What is time then? … If nobody asks me, I know; but if I were desirous to explain it to one that should ask me, plainly I do not know.

St Augustine, Confessions 11.14.17

The above was written by St Augustine in book 11 of his iconic Confessions. Here we shall not, as Augustine did, attempt to explore the nature of time. Alas, perhaps that itself would be too lengthy a task! But the reason why I am referring to Augustine’s witty statement is because it hints at something valuable: namely, it captures the temporality which we, as humans, are fundamentally immersed in. What is interesting to note here is that this ‘temporality’ is something which the Church too, in a sense, partakes in.

Is the Church temporal? In answer to this, Lumen Gentium affirms the following:

The Church, to which we are all called in Christ Jesus, and in which we acquire sanctity through the grace of God, will attain its full perfection only in the glory of heaven, when there will come the time of the restoration of all things (Acts 3:21). At that time the human race as well as the entire world, which is intimately related to man and attains to its end through him, will be perfectly re-established in Christ (Cf Eph 1:10; Col 1:20; 2 Pt 3:10-13).

Lumen Gentium, par. 48

Phrases such as “will attain” naturally connote a futural activity. They are in the future-tense. In this respect, the Church is portrayed as having yet to experience its full bounty and perfection. This implies an evolution: it implies an ‘eschatological’ nature to the Church. The word ‘eschatological’ means, theologically, ‘relating to the end of times’. In simple words, therefore, the Church—which is us—is evolving toward something, toward someone. It is evolving toward a complete and full unity with its head: Christ himself.

Now, all this is not to say that there is not an intrinsic sanctity to the Church as it is today. Quite beautifully—and also accurately—Lumen Gentium notes how, within the Church, the two realities of sanctity and fallenness subsist. The Church is sacred and holy insofar as it acts as a medium through which Christ speaks—through the sacraments and revelation—but, simultaneously, the Church is us, and, quite often, we are far from saintly and perfect. Indeed, it is precisely the purpose of the Church to sanctify us—and this is where the importance of communion comes in: because we too play a role in each other’s lives to help bring out virtue and holiness in each other. As we find in Lumen Gentium:

Already the final age of the world has come upon us (Cf. 1 Cor 10:11) and the renovation of the world is irrevocably decreed and is already anticipated in some kind of a real way; for the Church already on this earth is signed with a sanctity which is real although imperfect. However, until there shall be new heavens and a new earth in which justice dwells (Cf. 2 Pt. 3:13), the pilgrim Church in her sacraments and institutions, which pertain to this present time, has the appearance of this world which is passing and she herself dwells among creatures who groan and travail in pain until now and await the revelation of the sons of God (Cf. Rom 8:19-22).

Lumen Gentium, par. 48

All this puts upon us a responsibility. In our groaning and our travailing, in our fallenness and sin, we are invited to always allow God’s healing grace to penetrate our lives. We are ever called to humbly accept forgiveness and try to grow in love again. We are ardently called, ultimately, to “learn the meaning of our terrestrial life through our faith, while we perform with hope in the future the work committed to us in this world by the Father, and thus work out our salvation (Cf. Phil 2:12)” (Lumen Gentium, par. 48).