We are meant for immortality
We are meant for immortality simply because we have a spiritual soul. Our principle of life is not matter-based that deteriorates and dies in time. Ours can outlast our material and temporal condition.
More than that, with God's grace, our soul can animate and spiritualize our material dimension such that our body can partake of immortality also.
The corollary to this is that our human acts which are done knowingly and freely should be such that can aim at immortality. That is why we talk about the morality of our acts.
This is a truth of faith that goes beyond human reckoning that depends on sensible facts and data. But it's a truth that somehow can be validated by the fact that Christ resurrected after death, giving us an idea that with him too, we can resurrect but at the end of time.
Just the same, we always have in us a natural inner longing for a life without end, indicating we are indeed meant for immortality. Of course, such longing may also be taken for granted, ignored, or even rejected. But that we always prepare somehow for the future already shows traces of such natural longing for immortality.
The ideal is that we look forward to that state of immortality. That means we have to be ready to die in this world so we can be released from the limitations of time and space, and enter into eternal life.
Let's remember we did not come from our parents through some biological processes. We come from God, our creator. Our parents are only procreators.
Our parents can only give us our body with its plant and animal soul at best. This soul enables us to move, grow, feel, think, behave, etc., in a particular way. It is a soul that goes together with our bodily and physical condition. It lives and dies with it.
But our spiritual soul is not transmissible through human reproduction. Our spiritual soul comes from God. It enables us to unite with God. The soul animates all the parts and components of our being -the physical, biological, emotional, intellectual, etc.
It enables us to think and long for immortality, and links us directly and permanently with God. Thus, it is of utmost importance that of all the parts and components of our humanity, it is the spiritual soul that we have take care of the most. And that is precisely meant by what is termed as our spiritual life.
If we take care of our spiritual life, our longing for immortality as well as the effort to fulfill the requirements for it would be sharpened. We would be vigilant and expectant, knowing that our earthly life is just a pilgrimage to our definitive home in heaven. That is why we are always reminded of this need.
After the consecration at Mass, for example, the priest prays: "Deliver us, Lord, we pray from every evil, graciously grant peace in our days, that, by the help of your mercy, we may be always free from sin and safe from all distress, as we await the blessed hope and the coming of our Savior, Jesus Christ."
It echoes what St. Paul said in his Letter to the Philippians: "For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ." (3,20)
We need to heighten our longing for immortality daily without neglecting our duties of the moment that serve as our pathway to that immortal state of life.
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