Preparing for Eternal Life

The Adoration of the Mystical Lamb (Ghent Alterpiece) by Jan van Eyck and Hubert van Eyck

One of the things I find curious about life is that the time we spend preparing for something is normally much longer than the thing itself. A cake can take several hours to bake, but it can be consumed in a matter of minutes. A concert may last about 90 minutes, but preparing for the concert can take anywhere from a few weeks to several months. A film can have a run time of around two hours, but making the film—with all the script writing, auditions, costume designing, rehearsals, filming, special effects, production, and post-production—can take several years to complete. A 100-metre sprint may only be a mere 10 seconds, but preparation for those 10 seconds normally involves athletes following a strict training regime for multiple years of their lives.

Yet, there is one significant area of our existence where this trend is reversed—where the preparation for the experience is significantly shorter than the experience itself—and that is eternal life.

On average, a person in the 21st century lives on this Earth for around 72 years, and in these 72 years, a man or woman is expected to live a life that is pleasing in the sight of God so that they might be admitted into his kingdom. Now, 72 years may seem like a long time while we are actively experiencing them in this lifetime, but 72 years is no real time at all before the vastness of eternity. No amount of finite time we experience in this world can ever be compared with the infinite amount of time we are destined to experience in the world to come. Comparing 72 years with eternity is like comparing 7 seconds with 700,000 years (except it isn’t, because 700,000 years is nowhere an infinite amount of years). Eternity— or at least as it is thought to apply to created beings in Heaven —means that there is a continuous passage of time that goes on and on and on... forever.

Now, this realisation that we have a finite amount of time in this life to prepare for an infinite amount of time spent in the afterlife should give us all pause for thought. If we spend hours on end preparing for some earthly experience that will be over nearly as quickly as we can conceive it, then how much more time should we allocate to preparing for the experience of eternity? If we spend several months drawing up plans for an earthly wedding celebration that will only last several hours, how much more time should we spend in making ourselves ready for the wedding feast that will occur at the end of the ages between Christ and his Church?

As those in Heaven cry out in the book of Revelation:

“Hallelujah! For the Lord our God the Almighty reigns.

Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory,

for the marriage of the Lamb has come,

and his Bride has made herself ready;

it was granted her to be clothed with fine linen,

bright and pure” - (Revelation 19: 7-8).

The bride is expected to make herself ready for that day when the heavenly bridegroom calls her to the wedding ceremony. Thus, we should prepare ourselves and make every single day (all 26298 of them) a day of preparation. We do not want to end up like the 5 foolish virgins in the Parable of the 10 Virgins who failed to prepare for the wedding between the bridegroom and the bride by forgetting to bring oil for their lamps and were subsequently prevented from attending the ceremony (Matthew 25:1-13). If we are not careful, we can end up being so preoccupied with the things of this world that we neglect those spiritual things of God—things which are ultimately more important. We do not want to be found unprepared for when the time comes for Our Lord to call us from this earthly life to a life in one of two eternal states: Heaven or Hell. As our Lord teaches, we do not know the day or the hour when He will come, so we need to keep watch and make sure we are ready for his eventual arrival (Matthew 24:42-44).

How, then, should we prepare ourselves for eternal life? What can be done to make sure we are ready?

We must grow closer to God and trust in his goodness more and more. We must surrender our will to His will. We must allow His grace to infuse our hearts and minds and allow it to transform and sanctify us (Romans 12:2; 2 Corinthians 3:18; Ephesians 4:22-24); because without God’s help, we can do nothing (John 15:5).

Aided by this divine grace, we must make a conscious effort to grow in holiness and virtue. We must frequent the sacraments. We must pray, fast, give alms, and engage in the spiritual and corporal works of mercy (CCC 2447).

Above all, we must love God and our neighbour more and more; for, love is the most important thing of all. It is our "Raison d'être". If we do not have love, we are nothing (1 Corinthians 13: 1-3). If we do not have love in our hearts, we do not have hearts fitted for eternity.

Therefore, Let us prepare ourselves. Let us ensure that we are ready so that, on the day when we leave this earthly life behind us, Our Lord may greet us in his heavenly kingdom, place his hand on our shoulder, and say to us :

"Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world" - (Matthew 25: 34).