Homily: Thursday of the 2nd Week of Easter - Eternal Life

This is the fourth and final day of reading through Jesus' discourse with Nicodemus from chapter 3 of St. John's Gospel. Yesterday, I mentioned how the St. John the Evangelist, stresses the importance of belief. Another constant theme throughout John's Gospel is the notion of life. “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life” we heard Jesus say today.

41 times in John's Gospel, nearly as many as the Matthew, Mark, and Luke combined, we find Jesus speaking of life. “that we might not perish but might have eternal life,” as we heard yesterday; Jesus says to the Samaritan woman, “the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life”. We will hear next week Jesus say “I am the bread of life”. And later, after raising Lazarus, he says, “I am the resurrection and the life.”

The Greek word for "life" Jesus uses in each of those passages is “zoe.” This is the root of the English words "zoo" and "zoology." Zoe is the animating principal of all living things. It is the living breath that we share with the plants and animals.

Scripture reveals that the source or fount of this zoe life is God the Father. Indeed, Jesus calls Him him the “Zao Pater” "the living Father" In the Greek New Testament, zoe has a special meaning. It speaks of the life that is given by God through Christ Jesus to those who believe the gospel. .

In today's Gospel, the Zoe, the life which comes through believing in Jesus Christ is modified by the adjective aionios which means "eternal", "everlasting". Belief in Jesus Christ leads to life everlasting.

Through sin, we had lost this gift; we were without life—we were dead in our transgressions. We were alienated from God who Himself is the only source of life.

Yet, God so loved the world, that life everlasting is available to us through Jesus Christ. Yet this Zoe Aionios, this eternal life, isn't a package that God gives to us, like Santa delivering presents. As we find later in John's Gospel, Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. The zoe aionios we receive is Jesus Himself. Through belief and obedience to God, Jesus truly dwells in the hearts and souls of the faithful—he “is the spring of water welling up to eternal life.” It is only through him that we are able to experience God in heaven, it is only through Him that our mortal bodies will be raised to everlasting life.

In this earthly life, we are called to protect this gift, and also to allow it to flourish, to nurture it. So often, we stifle what God wants to do in us; we fall back into old sins when temptations arise; we fearfully turn away from opportunities to be generous toward the needy.

But this Easter every one of us is being called to recognize anew the great gift of life God gives us, and to use that gift to build up his kingdom through concrete acts of charity, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.