Strengthening Our Faith in the Eternal Life

By Fr. Roy Cimagala

DAYS after the Solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord, the liturgical prayers somehow lead us to the consideration of the truth of our faith that there is such thing as eternal life. That’s actually our definitive life toward which our earthly life should pursue with our all-out effort and God’s grace. That’s where we achieve our human perfection when we would fully become God’s image and likeness as he wants us to be.

We, of course, need to strengthen our faith in it and do everything we can to align all our earthly realities to such ideal. We have to be wary of our tendency, quite strong as it is, to get trapped in the earthly and temporal dimensions of our life, failing to relate them to the ultimate goal of our life.

We have to realize that precisely because we have been created as God’s image and likeness, our nature has been endowed with the spiritual powers of intelligence and will. With these powers, we have been given the choice between going up—that is, to choose God—and going down—that is, to choose simply to be by ourselves.

But we need to understand that our human nature is poised to enter into the spiritual and supernatural life of God. Failing in that would only mean that our human nature cannot help but fall into an infranatural level, marked by all kinds of weaknesses and sin. In short, there is no such thing as human nature by itself. It either has to go supernatural with God, or to go infranatural like all other animals.

In other words, our human nature is actually a work in progress in its earthly and temporal phase. It’s not yet a finished product. Our creation by God is still an ongoing affair, one that requires our cooperation. That’s because God wants us to be like him, intelligent and free, and he just cannot impose his will and designs on us without us knowing and agreeing to it. In a sense, we are co-creators with God of our own selves.

It’s important that we have an abiding sense of the supernatural goal of our life and of the eternal life that is presented to us as our definitive life. To develop that sense, of course, requires faith which is first of all a gift from God which we should eagerly receive.

Christ articulated what eternal life is and how it can be pursued when he said: “Now this is eternal life: That they may know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.” (Jn 17,3)

Of course, knowing God and Jesus Christ will always involve loving God and Jesus Christ, doing God’s will or God’s commandments. Thus, Christ said it very clearly, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” (Jn 14,15)

This means that our will should be nothing other than God’s will. This, in the end, is what is most important to us. It’s not just following our will which is, of course, indispensable to us. Otherwise, we would be undermining our very own freedom and our humanity itself. Whatever we do is done because we want it. It should be a fruit of our freedom.

But what is most important is to conform our will to God’s will, which is even more indispensable to us. Otherwise, we sooner or later would destroy our freedom and our humanity itself, since God is the very author and the very lawgiver of our freedom and our humanity.

This is how we can develop a sense of the eternal life meant for us!

Email: roycimagala@gmail.com