Eternal Life – What Is It? (Part I)

By Fr. Christopher Foeckler, MJ • St. Josaphat Formation Center, Phoenix, AZ

With the Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Mother coming next month and the Ascension of the Lord pretty fresh in mind, let’s consider Heaven since that is where both went and, of course, where we hope to go also someday with all our relatives, friends and co-inhabitants of Earth. Heaven is principally a state of being, a new kind of life: Eternal life. We are going to spend this month and next answering, within our limited space, the question: Eternal Life – what is it?

Eternal life is the greatest gift that our Lord Jesus promised to those who would believe in the Father and in the One Whom He sent. It is the goal of Christian life, the object of Christian hope, the deepest longing of the human heart. It is also the great motivator for faith and a good moral life and, as such, is indispensable to the New Evangelization!

But as Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI observes in his encyclical on Hope, “Perhaps many people today reject the Faith simply because they do not find the prospect of Eternal Life attractive.” They wrongly think that Eternal Life is a continuation of this present life – forever! And to these, the Pope says, “appears more like a curse than a gift”. It is important then to get the answer right, or at least as close as we can get to the true reality.

St. Paul says of Heaven, “Eye has not seen, ear has not heard, nor has it even entered the imagination of man what God has prepared for those who love Him”. An enticing description, even if we cannot conceive what Eternal Life is going to be like. It is beyond our experience, our understanding, our human concepts. St. Augustine calls this a “learned ignorance” for “we do not know this ‘true life’, and yet we know that there must be something we do know towards which we feel driven”. 

St. John says, “When Christ appears, we will be like Him, for we will see Him as He is.” However veiled, this is a good clue into the nature of Eternal Life, to “see Him as HE is”. “In a little while you will not see Me and again in a little while you will see Me, and your hearts will rejoice and no one will be able to take away your joy”.