“Now this is eternal life, that they should know you, the only true God, and the one whom you sent, Jesus Christ.”
“Eternal life”—what do these words mean? It is the life that we want. All of us had some experiences of fulfillment, events that made us happy and free, experiences that gave us recognition of our absolute worth. They were experiences that told us that life makes sense. It could be throwing a touchdown pass, spending time with your friends on the beach, being in the arms of a loved one. In all of those experiences, we understood that life really is good and we did not want that experience to end. That is eternal life—that the happy moments of our lives never end. This is the life that we are created for and is the only reason for living, for our studies, for doing the works we do. The Christian message is that life is beautiful and happy. How often do we see our faith simply as a bunch of rules and sacrifices? Many Christians, with great intent, often speak of a Christian life as one of sacrifice. It is true that Christians sacrifice many things but the saints never saw it as giving up anything essential.
I remember a man thinking about priesthood. This man was a flirt. He could not resist flirting with any girl who was at least half-decently looking. A young girl once said, “You cannot be a priest. You love girls too much!” It was true that the man loved girls a lot. But does this mean that he should not be a priest? It is interesting that the young girl’s remark resembles the narrow conception of love the modern world has. The young man should have answered, “It is precisely because I love these women that I would be a priest. To love them means to love them as I love myself. And I love myself to the extent that I love my destiny, my vocation. To love them means to affirm who they are, who gave them to me, possess them in such a way that nobody can. I will possess them because I love them in Christ. I will choose priesthood precisely because I love women.” What the young girl lacked was a conception of love that knows no limits. Her narrow definition of love makes an idol out of God because it is a reduction of reality, of one’s heart and its desires.
Human love was created precisely for divine love, an eros that is fully self-giving. Jesus was right in that there are no husbands and wives in heaven. This is not because the husbands would not love their wives in heaven. It just means that the human love that we experience here on earth will be perfected in heaven. Husbands will love their wives in a greater way, that is, through and in divine love. Celibacy is more than human love; it is ascending to divine love. It is heaven on earth. To put it in another way, celibacy is God telling the person, “I cannot wait for heaven to love you this way.”
I tell this story of the young man who loved girls because it is often the case that we have reduced our desires to something finite, to what which is not lasting. It is true that when a football player throws a touchdown, he has the experience of feeling like he is exactly where he should be. But to think he should define his life by his success as a football player would be making a mockery of himself. His experience as a football player is a sign, a promise, that there is more to come. Football should be a part of his life but not the defining factor. What defines him is God who became man so that he may have life and live it abundantly.
We often find ourselves having a hard time with sacrifices because we have already limited our desires, our wants, to something that cannot last. Christianity, however, tells us to fix our gaze on what is lasting, to look to the eternal because anything less is unsatisfying.
“…that they should know you, the only true God.”
A happy life, eternal life, is knowledge of God. Knowledge of God is a familiarity. It is not an intellectual abstraction but an intimacy with the Other who loves us infinitely. But how often are we stuck in our skepticisms toward God? Many times we find the Christian life to be burdensome. We often try to live a virtuous life and yet we somehow fail to see our place in this world, our worth, and we even fall into sin. We find ourselves in a sadness that can turn into despair. Despair—this comes from skepticism. There are many events in our lives that did not go the way we expected that made us lose certainty of our place in this world. This is eternal life—that we become certain of everything; “that they should know you, the only true God.” Faith is not a leap but God’s gift of certainty to us.
Skepticism is the opposite of faith, of knowledge. It is essentially denying or doubting that God, who is our Destiny dwelling in the present moment, can become everything in our lives. What is a sign of skepticism? Dualism. That is, when we live a life that is schizophrenic, a life where God is there in one moment and gone the next. In other words, dualism is a partly opened heart. How much space do we have for God in our hearts? Do we go to our work half-heartedly? Do we doubt our talents and desires? Do we have a hard time with patience? Skepticism is failing to affirm who God is. Like Adam, it makes us run to the bushes, close our hearts, because we do not want God to enter. It is what leads to idolatry, for to close a part of one’s heart means you will worship something else rather than “the only true God.” All of us can remember in our lives when we closed our hearts to God and how we became enslaved to our own ideals, becoming a caricature of ourselves. In the end, it just made us unhappy. Skepticism, dualism, idolatry—the anti-trinitarian life makes us a Gollum; it makes us ugly and unhappy. No wonder, then, that Christ said that eternal life is precisely the opposite of skepticism, dualism, and idolatry; it is knowledge of the one true God.
“Now this is eternal life…that they should know…the one whom you sent, Jesus Christ.”
Prayer is recognizing that we cannot do anything by ourselves and recognition of God’s absolute power. The word “power” seems so cliché and non-Christian that we sometimes do not want to use it. But it is precisely understanding what the power of God is that will destroy the misconceptions the world has about the word. Power is liberation from slavery, from the caricatures we have made for ourselves. It is moving us to become more of ourselves, of becoming more human. It is here that we understand that the power of God is understanding the Fatherhood of God.
God is a Father to us in that He wants us to be free, to adhere to what is true, especially about ourselves. How do we know that God is a Father? From the One who was sent. The world was skeptical. It found itself wandering around, lost in the cosmos. And then there was an Intruder who came to give us certainty about our place in this world, to give us a certainty about our own hearts which asks for the infinite. The Intruder tells us to follow him and tells us that our place in this world is in the arms of his Father. The Son is the Intruder, the One who has died and risen from the dead. The crucified-risen One manifests to us that God can become everything in our lives. We look at the hands and feet of the Risen One and see that God never abandons him who gives his whole spirit to Him even though he is at the point of death. The Risen One was dominated by his Father and his love was better than life; life without love is hell. Christ descended into hell so that we can never despair, we can never suffer alone.
How can we know Christ? How can we know he who our God sent so that we are never alone, that we can be certain of our destiny? Through and in the Church, which is guided by the Spirit. In the Church, that is, in our friendship, we begin to desire Christ more intensely, more fervently. We concretely understand that the Spirit will never coerce us but awakens our freedom. Life in the Spirit of the Father and of Christ is life in the Church, which is a communion between God and man (1 Jn. 1:1-4). We begin to see the face of Christ in each other.
A lot of Christians think that life is individualistic. Rather, the Christian life is having lunch with a friend who moves you to think about and understand your life with Christ. It is hiking a mountain together so that beauty is co-experienced. It is having affection for those who are in need. In doing these things, we begin to see that we could not have done this by ourselves because we have our own skepticisms and frailties. Nor can we say that we are friends because we have the same mission in life. If we experience happiness with each other, it is because of grace, of the generosity of the Father who gave us His Son so that we will have His Spirit dwelling in us. We can find a place in this world because who we are made for has made Himself known to us. He has graced us with His presence so that we can feel at home in this world, although our home is in His infinite embrace; the Incarnation is the hospitality of God. We will experience His joy to the extent that we are naked before Him, naked before His Church. In service of the Church, we will find ourselves renewing the face of the earth, the earth that groans toward a new creation. We will find ourselves in gratitude, in eucharistia. Only in the body of Christ, in the Church, can we really find a home, a fully open heart, a life that makes sense.
In the Church, skepticism fades away and a new life dominated by love is begun. We will no longer find ourselves in idolatry, but rather we become a signpost, a sacrament, to the One who knows no end. And we will never despair because we are certain of our absolute worth, that we truly have a place here in this world because we are loved. When we experience this great event of love, we will find ourselves with great joy and find ourselves singing the praises of the angels. Singing belongs only to the lover and he who loves will never die. Truly, “this is eternal life, that they should know you, the only true God, and the one whom you sent, Jesus Christ.”
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romantic love that I am referring to. It is not temporal love either. It is self-emptying love. It is a radical love that seeks nothing but to serve for the glory of God. It is perseverant love. It is the kind of love that moves us out of ourselves and that bears it all for God’s sake. It is a supernatural love that acknowledges that there is life to come and that knows that this world is not an end in itself, but only a phase in our journey. It is a love that knows that we are simply nomads walking towards our final and eternal destiny to share in the joy of the Divine fellowship. It is the kind of love (caritas) that St. Paul talks about in his first letter to the Corinthians:
(Busy, busy, busy… Sorry for not updating the blog lately, but since the beginning of the year I have been working late hours and will be going on business travel the next couple of weeks. On top of that I just started another semester at school, so I have not had much of spare time.)
One of my favorite saints!
We always say grace before meals no matter where we are, but Michael and I have been wondering if there should be a doxology to the traditional prayer that will include all those who do not have the “grace” that we have been given to enjoy a meal. I know that one of our close friends adds a prayer at the end , but I forgot her exact words. Michael and I want to add a doxology that would include all those who are hungry, but I can’t come up with words as of yet. I probably haven’t given it enough thought. Do you say grace before meals? And if you do, do you just pray the traditional words or do you add some words at the end of the prayer?
Remember what I told you about 
