Eternal

 

Reflections on Eternal Life for the Seventh Sunday of Easter, the 12^th of May 2024, in the pew notes at St Peter’s, Eastern Hill, Melbourne.  Written by Philip Harvey. 

Is anyone qualified to talk about Eternal Life? Makers of Scripture give solid, if at times paradoxical, advice on Eternal Life, while theologians of all Ages display considerable manoeuvrability in explaining something that affects them personally. Yet it seems to me we are all just amateurs, even only beginners, when asked to put words to Eternal Life.  

Our death, the limitations of our life, are consistently spelt out in Scripture. Generations come and go, their span tallying closely with our own knowledge of life’s preciousness and brevity. What then is Eternal Life? John’s Letter (1 John 5.9–13) states that God gave us Eternal Life and “this life is in his Son.” John seems to be saying we may learn about this through the words and deeds of Jesus Christ, and also through his person, in light of the Resurrection. A philosopher once said rather obviously, we cannot speak of that which we do not know. He felt we should remain silent. But the Cross and the Resurrection speak insistently of finding meaning and the Gospel writers would have us retell these signs whenever and wherever. 

We are not necessarily going to be given high distinctions just because we can verbally repeat the lesson. Our understanding grows and deepens by continuous learning of that source of all wisdom. We remain open now to what was, is and will be, before and after life as we know it at present. John’s Gospel (John 17.6–19) speaks of the gift of Eternal Life that Jesus has brought those who encountered him, “that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.” The Resurrection experience entails returning to Galilee, the disciple’s Galilee where they first met the parables, healings, confrontations, and sermons of Jesus, but also our Galilee, which is where we meet God through Jesus wherever and whenever throughout our days, very especially in our worship.  

Anything being said in the Gospel can, unexpectedly or expectedly, reveal to us the here and now of Eternal Life. This seems, at least to this beginner, to be what Jesus is saying, via John, when he prays “I have made your name known to those whom you gave me from the world.”  God’s “name” is being made known through the example of Jesus, his words, actions, and very being. Like those others who encountered him, we are asked to stay open to every clue and sign and showing that may bless us, and others, with Eternal Life. Scripture is not a closed book, but rather speaks with decided brevity of perpetual possibility and the depths of true holiness.