Eternal Life... What is It?

What kind of life is Jesus offering when he says, "“I am the resurrection and the life; whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die”?

Pope Benedict helps us reflect on this question with these excerpts from his latest encyclical Spe Salvi:

Obviously there is a contradiction in our attitude, which points to an inner contradiction in our very existence. On the one hand, we do not want to die; above all, those who love us do not want us to die. Yet on the other hand, neither do we want to continue living indefinitely… To continue living for ever —endlessly—appears more like a curse than a gift. Death, admittedly, one would wish to postpone for as long as possible. But to live always, without end—this, all things considered, can only be monotonous and ultimately unbearable (SS 11).

To imagine ourselves outside the temporality that imprisons us and in some way to sense that eternity is not an unending succession of days in the calendar, but something more like the supreme moment of satisfaction, in which totality embraces us and we embrace totality—this we can only attempt. It would be like plunging into the ocean of infinite love, a moment in which time—the before and after—no longer exists. We can only attempt to grasp the idea that such a moment is life in the full sense, a plunging ever anew into the vastness of being, in which we are simply overwhelmed with joy (SS 12).

Each of us has a desire waiting to be fulfilled, a wish waiting to come true, ultimately it is the desire for this eternal life being offered by Jesus Christ. But oftentimes, these are buried deep in our hearts, under our earthly, carnal and fleeting desires which we often mistake to be the lasting and truest desires. Like Lazarus in the grave, this desire for eternal life, for that supreme moment of satisfaction in which totality embraces us and we embrace totality…is waiting to be called by Jesus,. O

n this last week of Lent, as we come closer to Holy Week, let us allow Jesus to visit our graves, and call to life our deepest and truest desires by breathing the Spirit of life into our hearts, for He is our only hope and by this hope in Him, we are saved. Spe Salvi factus sumus.