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'In agro dominico' - March 27, 1329
The papal bull condemning Meister EckhartArticles 1-3 : The Creation of the World
Page 3
Eckhart in his apology rightly reminds what Augustine said, “All tomorrows and beyond them, and all yesterdays and what is behind them, you are making today and have made today. What is to me if someone does not understand this?”[1] adding also that “every action of God is his substance, which is eternal”, and another saying of Augustine’s: “their heart up to now casts about in vain between the motions of things past and to come... Who shall hold it fast so that it may grasp the beauty of unchanging eternity?”[2]
This way Eckhart explained that the world exists in time, but being created by God above time, always offers to the man who is saved the possibility to rise above time, rest from time, and be united with God’s eternity as His Only-begotten Son.
Therefore, the proper distinction, which Eckhart tried to remind, is not the existence of God ‘before’ the world, but in and beyond the world – as St. Maximus Confessor says: “He is Creator eternaly according to His energy, yet the creatures are [also eternal] potentially [that is beyond their creation], but not actively [not as existing hypostases]”.
St. Gregory of Nyssa says: “neither the birth of the Son, nor the creation of the world are defined by time, matter, place or passion”,[3] and also: “to those who have mind, the search of ‘before’ and ‘after’ in the creator of the ages is useless; because such words are empty of any meaning when they are not said into time”.[4]
Full text of the papal bull * Jump to Articles 4-6
