Jn 8:51-59
Very truly, I tell you, whoever keeps my word will never see death.” The Jews said to him, “Now we know that you have a demon. Abraham died, and so did the prophets; yet you say, ‘Whoever keeps my word will never taste death.’ Are you greater than our father Abraham, who died? The prophets also died. Who do you claim to be?” Jesus answered, “If I glorify myself, my glory is nothing. It is my Father who glorifies me, he of whom you say, ‘He is our God,’ though you do not know him.
But I know him; if I would say that I do not know him, I would be a liar like you. But I do know him and I keep his word. Your ancestor Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day; he saw it and was glad.” Then the Jews said to him, “You are not yet fifty years old, and have you seen Abraham?” Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, before Abraham was, I am.” So they picked up stones to throw at him, but Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple.
New Revised Standard Version, copyright 1989, by the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved. USCCB approved.
Great Hope of Heaven
Why is it so hard for us to believe and feel in our hearts that if we believe in Jesus we will never see death? We know about the resurrection of Lazarus, the resurrection of Jesus, and the opening of the gates of hell. Yet, we find ourselves so frequently in despair over death. Existential crises abound and we remain so afraid of death. Possibly it’s because we feel it’s seeming permanence here. We lose loved ones to it and our future hopes with it. Perhaps it’s the uncertainty of what comes after this life. Yet, even in the darkest of despair and our fear of uncertainty, those we’ve lost remain in our hearts.
The great hope of heaven is not for the glory of ourselves. As Jesus says, that’s worth nothing. The great hope of heaven is for that place of true life where all may be united in love.
—Alex Hale, SJ, is a Jesuit scholastic from the Midwest Province studying philosophy at Loyola University Chicago.
Prayer
Let us see ‘Death as but crossing the world as friends do the seas; they live in one another still. For they must needs be present, that love and live in that which is omnipresent. In this divine glass, they see face to face; and their converse is free, as well as pure. This is the comfort of God and friends, that though they may be said to die, yet their love and friendship are, in the best sense, ever present, because immortal.’
—Adapted from William Penn, More Fruits of Solitude