Hans Boersma, writing in Heavenly Participation, says:
Congar observes that, for Aquinas, the sacraments had a threefold reference: they referred to Christ’s own redemptive acts, which were active in the sacraments (past reference); to eternal life as the sacraments’ aim (future reference); and to the effect that the sacraments have in our lives (present reference). Congar then makes it clear that he believes that, according to the Christian understanding, time itself is sacramental in character:
Thus the sacraments have a peculiar temporal duration, in which past, present, and future are not mutually exclusive, as in chronological time. Sacramental time, the time of the Church, allows the sharing by men who follow each other through the centuries in an event which is historically unique and which took place at a distant time; this sharing is achieved not merely on the intellectual level, as I could commune with Plato’s thought, or with the death of Socrates, but in the presence and action of the mystery of salvation. (Tradition and Traditions, p. 260)
For Congar, “sacramental time” or “the time of the Church” means that past, present, and future can coincide. As a result, people from different historical eras can participate or share in the same event.
God uses the cyclic nature of the liturgical calendar to reveal this truth to us. In astrophysics, a wormhole is a loop in the fabric of space. This shortcut connects point A and point B, which would otherwise be far apart, so that they are nearby. Similarly, while year 2017 and year 0 are far apart, Advent 2017 and Advent 0 become close to us, through the temporal wormhole of sacramental time. In mathematics, particularly number theory, modular arithmetic is a system in which integers “wrap around” like the arms on a clock. Two numbers a and b are congruent modulo n if they have the same remainder after being divided by n. For example, we have
359 × 2017 = 724,103 ≡ 359 (modulo 365).
Similarly, Christmas Day 0 AD and Christmas Day 2017 AD have a sacramental congruence, made available to us through the liturgical calendar. This was all part of God’s plan from the beginning:
And God said: Let there be lights made in the firmament of heaven, to divide the day and the night, and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days and years.
aflexiblechain 