Understanding of ‘Time,’ as an inevitable condition of human beings, plays a crucial role in having a happy life. That is the why human life-style depends on how people understand their own time. Today, in modern times, we can easily witness the p...
Understanding of ‘Time,’ as an inevitable condition of human beings, plays a crucial role in having a happy life. That is the why human life-style depends on how people understand their own time. Today, in modern times, we can easily witness the phenomenon that people assign their time to get property beyond their needs, which may even say ‘Human Life’. This way of understanding time makes human beings concentrate only on time that is ‘vainly passing’. A human being is, however, “transcendent presence”. Catholicism believes that human experience can reach eternity, transcending time, at here and now. What is then the way for the Modern Roman Catholic Church to see time?
The scope of ‘Modern times’ in Roman Catholic Church, in this thesis, is set as studying the official literatures of Roman Catholic Church which are promulgated after the second Vatican Council. Among them, it is 「Tertio Millennio Adveniente」, a apostolic letter, which is taking lots of consideration on ‘time’ in depth, that gives crucial clues providing answers to the question of this thesis. Particularly, the numbers following are the ones which put lots consideration and study on ‘time’ in terms of the structure of the apostolic letter and the frequency in the use of the term, ‘time’: n.1, n.3, n.9, and n.10. Through these numbers, I found three matters that (1) Modern Roman Catholic Church sees time focusing on Jesus - his mysteries and events of salvation – as the center of its view; (2) such a time viewpoint is comprised in ‘liturgical year’; (3) all these topics condensed in the ‘eucharistic rite’. These are stated in the chapter Ⅱ of this thesis.
‘The topics reflecting the time viewpoint of Modern Roman Catholic Church,’ which are derived from the study in the chapter Ⅱ, are scrutinized in the chapter Ⅲ. In addition, I intend to more clarify the meaning that these topics imply in the aspects of annotation of the Bible and the rite and under dogmatical aspect of the Church.
In the chapter Ⅳ, the trial to synthesize the traits of clues, introduced in chapter Ⅱ, is made to accomplish the purpose of this thesis. It turns out that (1) time is understood not as ‘esse’ but as ‘ens’; (2) Roman Catholic Church sees time not as the form which circulates endlessly(eternal recurrence) but as ‘linear form’ that has the beginning(the Creation) and the end(the Second Advent of Christ); (3) it is also certified that even mortal human beings in the world can participate in eternity by Jesus Christ, and it is seen to be linked with ‘eucharistic life’.
In conclusion, the faith of Catholicism can be found in the time-view of Modern Roman Catholic Church. “Deus homo factus est, ut homo fieret Deus.”(St. Augustinus, 「Sermones」, 371.) Eternity caused by the event of the Incarnation of Jesus Christ is, for us, “eternal inheritance”(Heb 9,15) share which is given gratis by God. Also, the eternity experience can be realized in ‘Sitz im Leben’ where each of us belongs through eucharistic rite.