6th Easter: Living life eternally

To live life eternally, do we grasp the fuller meaning of this? Eternal means more than forever, it actually means for us that there is no time at all. It is hard to wrap our minds around this, but God is eternal, and God does not exist in time, so there is no forever, there is no reference in time. If we think on that too much, we will get a headache. We humans cannot not think of time.

To live life eternally in one sense is that we continue on, in some form, after our physical life comes to an end. We believe this as Christians.

And it also means more…

God is eternal and God is love. So using logic, we can say Love is eternal. Love has always been, is now and ever shall be. It is an eternal value. As well any value we equate with God, which actually derives from Love, such as mercy, kindness, compassion, generosity.

Heaven is that state in which the fullness of God exists, and thus the fullness of these values, the fullness of love.  God created the heavens and the earth, to be one. Our world, our lives were created for these eternal values to have being as well; paradise. Yet, humanity chose other, lesser values; and humanity chooses to this day lesser values.

Jesus came so that we may have life, and have life in the full. Jesus came so that we can have eternal life; not just a life after death, but a life in the now in which we experience and in which we bring forth those eternal values of God which are given to us in Grace.

To live life eternally is to love, to the best of our capacity, now. And as we do so, we work with Jesus to bring heaven into earth.

Jesus “commands” us to love, this is not like an order such as we might think; we think of someone with authority telling us what to do. No, rather, Command implies importance, it is a revelation of reality. It is an invitation to live something amazing. Jesus even says, this is not about us being slaves, this is about friendship, relationship.

Love, an eternal value, that has always existed, through grace is poured into us. Love, an eternal value in which we consciously choose to see, to believe in the goodness of an other, and of ourselves. Love, this eternal value, is when we think it, we choose to see a person, an experience, and hope and trust there is goodness there, and then we act on that. 

It is when in our families, our marriages, we have hard moments; moments even which we may not like the other; our spouse, our parents, our children, but we do not limit ourselves to that emotion, we choose to believe in their goodness…and we move forward to heal, to forgive, to talk and reconcile. 

It is when confronted by evil in this world, in our lives; the evil of war, the evil of racism, the evil of poverty; we don’t judge with more evil or with punishment, we make a choice to heal, to forgive, to resolve the situation for better, to bring about a justice that restores.

It is when we look in ourselves and we accept that we too have good within us; maybe it has been buried for a long time because others mistreated us; because we believe what others told us about ourselves; because of addictions; and we break that cycle and believe in God’s love for us; that God sees Good in us too. We choose to live differently, we choose to live with the freedom of God.

Consider what happens here at Mass. Those eternal values, the love of God breaks through into our world. There is a ceiling in the Church of Gesu in Rome. The paintings are amazing because they are three dimensional. They show literally heaven pouring into the world.

These values break through the Word of God being proclaimed and listened to.  These values especially come to us in the Eucharist. Think of it, God, love, pours into the bread and wine, they become the Body and Blood of Jesus, given to us. The eternal becoming part of this world; this world accepting the eternal.

Given to us, not just for our own sakes, but for the sake of this world. We are given the Body and Blood of Jesus not to escape this world, but to transform it; to bring the eternal, to bring Love, to Show God to this world.

Once again, I think of Fr. Greg Boyle SJ, who this week received the Presidential Medal of Freedom for his work among the gangs of Los Angeles. He loves those persons, he sees their goodness despite the violence, despite the choices. 

This is Heaven and earth becoming one.

It has to amaze us!  It must inspire us then to live differently, to think differently, to act differently; to allow ourselves in all parts of our lives, work, school, home or play, to love.

To live life eternally.