There’s life after death

WE need to strengthen our faith in our life after death.

We need to reinforce that belief especially because nowadays there is

clearly an ebbing away from that truth of our Christian faith. We tend

to get distracted by the things of this world, and worse, to get too

attached to them as to ignore our life after death.

            The readings of the Fifth Sunday of Lent, Year A, clearly

tell us about this truth. We are meant for eternal life. We are meant

for a life with God forever. But we have to be ready for it, deeply

realizing that what we have now in our earthly life is precisely the

means and the path, not an obstacle, for us to enter into eternal

life. We need to see the vital link between time and eternity, the

material and the spiritual, the natural and supernatural.

            From the Book of Ezekiel, we read: “The Lord Yahweh says

this, I am now going to open your graves. I shall raise you from your

graves, my people, and lead you back to the soil of Israel.” (37,12)

Here, we already have an allusion of the truth about life after death.

            This truth is reiterated in the second reading from the

Letter to the Romans: “If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the

dead has made his home in you, then he who raised Christ Jesus from

the dead will give life to your own mortal bodies through his Spirit

living in you.” (8,11)

            And all this point is rounded off with that beautiful

story of the raising of Lazarus where Christ clearly said: “I am the

resurrection. Anyone who believes in me, even though that person dies,

will live, and whoever lives and believes in me will never die…” (Jn

11,25-26)

            We need to develop a sense of the eternal life, making

ourselves eternity-ready all the time, knowing how to connect our

earthly time with the heavenly eternity.          We have to

constantly remind ourselves of what the Letter to the Hebrews has told

us clearly. “We don’t have a permanent city here on earth, but we are

looking for the city that we will have in the future.” (13,14)

            We have to train our mind and heart, as well as our

feelings and senses, to conform themselves to this truth of our faith.

In our personal prayers and meditations, let us consider from time to

time the reality of heaven and reinforce that primitive yearning we

have in our heart for a life without end, for a happiness that has no

limits, which can only take place in heaven.

            Let us remind ourselves frequently that our faith tells us

that we actually come from God, and not just from our parents, and

that we are meant to be with God forever in heaven after our earthly

sojourn which is meant to test us if we want to be with God or just

with ourselves.

            We have to learn how to link our earthly time with the

eternity of heaven by nourishing our belief that there is God and that

he is our Creator who gives us our very existence and that he

continually, without any gap or break, is intervening our life. We

have to be more aware of this truth, and more importantly, know how to

deal with it.

            We have to know what is of absolute value in this life and

what only has a relative value. We have to be more aware of the

ever-abiding providence of God. That way, we would always have

optimism despite the difficulties, challenges and possible mistakes we

can commit.

            Thus, it is important that we know how to pray, how to

strengthen our faith, hope and charity, how to relate everything in

our life to the ultimate eternal life. We need to be eternity-ready,

not just future-ready, with the figurative go-bag always by our side.