Time begins for a person when he is born, and he likewise occupies a unique space in life. Time and space are elements intimately arising with the person and write his story (“history”). The space he occupies in time gradually creates other spaces which are enriched by his unique traits, talents, work, relationships, joys and trials.
Time and space slowly acquire their importance in a more material way. We learn to mark birthdays, anniversaries, deadlines, etc. We start creating various vital spaces in family, work and other social functions. It is in this playground of time and space that we gradually forge our identity, community and projects.
In our times, these two realities have gained more significance.
We buy, load and lend time. We rent, sell and buy space. Moreover, time is weighed by the speed of data transferred, rendering and producing presentations. Space, on the other hand, is prized by one’s data capacity in the cloud or a portable storage device. Important as these features of time and space may be, they are however only materially significant.
But with death’s curtain call for the person, time and space are stripped of their material relevance.
Those who were closest to the beloved departed begin to ponder the new realities of spirituality and eternity.
They are lodged between the tension of continuing to live their life as before or living it with a transcendent feature that their beloved one has now left in the time and space of their lives.
The death of someone we love unveils a new meaning of time and space that are incorporated into our own time and spaces. Everything referred to the departed will now be ‘do you remember that time?’ since the past will be now stored in memories of the loved one.
And this is even more vivid in the case of space since it is experienced as the ‘absence of someone’ during birthdays, anniversaries, and other family gatherings. As for the future, those who are still alive can only hope and long, for to look too far would be mere reverie.
Moreover, the celebration of new events related to our departed ones create new times and spaces.
We will now have death anniversaries and visits to their graves every now and then.
In almost a natural manner, the death of someone special to us enriches our own concept of time here on earth and gives us the opportunity to examine the space we have and what meaning it contains for us and others.
We become more conscious that time and space disappear when we embrace eternity. But we also realize that we cannot wait for that eternal moment to arrive.
The past is just a memory and the future a mystery, there is only the now that we must intensely live in view of eternity. This is the only thing that matters, otherwise a life lived in one’s past or in one’s longings in the future is eternity lost!
When eternity interrupts our timeline and closes the stage of the space of our life, then we who continue ought to ask ourselves: How are both time and space unfolding in my life now?
How will God measure that time and weigh the space of my life? Would the time have been invested in fruitful endeavors and the space filled with noble deeds of love and sacrifice? How will this time and space remain for those I will leave behind?
Will it be a time marked by joy and peace? Will the space be filled with smiles, fidelity, forgiveness and compassion? All this
will depend on what we do now!
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