Cathedrals of Eternity
The Sabbath is More Than a Religious Commandment: It Transforms Our Relationship With Time
The Sabbaths are our great cathedrals… The meaning of the Sabbath is to celebrate time rather than space… on the Sabbath we try to become attuned to holiness in time. It is a day on which we are called upon to share in what is eternal in time, to turn from the results of creation to the mystery of creation; from the world of creation to the creation of the world. — Abraham Joshua Heschel
When I first read Abraham Joshua Heschel’s wonderful meditation on The Sabbath, I was struck by the image (given to us by his daughter, Susannah Heschel, in her introduction to the book) of the Sabbath, the day of rest, as a “cathedral of time.” She writes, “Some religions build great cathedrals or temples, but Judaism constructs the Sabbath as an architecture of time.”
But not just an aedifice of time, in the sabbath we find the confluence of time and eternity.
It makes sense: when we step out of the ordinary routine of our lives, even just for one day out of seven, we are given the possibility of stepping into a taste of the eternal, a taste of that God-centered being where our normal reference points of time and space simply fall away into meaninglessness. Not meaningless in an absurd sense, but rather meaningless because the very project of human “meaning” can no long carry the fullness of the divine meaning that emerges when we drop of of time and space into now and here — or should we say, into “nowhere.”
Spiritual teachers around the world instruct us to live in the present moment: from classical Christian mystics like Jean-Pierre de Caussade, to those of our time like Eckhart Tolle who make a big deal of rejecting religion altogether. The gift of the now transcends all religions (and even all flavors of spiritual practice). What’s important to remember is that the most precious gift of the sacred present is actually the invitation to move out of time altogether, and simply dwell in the timeless, eternal, presence of God.
Easier said than done! What contemplative practitioners often discover is that as soon as they drop into awareness of the timeless/eternal presence, the inner commentator kicks in: “Isn’t this amazing, I’m finally getting the hang of centering prayer!” Or something like that: and of course, with that very narrative spinning across our mind’s eye, we drop out of the eternal and back into the ordinary structures of dualistic consciousness.
The cathedral of time/eternity cannot be captured by mere words or concepts. We know it only obliquely, by traditions and practices that point to it. It is not something we can capture by the dint of our effort, it is only a gift of grace that we may humbly open ourselves to receive.
Quotation source: Heschel, Abraham Joshua. The Sabbath (FSG Classics) (p. 17, 19-20). Kindle Edition.
Friends, be sure to sign up for the 2025 Contemplative Summit! Paid options available, but you can register for free and connect not only with me but with over 40 other amazing contemplative speakers and teachers! Follow this link to register: https://school.spiritualwanderlust.org/a/2148152474/nYbfKp4J