When we look back at the last 13.8 billion year history, and then look forward to eternity, our earthly life is sandwiched so microscopically in the middle. It is in this delicate little blip of time that we can say yes to God by conforming our soul to his realities.
This talk by Francis Chan, a Christian speaker, uses a rope as a visual representation of our earthly life compared to eternity.
When we believe in an eternal life with God, we need not be discouraged at the eventual death our bodies must undergo. Like a flower, our earthly body peaks in physical maturity before taking an inevitable turn towards withering. The growth and decay of our spiritual health, however, isn’t fixed to a particular trajectory of time, the way as our earthly body is. As an invisible entity, God invites us to continually nourish it with the sacraments and his Word, so it continually grows upward throughout our lifetime.
As Christians, we believe that a mysterious and beautiful gift of eternal life is to be reunited with our body. Perhaps it will be our body at the height of its maturity, and perhaps specifically at the age of 33, when Christ died.
With our spiritual health more important than our physical health, our physical circumstances should not discourage us, as Saint Paul tells us:
We are not discouraged; rather, although our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this momentary light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to what is seen but to what is unseen; for what is seen is transitory, but what is unseen is eternal.—2 Corinthians 4:16-18 (NABRE)
Secular culture tries to snuff out the realities of God with a weight of its own, a noisy weight of deception but…
…how can it possibly bury God’s love under a seemingly immense weight of hate, God who is the creator of gravity and matter?
…how can it possibly drown out the verdict of God’s justice with a clashing noise, God who is the creator of sound?
…how can any number of lies ever change the truth, the Word of God himself?
It can’t be done. Evil in its own pride won’t admit it, but it knows it can only exist as a juxtaposition of good. Evil’s principles are self-defeating because its only love is a selfish love of self. Evil will throw its weight around and try, but it can never, ever surpass the goodness of God.
