What happens to saints when they die?

[Angainor]

[post=661839]This post[/post] raised some questions in my mind.

Viki59:

I would say rather that since God, and presumably the saints, are existing in eternity outside of time, Mary has all the “time” she needs to consider each prayer individually. Of course it’s just a guess, but He does say that a thousand years are as a day to Him, and a day is as a thousand years, which would tend to support my theory.

Do saints really exist outside of time?

What happens after Jesus 2nd coming and the dead are raised and given new bodies, do they still exist outside of time?

 

[challenger]

I can’t point you to an official Church document, but I am fairly certain that Saints do exist outside of time.

 

[DeFide]

[post=661839]
This post[/post] raised some questions in my mind.Do saints really exist outside of time?

What happens after Jesus 2nd coming and the dead are raised and given new bodies, do they still exist outside of time?

The Church doesn’t have a difinitive teaching on the nature of time or sequentiality in heaven, so it’s largely a matter of speculation and theory. I’d be careful with the word “eternal” since it can suggest pre-existence as well which would be misleading.

One thing to note, and perhaps is painfully obvious, is that the level of awareness of those in Heaven far surpasses those of us on Earth. Notice how during the Transfiguration, Moses and Elijah are aware of future earthly events in Luke 9:31.

Time is merely the measure of that which changes. So at least for the perfect and thus immutable God, time simply does not apply. He is pure act and is and outside of time. To the degree saints change, they would seem to be subject to time or some sort of sequentiality.

 

[Sir_Knight]

DeFide:

… Time is merely the measure of that which changes …

Exactly. Time is a measure of motion – the earth revolving around the sun (one year), the earth rotating on it’s axis, etc.; all the way down to a proton revolving with the nucleus of an atom – which happens billions or trillions of times a second. Without motion, there is no time.