Время

The Unity, which from the beginning moved into duality, stopped at trinity. And this is what we have – the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. The Father is a parent and producer, giving birth and producing dispassionately, outside of time and incorporeally; Son - born; The spirit is the exhausted, or, I don’t know what someone who distracts from everything visible would call it. For we do not dare to call this an overflow of goodness, as one of the wise Hellenes dared to call it, who, philosophizing about the first and second culprit, clearly expressed himself: “like a cup pouring over the brim” 41 . We do not dare for fear of introducing involuntary birth and seemingly natural and uncontrollable ejection, which is least consistent with the concepts of the Divine. Therefore, without leaving the limits given to us, we introduce the unborn, born and from the Father who comes (see John 15:26), as God Himself, the Word, says in one place. “But when was this birth and procession?” – Before the “when”. If it is necessary to express it a little more boldly: then, like the Father. But when is Father? - It has never happened that the Father was not there. And also it never happened that there was not a Son, and there was not a Holy Spirit. You will ask me again, and I will answer you again. When was the Son born? – When the Father was not born. When did the Spirit depart? When the Son did not come out, but was born outside of time and ineffable, although we cannot imagine what is above time, even wanting to avoid expressions meaning time, because the words “when,” “before,” “after,” “first” do not exclude time, no matter how hard we try; Shall we take eternity, that is, a continuation that extends along with the eternal, and is not divided into parts and is not measured by any movement or flow of the sun, which is characteristic of time. “But if the Son and the Spirit are coeternal with the Father; then why are they not co-originating”? Because they are from the Father, although not after the Father. It is true that the beginningless is eternal; but the eternal does not need to be without beginning, as soon as it is raised to the Father, as to the beginning. So, the Son and the Spirit are not without beginning in relation to the author. It is known that the culprit does not need to be more original than Those for whom He is the culprit; because the sun is not more original than light. And together the Son and the Spirit are without beginning in relation to time, although you frighten simple-minded people with this. For they are not under time, from whom is time (1). Christ still accepts much of this, namely: dishonorable things from Christ-haters, which he endures because he is long-suffering, and honorable things from Christ-lovers. And He hesitates, both to be the first to show His anger, and to show us His goodness - and perhaps in the meantime He gives them time to repent, and He tests us in love, whether we will not weaken in sorrows and deeds for piety. This has been the law of God’s economy and the unsearchable destinies of God since ancient times, according to which our affairs are wisely managed (1). Let us take advantage of time, which we can seize while it is approaching, and which we will seek in vain when it has passed. There is a time to plant a garden, a time to cultivate the land, a time to untie the ropes of seafaring ships, a time for trappers to catch animals in the mountains, a time for war. Flowers will be born in spring. Likewise, people have a decent time to learn, when fiery love warms the soul, when the insides of the heart have not yet been furrowed with diverse designs, but only newly written beauties adorn it (2). Time gave birth to history, and history gave birth to high-flying wisdom (2). The 42nd century is an extension that continually flows outside of time. And time is a measure of solar motion (2). Plotinus. Yennead. V. Kn. 2. Ch. 1. You might be interested in: