1620.5AFC051616 Contemporaneous Concomitance
Aloha pumehana, a me ke akua ho’omaika‘i ‘oe, ʻŌmea! Warmest Aloha, and may God bless you, Belovéd! This is an add-on essay to explain the term Contemporaneous Concomitance. I mention it fairly often – usually in the context of the Crucifixion and especially the Ascension. When it comes up, I usually say, “I’ll have to tell you about that sometime.” “Sometime” has arrived, so here is what I want you to know. For me, this is one of those “foundational aspects of faith.” What you see here is my interpretation of what it means. Other more scholarly writers might find this simplistic or even wrong. For me, it’s just one way to understand how an Eternal God can be in touch with me at any time; for me that means the converse must also be true: I can be in touch with the Eternal God at any time because he’s in touch with me. Is that circular logic? Well, I’m not sure I can answer that, but it is certainly not linear and neither is Eternity. Here we go, then!
CONTEMPORANEOUS [kən-tem’-pə-rā-nē-əs]: existing, occurring, or originating during the same time period. Simultaneous – existing, occurring, or originating during the same instance or instant.
CONCOMITANCE [kən-kä-mə-tən(t)s] : accompanying especially in a subordinate or incidental way; something that accompanies or is collaterally connected with something else, Meaning: present at the same time and place. Con-com-i-tance: the fact of existing or occurring together with something else.
© In theology
The doctrine that the body and blood of Christ are each present in both the bread and the wine of the Eucharist.
The doctrine that explains why the whole Christ is present under each Eucharistic species. Christ is indivisible, so that his body cannot be separated from his blood, his human soul, his divine nature, and his divine personality. Consequently he is wholly present in the Eucharist. But only the substance of his body is the specific effect of the first consecration at Mass; his blood, soul, divinity, and personality become present by concomitance, i.e., by the inseparable connection that they have with his body. The Church also says the “substance” of Christ’s body because its accidents, though imperceptible, are also present by same concomitance, not precisely because of the words of consecration.
But again by concomitance his body and entire self become present as well. (Etym. Latin concomitantia, accompaniment.)
When He was on the Cross, I was on His mind (↔ Music Link)
Written by: Ronnie Hinson & Mike Payne
As Performed By the Florida Boys
I’m not on an ego trip; I’m nothing on my own.
I make mistakes and sometimes slip;
Just common flesh and bone.
But I’ll prove some day just why I say –
I’m of a special kind –
For when He was on the cross,
I was on His mind.
A look of love was on His face.
The thorns were in His head.
The blood was on that scarlet robe
And stained it crimson red.
Though His eyes were on the crowd that day,
He looked ahead in time
For when He was on the cross
I was on His mind.
He knew me, yet He loved me
He whose glory makes the Heaven’s shine!
I am so unworthy, of such mercy.
For when He was on the cross
I was on His mind.
For when He was on the cross
I was on His mind.
In my life, I have come to understand contemporaneous concomitance as a mystery or presence. The eternal is always part of the temporal, Spiritual is implicit in the mundane, and death is always integral to life. If Jesus is present at creation, and if I am always with him, I am present within him at Creation because he knows what, when, and who I am and will be – all at the same time together in the same place.
I have thought about this song so many times when I contemplate His Passion and Death. I completely believe He knew what He was doing, why He was doing it, what the outcome would be, and my part in the whole process. When I think about all of that, I often get lost in all the implications of it. In those meditations, I think about other passages like
Jeremiah 1:5 – 5 “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,
and before you were born I consecrated you;
I appointed you a prophet to the nations.”
This passage from Psalm 139, Psalm 139:11-17 especially, also captures my thoughts and directs my meditations: 11 If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me,
and the light around me become night,”
12 even the darkness is not dark to you;
the night is as bright as the day,
for darkness is as light to you.
13 For it was you who formed my inward parts;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
14 I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
Wonderful are your works;
that I know very well.
15 My frame was not hidden from you,
when I was being made in secret,
intricately woven in the depths of the earth.
16 Your eyes beheld my unformed substance.
In your book were written
all the days that were formed for me,
when none of them as yet existed.
17 How weighty to me are your thoughts, O God!
How vast is the sum of them!
So, why the big words, and what is all of this about anyway? This is something I have wanted to share with you for a long, long time, Belovéd. For me, this combination of words leads to a kind of meditation that is awe-inspiring, and that inspired awe leads to even deeper meditations, higher realizations, and wider horizons of faith.
Jesus is The Alpha and The Omega, the very beginning of The Beginning:
John 1:1-5 – 1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being 4 in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.
He is from Everlasting. I am not from there, but I am going there. He is Eternal (existing perpetually without reference to linear time) all as well as Omnipresent (present in all places at all times). I am in Him and He is in me. He knew me before I knew anything or anyone; and yet despite that He still loves me, still inhabits me and is known in my praise. He still allows me to inhabit Him and His Kingdom. He is present with me at all times yet I am not always completely aware of His presence. However, I become present with Him in my awareness, our shared presence unites us. I can share the moments in Bethlehem and Nazareth. I can feel the desperation of the fast and secretive trip to Egypt. I can cross the Sea of Galilee, weep with Him over Jerusalem, stand in the Palace of Herod, even climb the rough slope of Golgotha. In all of that I know what it is like to be with Him because He is with me; he knows it, and I know it.
Now, I confess that sounds odd. Maybe it even sounds arrogant. I hope it isn’t heretical! But I do know that if I want to be where Jesus is, I have to go where Jesus goes; because he is not a temporal time-bound being like me, He and I “can go anywhere and everywhere just as easily as saying it.” ♥ and we do that together as part of our shared reality. It’s not my imagination taking flights of fancy across the centuries. It is my heart, my life, my time in this world, my senses and sensibilities – all united with Him. ♥ See Poems to my Peace, VI
We live in The Kingdom now. We have a foot in the next life now. We walk with Him with every breath we take even if we never know that’s what is happening! But when we KNOW that He is God and that He is present in every moment of our lives from the day the Spirit moved across the waters to the day when there are no more days, then we are “on His mind.” If he is on the cross looking at me and thinking of my need for and love of Him as he suffocates in agony there and if at the same time I am at the foot of the cross sobbing with grief at what I have done, then we are sharing the same moments that are originating at the same time, and we are present at the same time and place. He has united us to Him eternally through two absolutely stupendous acts: Creation and Salvation. He did that so that at the end of Act 3 – Resurrection, we will know and understand with absolutely clear certainty that we were always and everywhere with Him in all things simply because He chose to be with us.
My Lord and My God! Behold. I am come. Maran atha, Marana tha!
Whatever, whenever, wherever, whoever, however, if ever, forever —
at your service, Belovéd!
Please pray with us here at Share-a-Prayer.
Pray for the PEOPLE – all the People. Pray that all the Earth will know the Salvation of God. Pray for the poor, the marginalized, the suffering, the lost and lonely, and those who hear the call of God but disbelieve the reality of His Presence in every second; every cubic-centimeter, every though word and action of their lives. Offer God their day, the very best moments of their day:
A Prayer for All Living Souls
Jesus, lover of mankind, You came to Earth centuries ago to be the way, the truth, and the life, and yet countless men and women, boys and girls, do not know You, do not love You as well as they could, and many are indifferent or opposed to You. In this state of being, Lord, they might not consciously offer You their lives today. There are millions more, Lord, who do know You, do love You, but do not know about, do not care about, or have forgotten about making a daily offering, so Lord, on behalf of every living soul, whether good or bad, I offer You the best moments of their day today so that You might be loved and honored in some way by them, too. Lord Jesus Christ, be merciful to them all as miserable sinners, forgive them their sins, and bring them to everlasting life. Amen.
A Morning Offering
- Almighty Everliving God, my El Shaddai-Olam, I joyfully offer You this day and my entire life as a sacrifice of adoration, thanksgiving, and praise.
- Bless and approve this offering, sanctify it and make it Holy, so that it becomes for you a living sacrifice Holy and acceptable to You, O LORD, my Strength and my Redeemer – an offering made in Spirit and in Truth.
- I joyfully offer You this day because You are my God and I am Your servant and this is my reasonable service of joyful worship.
- I joyfully offer You this day because You are my Creator and I am Your creation, and all creation rightly gives You joyful thanks and praise.
- I joyfully offer You this day because I love You, and I love You joyfully because You first loved me.
- Thank You for this day, this life, this love, this JOY. Please help me to use them for whomsoever or whatsoever Your will allows.
- I offer this prayer in Jesus’ name. AMEN.
Whatever, whenever, wherever, whoever, however, if ever, forever —
at your service, Belovéd!
Please pray with us here at Share-a-Prayer.
