From the gospel of the most sublime of the evangelists: “Now this is eternal life, that they should know you, the only true God, and the one whom you sent, Jesus Christ.” These are words for both time and eternity, and embody a life, developing and unfolding, that exists, even with all our troubles and failings, in joy. I would be blind or a liar to deny my experience of this life, because to “know” God, to “know” Jesus, means to be filled with love. And more than that, it means experiencing eternity even within the confines of time.
In his book The World’s Living
Religions, the philosopher Archie Bahm (who was a friend of my father) wrote,
“Jesus’ message was simple, practical, workable for those willing to give it a
fair trial, and unsurpassed in profundity of insight into human nature and its
problems of how to overcome unhappiness. Yet, since desire, greed, pride, and
fear tend to dominate, and often succeed in dominating, human nature, we often
remain blind to the nature and power of love.”
I certainly know
desire, greed, pride, and fear, but I also know the power of love. When, in
Jesus, God takes on our nature and joins time with eternity, love of neighbor
and love of God also become joined as never before, giving us, to quote the
evangelist again, the “power to become children of God,” both in this life and
eternal life.
