We Must Never Exist, But Live!
What does it mean to have eternal life? Br Francis Dominic reflects.
Readings: John 3:31-36
The following homily was preached to the student brothers during Compline. You can listen here or read below:
‘Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.’
Did you catch that? Whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, and yet the wrath of God remains on him! Now, how is it that someone who “does not see life,” still have the wrath of God remaining on him?
Clearly, what we mean by life here is not merely a prolonged existence. As the-soon-to-be-saint Pier Giorgio Frassati said, “To live without Faith, without a patrimony to defend, without a steady struggle for Truth, that is not living but existing. We must never exist, but live!”
Besides, our soul is already immortal, as the current Catechism, paragraph 366 clearly states: “The Church teaches that every spiritual soul… is immortal: it does not perish when it separates from the body at death, and it will be reunited with the body at the final Resurrection.”
We are already made to be immortal—whether we like it or not. Herein is a certain tragedy of our human condition, I think. What do you do with your immortality? Do we still really want to live forever, if it means that there is a possibility that we will get stuck in our misery—in a state of separation from God, who is the ultimate Good?
I think it almost goes without saying. Somehow, yes, we do! Despite the miseries we experience in this life, by and large, we would give almost anything else to save our own life, to continue to experience life. But still, we know that true life is found through freedom from sin, pain, and misery.
On this day, as we are celebrating Pope St. Pius V, we can draw also from what the Roman Catechism has to say about eternal life. “Among the blessings which we instinctively desire life is certainly esteemed one of the greatest… If, then, there is nothing more loved, nothing dearer or sweeter, than this short and calamitous life, which is subject to so many and such various miseries that is should rather be called death; with what ardor of soul, with what earnestness of purpose, should we not seek that eternal life which, without evil of any sort, presents to us the pure and unmixed enjoyment of every good?”
We do not have to despair about the miseries of this life or the prospect of eternal misery, because instead we have proof of eternal life in our Risen Lord, our Savior. Our hope rests on Him, and we can trust that he comes not to judge, but to save, and to call us to enjoy that blessed union with God in heaven, that can only best be described as eternal life! After all, He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.
Brothers, our holy Father Dominic prayed so earnestly for sinners. He prayed for this supreme gift to be granted to all. He prayed for all to believe in the Son and have eternal life. Let us turn our minds to the things above, to our divine calling, and make it our mission to bring others along with us too.
Image: Matthias Stom – Jesus Christ and Nicodemus (c. 1640-1650). Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
