently I am reading Abbot Vonier's book The Life of the World to Come. It is a book on eschatology elaborating on that part of the creed regarding the life of the world to come. Chapter 6 is titled Christ the Builder of Eternity and he has a wonderful theme of this temporary life being a quarry where Christ uses each of us and selects the "Elect"' using the image from the Book of Revelation to build the Heavenly Jerusalem that will be revealed at the end of time:

There is one feature in this immense labor of the Son of God which, if properly envisaged, may become for us the source of great mental peace. It is in keeping with all the canons of orthodoxy in the doctrine of divine grace and predestination to hold that the plan of the heavenly Jerusalem is a thing fixed from the very beginning, with no casual alterations or additions as time goes on. In other words, mankind here on earth is merely the quarry from which are taken the materials for the city of the living God. When the city is completed, any prolongation of mankind's existence here on earth will lose its meaning. The race of men living on this planet is entirely subservient to the needs of the divine Builder of the heavenly Jerusalem as the quarry is subservient to the needs of the edifice that is being erected miles away. When once the building is completed the quarry is closed down.... The heavenly Jerusalem is evidently meant to be a great surprise, something prepared in secret, and shown in its final glory only at the appointed time. The completed city is not said to ascend from earth to heaven, but, on the contrary, it comes down from heaven, where it had been in course of construction, as behind a screen, during the long centuries of Christ's activities.