As we consider the question of eternal life, let us begin with two works of fiction. In the British classic Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift, the main character visits various strange lands. Among these is the country of Luggnagg, where live the Struldbruggs, a group of people who are immortal. Though Struldbruggs do not die, they still experience aging and disease, which makes their condition well-nigh unbearable after some time. They have the gift of immortality without the gift of eternal youth.
In another fictional universe, the vampire novels of Anne Rice, we see a different kind of immortality. Here the vampires can live indefinitely in our world, unless they are killed by sunlight or fire. They do not age, nor are they subject to illness. However, these vampires are atheists and have no belief in anything greater than themselves. In time, an existential boredom sets in, which causes a deep, restless angst. In one of the books, The Vampire Lestat, one vampire in fact commits suicide by jumping into fire because he cannot endure endless days without meaning. The message, whether intentional or not, is clear. Endless life without meaning is not a gift but a burden.
The life Christ offers is not like either of these fictional scenarios. Eternal life in Christ will not be situated in our current physical world. The Church believes that when we die our soul lives on, separate from the body. At the end of time, Christ will return and raise all the dead, giving them perfected bodies that will no longer be subject to the corruption of our world. No more disease, aging, or death. At the same time, Christ will also remake the universe, creating a New Heaven and a New Earth, a perfect world, where there will be no more suffering. Unlike the unfortunate characters in Swift's book, we will receive not only eternal life but also eternal well-being.
In terms of meaning, we will receive the only true fulfillment of the human heart - life in Christ. As human beings, we are born with a deep, innate hunger for something greater than ourselves. We go through life trying to find ways to satiate that hunger, that deep existential yearning. Only when we accept Christ's love and give him our complete love in return do we find true fulfillment, true satisfaction for our existential desire.
The eternal life we receive is not merely life in a perfected world, but life in Christ. To try to fathom what life in Christ means, I will return to prior reflections, where I have talked about the Holy Trinity. One way to try to conceptualize the mystery of the Holy Trinity is to start with the premise that God is infinite love. Love, by its very nature, requires a love dynamic. In God, there is the Father, who is the One Who Loves. His love is received and reciprocated by the Son, who is the Beloved. The love that exists between the Father and the Son is the Holy Spirit. The Holy Trinity is an eternal exchange of infinite love, which is not bound by time, but takes place in the eternal timeless now of God’s infinite nature.
Jesus Christ is the Second Person of the Holy Trinity, who has taken on a human nature, becoming one of us, without losing or lessening his divinity. By doing so, Jesus establishes the closest possible union between the Creator and his creation. What is more, Jesus compares the love he has for us with the love that exists between him and the Father. Jesus loves us with the same eternal, infinite outpouring of love that exists within the Holy Trinity. When we are baptized into Christ, we enter into the closest possible union between us, created beings, and God, our Creator. Jesus then shares with us the infinite, eternal outpouring of divine love that is the Holy Trinity. We are to live and have our being in that divine love. We are to be partakers of God’s infinite, eternal love without end, without limit. That is what life in Christ means. That is the eternal life that Christ offers us.
No suffering, no aging, no disease, no death. Complete fulfillment. Absolute peace and joy. Eternally partaking of God's infinite, eternal love. This is the eternal life that awaits us if we say yes to Christ's self-giving to us in the Eucharist by eating his flesh and drinking his blood and offering our lives to him fully in return.
||
The readings for the Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle B are:
1 Kgs 19:4-8
Ps 34:2-3, 4-5, 6-7, 8-9
Eph 4:30—5:2
Jn 6:41-51
The full text can be found at the USCCB website.
Photo Credit: Synangogue at Capernaum, built on the floor plan of the first century synagogue where Jesus proclaimed the Bread of Life discourse (c) 2016 by Zoltan Abraham.