Word to the Wise
Tuesday, May 22, 2007 - Tuesday of the Seventh Week of Easter
[Acts 20:17-27 and John 17:1-11]Eternal life is this: to know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.
We have an expression: "a little bit of heaven on earth...." We use this to express a wonderful event or occurrence or even a splendid meal! It's rarely meant as a theological statement! In general we think of heaven as a future possibility rather than a present reality. But the Gospel of John presents eternal life as a present reality! The scripture scholars call it "realized eschatology." This means what we hope for at the end of time is actually present in the relationship we have with the Lord NOW. Through faith in Christ, we experience eternal life in the here and now! That is not something many of us spend much time thinking about. We treasure a good relationship with Christ, but "eternal life" is something beyond death where "there is no more sorrow, no more tears!" Yet, what IS our relationship with God if it is not a relationship with an eternal reality! And if this relationship is "life-giving," what kind of life does it give? In point of fact, the incarnation means that God brought eternity to the temporal world and offers it "now and forever." This is a powerful reality that comes with our baptism. It is available to us in prayer and sacrament. We need only to reach out in faith for it and share it with others! If we feel sometimes so very blessed just to know our closest and dearest friends and how much those relationships give us life, the same thing can be true of our relationship to God. It can be heaven on earth! AMEN
config
view
logs
3840.0 KB
60 ms
4
