This year I wish you to bear with me on reflecting further on immortality wherein our faith in God serves as the connecting link.
In speaking of immortality, we are immediately immersing ourselves into certain parts of eschatology which time and space would not permit us to delve into now. Nevertheless, the fact remains that the idea of immortality immediately brings to mind a host of inter-relations such as love, hope, faith, grace, redemption, and, of course, incarnation. These cogitations in themselves would encompass veritably the whole of man's purely intellectual or cognitive knowledge to relate even incompletely, let alone understand comprehensively. For my part, I do not pretend for a moment that I can know or explain God's designs for us as it is truly said: "But God hath chosen the foolish of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty."l
Therefore, I shall confine myself to some thoughts that have come to me during the intervening past year.
In life it is inevitable that there are moments of sorrow, torment, disappointment, anguish and extreme desolation. The sum total of these nevertheless gradually brings into being an awareness of the healing and salving qualities that religion holds in our consciousness.
Human beings such as we are naturally are prone to desires of well-being both in the material and spiritual spheres. In the realm of the material, it is typified at its worst by avarice and greed, and at its best by the wish for recognition and the satisfaction derived from achievement. In the realm of the spirit, the search is more elusive and intangible in that it is a seeking for inner composure, and fortitude. Isaiah's cry, "Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on Thee:"2 is a universal echo of man's hunger for inner security.
In our search for an everlasting spiritual cornucopia, we begin by trying to attain a better and happier life on earth, and Christianity has, for the asking, provided the essence and raison a'etre of happiness and solace, not only in this life but of the after life. Through the human desire for spiritual assurance, a vibrant impulse for immortality as the ultimate goal of happiness comes into being, giving the mind the attumement to acceptance of the word of God, the knowledge of grace, and the miracle of resurrection. With this preliminary awakening come edification and education of the mind and spirit thereby making man a ready instrument for the perfecting of his being in salvation and in immortality through Christ.
Although it is only through the grace of God that every man is given the power for good, yet it is God also who endowed man with free will permitting him to make his own choice between good and evil. In other words, possibilitas boni (ability for good) comes from God while voluntas et actio (will and performance) are inhered in us. And it is this very inner faculty to choose between good and evil that renders the salvation, or perdition of the soul so all significant. In this free will to choose, man is shown the way to immortality.
The God-given ability of every man to rise in his own strength unto virtue, comes into its own only by the constant and consistent development of one's love of God in both personality and character building so that the powers of correct choice become natural and in time instinctive. As" living example of what we should strive to become, He gave us Christ.
One of the Christian tenets as taught by St. Augustine holds that where love is there is bliss corresponding to the measure of love. Through this corresponding measure of love we find grace and righteousness in the true cognizance of the divine substance of the Godhead. The introduction of the Fourth Gospel actively expresses, I think, so well the creative and revelatory thought and will of God. I quote in part: "In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God, and the Word was God."3 Again we read: "For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ."4 The Augustinian premise postulates conversely the episyllogism that human sin is an affair of the will, and that evil is the momentary false self-determination without affecting in consequence the nature of man unless perpetually practiced with progressive effort. Evil, therefore, is a product of perverse will, the direct opposite of love. Since there is righteousness, there is God: "In Him was life; and the life was the light of man,"5 God the Creator, the fountain of righteousness and grace, the merciful Father, and just Arbiter, in our novitiate towards immortality, and in attempting to honor and glorify God, it would be well to remember that we serve him best not through offerings of sacrifice, or conformity to mere observances and dogmas nor would we one day be assured of entering into the Kingdom of Heaven by observing form, but rather through service on earth to our fellowmen. Said Christ: "Not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father…"6 By Expressing our love to God through our devotion to human needs with nary a thought of meed or recompense and in our efforts to help better the world, we are, in effect, showing the highest gratitude and praise to our Creator.
By God's grace, His power for good, men through personal efforts, are delivered from sin and given salvation. By the sacrificial death of His Son, the portals to forgiveness of sin and perfection in love are made open for all who wish to avail themselves of immortality. According to St. Paul, the sure sign of a Christian is transformed life within. "If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new."7
The recent manifestations of religious resurgence in Poland and Hungary apart from their political aspects show that the trust in God cannot be suppressed outwardly and for long by the parlous and nihilistic doctrines of Antichrist. It is proof that inspired men choose physical death rather than spiritual annihilation. It has further shown that attempts to create an artificial hothouse of a regime-church has failed, that attempts to spread a materialistic world outlook by propaganda has failed, and finally that specious attempts to interfere with the Church as a national institution have failed.
As the Polish journal PO PROSTU recently puts it: "Materialism is defeated in this duel. Faith is triumphant." And it is Faith in God through serving our fellowmen according to the Light He has given us that leads us to immortality.
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1. I Corinthians 1:27
2. Isaiah 26:3
3. St. John 1:1
4. St. John 1:17
5. St. John 1:4
6. St. Matthew 7:21
7. II Corinthians 5:1