In today's Gospel, Jesus returns to Cana. There he encounters an official who tells them that his son is dying. Jesus is response, "You may go; your son will live."
We, as Christians, can sometimes forget how fundamentally Jesus changed the universe. Before his death and resurrection, Jesus had to raise people's physical bodies from the dead. Before the death and resurrection of Jesus, there was no eternal life, at least not in the sense that we mean that phrase. One of the great disputed questions in the Judaism of the time of Jesus regarded the continuation of the life of the soul after death.
For us as Christians, the phrase "eternal life" means more than the continuation of your human life after death. When we use the phrase "eternal life"we mean not only a life that will never end, but an actual share in the divine life. Jesus gave us a totally new kind of life. When we speak of being alive, we don't mean that we are alive in the same way that plants and animals are alive. We mean that we are alive in the same way that Jesus was alive. Our bodies are animated not just with our human souls, but with a share in the Divine spirit.
Today let us truly live. Let us live each moment of this day constantly aware of the new life God has given us.
