Chronology

Today is the feast of Saint Hilarion the Great, who lived in Palestine in the 4th century A.D. I told the boys the story of his life, at a high level, and I didn't really mean to belabor the point about his having lived over 1600 years ago, but chronology turned out to be very important to them.

Daniel volunteered the transition between his life and our own lives:

"And then he died - when we came to life?"

Me: No, he died long before that.

Ian: What about when you were born?

Me: No, even before then.

Ian: Before your father was born?

Me: Long, long before then.

Daniel: Even before Adam and Eve?

At this point, Ian explained, accurately, the sequence from the time of Adam and Eve, to the life of Christ on earth, to the life of Saint Hilarion, and finally our own lives. We didn't dwell on the centuries that passed between each of these periods; I was just happy that he had worked out the correct order of events.

Still, Daniel was unhappy when I mentioned, at the end of the biography, that Saint Hilarion died in 375. He protested: "But we never got to see him!"

I explained that one of the good things about Saints is that they live on, and everyone in Heaven can see them.

(November 3, 2010)

But we never got to see him