Training for Eternal Life

By Fr. Roy Cimagala

KNOWING that we are meant for eternal life with God in heaven, we should understand that our life here on earth is meant to train us for that ultimate goal of ours. It is also a testing ground to see if what God wants us to be for all eternity is also what we ourselves would want to be.

Of course, what God wants us to be is to be like him since we have been created in his image and likeness, meant to be share in very life and nature. And that means that, in the end, just as God is love itself, as shown in its fulness by Christ, we should try our best to incarnate and live that love which is all inclusive even as it continues to keep the exclusivity of truth. It’s also a love that oozes with mercy.

We obviously can only do so much, given our natural limitations, not to mention the wounded condition of our life that is always hounded by sin. But we just have to do what we can, taking things to the limit, never saying enough. Anyway, Christ has assured us of final victory as long as we stick with him all the way to the end, regardless of how the drama of our life plays out.

Let’s always remember these reassuring words of St. Paul: “He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” (Phil 1,6) We should just try our best to be more and more like Christ, even if our best can never be enough.

To be more and more like Christ, to be more and more like God can only mean to be more and more in love with God, to be more and more united with him. And in practical terms, it means to be more and more in love and united with everybody else, irrespective of how they are. That’s because to love God here on earth is also to love everybody else.

Said in another way, if we really want love to reign between God and us, all we have to do is to love our neighbor. In this we have these words of Christ himself: “Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful. Stop judging and you will not be judged. Stop condemning and you will not be condemned. Forgive and you will be forgiven…For the measure with which you measure will in return be measured out to you.” (Lk 6,36-38)

Thus, when Christ was asked what the greatest commandment was, he readily said it was to love God with everything that we have got, and without being asked what the second greatest commandment was, he volunteered to say it—that it was to love your neighbor as yourself. (cfr. Mt 22,36-40)

As we can see, loving God and loving others always go together. We cannot have one without the other. The immediate corollary we can derive from this consideration is that we do not have to wait for some special occasions, some special reasons or persons to show our love for God.

Every moment, every person, every situation, no matter how ordinary and plain they may be, is a moment to show our love for God. The moment we start to be nice to others, we are already starting to be nice with God, and thus loving him.

This is how we can effectively train ourselves for eternal life!

Email: roycimagala@gmail.com