Eternal Life

Eternal Life (John 3)

The Echoes of Easter still stirs our souls: Visions of Death Conquered;  New Birth; and Truth Revealed -the Mercy, the Miracle, the Wonder and Awe; the Promise, the Hope, the Joy –all, begs our Faith to absorb.  In her wisdom, Mother Church leads us, through this third chapter of John, as the Events of Easter seek to penetrate our spirit –its Light wedging open the cracks in our hearts Awakened.

This all seems too good to be true, too simple to be so profound.  How can it be, that if I just Believe in him, in this God-Man, I will be Saved from Perdition?  That I will be Born from Above?  That I will receive, without reserve, the Gift of his Holy Spirit, to accomplish his Divine Plan in my life?  All this can be mine, if I just believe?  Is it like Dorothy -clicking her heals three times?  But, doesn’t even the Devil believe in Jesus?  And what about my doubts, do I then, not believe?  Like Nichodemus, I ask.   “How can that be possible?”

“For God so Loved the world… that he sent his only Son… not to condemn the world but that through him… the world might be saved… that everyone who Believes in him may not be lost… but may have Eternal Life.”  This is the Word of God.  It is the key to Easter’s Mystery –the sail which allows us to catch its wind of Truth.

God is Love.  Everything he does, everything he wills, is framed in Love.  We were created out of his Love, for his Love, and to remain in his Love.  It is this framework of Love through which John’s third chapter is revealed.  God our Father, sent his Son, not to condemn us, for we were already condemned by our unbelief, but to Save us from the Darkness in which we walked.  He came as The Light, to show us The Way, to reveal himself -The Truth.

He came as the Light of the World, to show us the way to his Father.  We were enslaved by Sin, we preferred Darkness, so we crucified the Light.  But Darkness could not overcome the Light.  Through his Death and Resurrection, he has become the Doorway to our Rebirth.  The stone has been rolled away.  Eternal Life now awaits all who Believe in his Name, who Prefer his Light, who Choose to live in his Truth.

To grasp this Easter Vision, framed in Love, John contrasts it against the Darkness in which we are found.  We prefer Darkness because our “works” are Evil.  We hate the Light because it exposes the Lie we live, the Death we call life, and our Sinfulness shrivels in its Truth.

In Clinging to Sin, we condemn ourselves to the Darkness of Death –a life apart from God’s Love, outside of his Truth.  This is what he came to Save us from.  Before the Coming of Christ into our life, we were enslaved to an existence without Hope.

In the Blackness of Good Friday, when the Curtain was rent in two, Reality itself was fractured.  History was forever altered.  Since that Easter Sunday, all mankind has come to process the Miracle of being Born from Above.  

All that is required for New Life in Christ is that we Believe in Him; that we Prefer his Way over our way; that we Live in his Truth.  We need only to Repent from our way of Sin; to Renounce living for our Self, and Pronounce our allegiance to our Lord and Savior -to live his Life of Love.

Whatever it takes to be born again from above, has already been accomplished on the Cross, as Free Gift –unearned by us, not bound by our past.  It is guaranteed –actualized- the moment we choose to Believe in the Truth, in he who is Faithful to the Promises of his Word.

The Miracle of Easter is made manifest, not only in the sacred moment of our Surrender, but even more so, it is made evident as his Holy Spirit releases Grace into our everyday lives –into every little step we take on his Pathway of Love.

          These little Steps of Love is our life lived –in and for Christ.  These Steps of Love are what St. John refers to as ‘our works’ which draws us into the Light so that they may be clearly seen.  For it is these works, of a Repentant Sinner, which give Glory to God.  They are the Fruit of his Free Gift of Faith –of living his Truth in Love.  They are expression of his Spirit, with whom we are Espoused -the Image, of him who has Begotten us from Above.