Fr. Frank Majka, SJ – The Bridge

Eternity Life

Jesus said that if a person believes, he or she has eternal life (John, chapter 6). I always took this to mean that if I believed in Christ (and lived a good life, of course), I would be going to Heaven after I died.

Later I discovered that the Kingdom of God was something that started here on earth right now, an especially strong theological insight in last century’s church social teaching. But I never put “Kingdom of God” and “eternal life” together.

Then I learned that though Matthew, Mark and Luke talk about the Kingdom and John speaks of eternal life, all four are talking about the same thing. “Kingdom of God” and “eternal life” are two names for one reality.

If that is the case, then, for those who believe — who live as friends of Jesus and try to love others as he did — eternal life, like the Kingdom of God, begins here and now. Thus, Jesus says the believer “has” (not “will have”) eternal life. Eternal life begins here and goes on forever.

I find it challenging and consoling to think that I can share in eternal life even before I die. It means that how I live today should bear witness to the eternal life/Kingdom of God that exists here and now. It also means that, no matter how difficult things may be, I am already living with God — something which, through his grace above all, I trust will go on forever.