May 28th, 2025

 "I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End."
                                                                                                                                    Revelation 22:13





​No doubt you have seen this symbol many times. The Alpha and the Omega symbols individually are seen most often around college campuses in connection with “frat row.” They are also evident in most churches as they represent the divine person of Jesus Christ. Many times, the Alpha and Omega symbols are represented as a unified whole.

The truth is, there are many variations of this symbol to be found, but they all reflect the same truth.
The Church Fathers recognized the importance of the eternal reality of God proclaimed by Jesus, as St. Andrew of Caesarea wrote:

“Christ is shown here both as God and as the Ruler of all things, both beginningless and at the same endless, existing now and existing before and having no end, since He is coeternal with the Father, and on account of this He will render to each one the wages of deeds done.” 
                                                                 Commentary on the Apocalypse, The Fathers of the Church vol. 123

Additionally, Tertullian espouses:

So, too, the two letters of Greece, the first and the last, the Lord assumes to Himself, as figures of the beginning and end which concur in Himself: So that, just as Alpha rolls on till it reaches Omega, and again Omega rolls back till it reaches Alpha, in the same way He might show that in Himself is both the downward course of the beginning on to the end, and the backward course of the end up to the beginning; so that every economy, ending in Him through whom it began—through the Word of God, that is, Who was made flesh—may have an end correspondent to its beginning. And so truly in Christ are all things recalled to “the beginning”… and lastly, the whole man into Paradise, where he was “from the beginning.”

The importance of Christ’s self-revelation cannot be underestimated. To pray and meditate on this divine truth is to enter into a depth of revelation that has the ability to alter human perspective forever. 

God has no beginning, no point of origin. There was no “before” Him. There can never be an “after.” No one breathed life into His lungs, and no one can take His life from Him. “He is before all things, and by him all things hold together” (Colossians 1:17). "He is both the first and the last" (Isaiah 44:6). "He was and He is, and is He coming again" (Revelation 1:4).

Though God created time, He stands outside of it. Like a ship in a bottle, all time is observable by God at once. To even speak of God in terms that suggest finite temporal existence is incorrect, but we have no other way to describe Him. God is not in a separate time observing our time, God is at once, all.  In terms of our reliance upon God, God stands outside of time and our temporary troubles. There is no heartache that can outlast Him, and no hurt He wasn’t around to see.

But as vast and incomprehensible as our Creator God is, He sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to put on flesh and dwell with us, to enter into time, to die for us, and to save us from sin and death. “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation… all things have been created through him and for him” (Colossians 1:15-16).

The continuity of God has been part of God’s revelation since the beginning. In Psalm 90 the psalmist paraphrases Moses' exaltation of God’s timelessness: "Before the mountains were born or you brought forth the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God."
Eusebius, historian, exegete, and Christian polemicist, wrote:

Lastly, he who is in all, before, and after all, his only begotten, pre-existent Word, the great High Priest of the mighty God, elder than all time and every age, devoted to his Father’s glory, first and alone makes intercession with him for the salvation of mankind. Supreme and pre-eminent Ruler of the universe, he shares the glory of his Father’s kingdom: for he is that Light, which, transcendent above the universe, encircles the Father’s Person, interposing and dividing between the eternal and uncreated Essence and all derived existence: that Light which, streaming from on high, proceeds from that Deity who knows not origin or end, and illumines the super-celestial regions, and all that heaven itself contains, with the radiance of wisdom bright beyond the splendor of the sun. This is he who holds a supreme dominion over this whole world, who is over and in all things, and pervades all things visible and invisible; the Word of God. From whom and by whom our divinely favored emperor, receiving, as it were a transcript of God called every believer to be His son.  He gave His Word so that we could know what is going on around us.  Otherwise, without His Word, man would be completely lost.  God raised Jesus Christ from the dead so we could live a more than abundant life today and look forward to eternal life in His presence.  God will never send another savior.  Jesus Christ of Nazareth was “the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last.”
                                                                                                                                            The Oration of Eusebius

When you pray of pain and fear, remember that Jesus has been since before there was time. Know that God is, and always will be, here, now, for you and with you. This is your time.

In time,

Fr. Bill+

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