What is eternal life? This should be a question that is on the mind of every Christian man and woman, because eternal life is at the heart of our Christian faith. Christ’s Resurrection demonstrated His power over death; that the grave no longer held us captive and that we did not have to live in fear concerning our death. The end of our physical life meant the beginning of our continuation for eternity with God in heaven, unbound by time and suffering.
The question, what is eternal life, can be answered based on our understanding of the Christian faith. For some people, eternal life is simply the ability to live forever, either here or there, without any clear notion of the real impact that an eternal life may present, especially as it relates to their current existence. To live eternally in this world may be all that some people aspire to accomplish. This could be the reason for our obsession with youth; to look and act eternally young. But equating looking and acting youthful to eternal life as the Church teaches is a total misunderstanding. Also, some people may feel the need to live life to the fullest, which usually means to squeeze out the most enjoyment as possible, accumulating worldly riches and experiences to brag about. Once again, that is missing the mark.
Our lesson today from St. John’s Gospel provides us with the true definition of eternal life that has been passed down from Christ’s apostles through the Church Fathers and finally to us today. In today’s lesson we see Jesus praying to God the Father for both Himself and His disciples. “Father, the hour has come. Glorify Your Son, that Your Son also may glorify You, as You have given Him authority over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as You have given Him” (John 17:1). This “giving of eternal life” was the reason for God’s incarnation in the first place. God did not become man, suffer and die simply to tell humanity to be nice to each other. Neither was Jesus sent to start a new religion or school of philosophy, as some people mistakenly believe. This eternal life is not an abstract idea or some type of metaphorical reference to everlasting happiness during our life on earth: It is a life that is not bound by time or place. It is a life that will be lived more abundantly (John 10:10) through and because of Jesus Christ.
To help us understand the meaning of eternal life, we can look back in St. John’s Gospel to that encounter between Jesus and St. Photini, the Samaritan woman at the well. Jesus and St. Photini engage in a conversion about “living water,” and Jesus makes the statement that whoever drinks of this living water that He provides will never thirst. Of course, St. Photini confused physical thirst with spiritual thirst, and points out that the well was deep, and Jesus had no way to draw out the water. Jesus’ response provides a clue to our question regarding eternal life: “Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life” (John 4:13, 14). Jesus is the source of this living water that will provide all of those who drink it eternal life. Notice that He is not referring to some kind of fountain of youth but rather a spring that is flowing within us, not from the outside. It is a fountain that has as its source in Jesus but is internal to each person who believes and accepts the message of salvation. It is a spring that must be constantly fed through our love and faith and can flow within us for eternity. We will never have to seek God from any outside source, for as Jesus said, the kingdom of God will be within each of us (Luke 17:21), but we need to prime the pump, so to speak, in order to get that water flowing. We can see what an impact such a revelation had on a Samaritan woman at Jacob’s Well, when she finally accepted and believed in the Christ and the Father Who sent Him, ensuring that she shall never experience Spiritual thirst again.
As we can see from the example of St. Photini, eternal life is not an intellectual exercise of the mind but an experience of faith that begins in the heart. The Fathers of the first ecumenical council understood this fact as well. Meeting in Nicaea in 325, they did not set out use logic, science, or philosophical arguments to counter the damage being done by the heretic Arius. While many people may consider the whole Arian controversy to be more of a matter of semantics, the Church Fathers understood the damage that the misunderstanding of the person of the Son and His relationship with the Father had on the entire validity of the Christian faith. The purpose of the council was not to invent a new understanding of Christianity; it was to try to put into words the faith that was passed down from Christ to the Apostles. They wanted to formulate a statement that truthfully reflected what was understood since the time of Jesus. Their work would be used to help define what it means to be a Christian for the next 1,700 years. We are the direct benefactors of their faithfulness to the teachings of Christ and His Apostles.
We can only imagine the difficulty the Church Fathers encountered as they worked to express in human language something that is divine in nature. With the guidance of the Holy Spirit, the council of Nicaea struggled to complete the task that was set before by Emperor Constantine. The Arian heresy was threatening to divide the Empire between those who accepted the heretical teachings and those who adhered to the Orthodox belief. Relying on the Scriptural tradition and the understanding of the faith that had been handed down over the centuries, the Church Fathers of the First Ecumenical Council were able to put into imperfect human language the divine relationship between the God the Father and God the Son. This relationship is clearly expressed in our Gospel lesson today, where Jesus prays: “And now, O Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory with I had with You before the world was” (John 17:5). The mutual glorification and Jesus’ statement of being with the Father before the world existed help to prove the Orthodox understanding that the Father and Son are of the same essence, both existing together before the creation of the world. This provided the evidence needed to condemn the Arian heresy that the Son was a created being, not co-eternal and of the same essence as the Father.
Besides the condemnation of the Arian heresy, the best-known outcome of the First Ecumenical Council was the Nicaean Creed, which would be further defined at the Second Ecumenical Council in 381 to clarify the third person of the Holy Trinity, the Holy Spirit. The Creed is known as the symbol of our faith, and has provided a means to help later generations to discern what can be considered Orthodox and in keeping with the traditional faith of Christ and His apostles, and thus provide Christians with the answer to the question: What is eternal life? For as Jesus states in this morning’s Gospel lesson, eternal life is to know God and Christ. “And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent” (v.3). This is the eternal life which Jesus gives by authority of the Father (v. 2).
But to know God and Christ is much more than a mere intellectual exercise or the memorization of Bible verses. It is to share the heart of Christ in everything we do. We will never be able to completely understand God for He is infinite, but we can know Him through His revelations to us and to the world. We can seek His direction for our lives through heartfelt, regular prayer. We can see the beauty and the vastness of His creation not only in the natural surroundings but in each human person who is made in God’s image. And we can demonstrate our love by our obedience to His commandments. Then when we do dedicate our lives to knowing the Father and His Son, we can faithfully partake of the body and blood of Christ in the Eucharist, for it is only through His body and blood that we are able to receive eternal life (John 6:53).
Obtaining eternal life as God intended is a life-long journey, one that will be filled with daily struggles. When Jesus said to “take up your cross and follow me” (Matt. 16:24), He did not mean it metaphorically: We are each called to die to this world that we may obtain everlasting life and a place in the kingdom to come. Our whole desire in this life must be to know God and His Son, Jesus Christ. The Church through the centuries has given us several tools to help us live a life in this world so that we will be prepared for the world to come. It was through their faithfulness to the Orthodox teachings that the Fathers of the First Ecumenical Council, with the guidance of the Holy Spirit, set us on the proper path to know God and Christ, guiding us on our journey toward eternal life.