Everlasting Life
Harking back for thousands of years to times before the 5th century B.C., even the great Greek historian Herodotus related stories of a fabulous Fountain of Youth, which possessed amazing powers to cure and restore people. It was a reflection of the desire of all mankind to live fully for an indefinite period of time, even forever—everlasting life. During their elementary school years, many students are introduced to the 16th century explorer, Ponce de Leon, who unsuccessfully searched for the legendary Fountain of Youth in Florida. Ponce de Leon, as was the case of many explorers before and after him, never discovered the Fountain of Youth. In the modern world of the 21st century, countless numbers of individuals seek youthfulness and long life in magic formulas, mineral concoctions, and anti-aging creams. Mankind will continue to seek an everlasting life as long as man lives… and it will always be disappointed in its search. Yet, mankind may indeed have access to an everlasting life, just not the kind of earthly life it has been seeking.
In fact, mankind has been assured that it will experience everlasting life; God is the guarantor of this assurance. Yes, God, especially through his Son Jesus Christ, has promised mankind a life that will not end. Jesus confidently assures us, “He who believes in me, though he dies, yet shall he live.” (Jn 11 25) Pope Benedict XVI noted in his 2nd volume of Jesus of Nazareth, “It is in the encounter with him (Jesus Christ) that we experience the recognition of God that leads to communion and to life….. through with relationship with the one who is life, man to comes alive.” It is not a life as we know it on earth, but rather a divine life, bound with God, a sharing in his divinity. Everlasting life does not begin at our bodily death. Our souls are naturally immortal. Once they are created by God at our conception, they will never end. Our souls have an eternal future. We believe that, provided we die in the state of grace, our souls will share in the very happiness of the God
However, during his lifetime a person can, by the poor choices he makes, lose the grace necessary for life with God. If he dies without seeking God’s forgiveness for his poor choices, then he will experience not Everlasting Life with its joy and happiness, but rather Everlasting Death with its horrors of rejection and misery….forever.
St. Thomas Aquinas succinctly summarized the conditions of Everlasting Life in his Catechism, The Apostles’ Creed, Article Twelve.
“….what is everlasting life. And in this we must know that in everlasting life man is united to God. God Himself is the reward and the end of all our labors: “I am thy protector, and thy reward exceeding great.”[3] This union with God consists, firstly, in a perfect vision: “We see now through a glass in a dark manner; but then face to face.”[4] Secondly, in a most fervent love; for the better one is known, the more perfectly is one loved: “The Lord hath said it, whose fire is in Sion, and His furnace in Jerusalem.”[5] Thirdly, in the highest praise. “We shall see, we shall love, and we shall praise,” as says St. Augustine.[6] “Joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving and the voice of praise.”[7]
God’s gift of Everlasting Life is freely given to mankind; it is mankind’s choice as whether to accept the gift or to reject it.
As St. Augustine says: “Thou hast made us for Thee, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in Thee.”[
Suggested Reading:
“Introduction to Christianity”, by Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, published by Ignatius Press, Part Two, Section C, part 3.
“The Catechism of St. Thomas Aquinas”, the section on The Apostles’ Creed can be accessed at www.cin.org/users/james/ebooks/master/aquinas/aindex.htm. The entire catechism is also in print on amazon.com