Live Encounters Magazine Volume Two November-December 2024.
Life after Death? – guest editorial by Dr. Father Ivo Coelho, philosopher and priest.
Life “after” death is something that intrigues me. It was something that intrigued also the great theologian Joseph Ratzinger, who went on to become Pope Benedict XVI. Ratzinger spoke, of course, within a Christian context, and so he talked of “eternal life” rather than of “life after death”. But I think the questions he asked could be of interest to everyone.
First, it helps to think that eternal life is neither spatial nor temporal. It is not a place, a “somewhere”, and it is not something that is “after.”
Perhaps we could think of eternal life as “now”, as somehow simultaneous with the now of our temporal and spatial existence.
Even better, it might help to think of “quality” rather than “quantity”. Eternal life is a quality of life.
Would it make sense to say that we have little experiences of eternal life already in this life? I think there are moments when eternal life bursts into the now of this life.
Let’s quote Ratzinger himself:
“Eternal life is not an endless sequence of instants, in which one should try to overcome boredom and the fear of what cannot have an end. Eternal life is that new quality of existence, in which everything flows into the here and now of love, into the new quality of being, which is freed from the fragmentation of existence in the passing away of instants….
“With this, it also becomes clear that eternal life is not simply what comes later and of which we now have no idea. Since it is a quality of existence, it can already be present in the midst of earthly life and its fleeting temporality, as the new, the other and the more, even if only in a fragmentary and incomplete form.”
I find this position bold, courageous, powerful, inspiring. Of course, I can only speak as a Christian. But I do believe that the kind of reflections offered by Ratzinger cross boundaries and speak to the people of our time.
God is a God of surprises. When thinking about eternal life or life after death, it would be only right to expect more surprises.
Perhaps we could even say that the parallel lines will meet – the parallel lines representing those who think there is no after life, and those who believe in eternal life.
All this involves, of course, a great purification of our images and imagination.
One of the great Christian images is that “heaven” or “eternal life” consists of a being-with-God that includes the whole of humanity – a communion with God that is at once a communion with the whole of humanity, brothers and sisters united in one family. It is a challenging vision. And it is something towards which we can work already in this life. The little or great experiences of human beings going out of themselves to reach out to their brothers and sisters, whatever their race, colour or creed, is, I believe, an experience of eternal life already in the now of this life.
All of us have our little tribal loyalties that sometimes transform into great conflagrations, as the history of the world unfortunately shows, even as I write. But every now and then, we are privileged to witness something beautiful and translucent that attracts us all at the core of our being.
For me one such instance is that of Christian de Chergé and his brother monks who were murdered in Tibhirine, Algeria, in 1996. I consider Chergé’s Last Testament one of the fundamental spiritual texts of our times. Anticipating his death, this human being was able to call his murderer “the friend of my final moment”:
“I should like, when the time comes, to have a clear space that would allow me… to forgive with all my heart the one who would strike me down…. And you also, the friend of my final moment, who would not be aware of what you were doing. Yes, for you also I wish this ‘thank you’—and this adieu—to commend you to the God whose face I see in yours. And may we find each other, happy ‘good thieves,’ in Paradise, if it pleases God, the Father of us both. Amen.”
Jean-Marie Rouart of the Académie Française puts it wonderfully:
“Their example makes us trust in man precisely when we lose hope in him. Believers or not, the example of these monks who died for what is believed to be nothing, but which is perhaps everything – that is, belief in values higher than life – inspires a respect and admiration that for an instant amaze us, as it happens every time we see man, often miserable, surpass himself in greatness.”
I believe sincerely that we all have little or great experiences of eternal life, moments of eternity that break through into time and leave us with gifts of peace, joy, love, even if only for a moment. Perhaps we are not always able to name them. Does it matter? What matters is the quality of our lives.
“Eternal life is present in the centre of time…. Like a great love, it can no longer be taken away from us by any circumstance or situation, but is an indestructible centre from which comes the courage and joy to go on, even if things around us are painful and difficult” (Ratzinger).
Don’t break your heads about what comes after, the Buddha could tell us. Live fully in the now. Live with karuna – compassion.
© Dr Father Ivo Coelho
Fr Ivo Coelho is a Catholic priest belonging to the Salesian Society of Don Bosco. He was born in Mumbai in 1958 and schooled in Mumbai and Lonavla. He studied under the Indologist Richard De Smet at Jnana Deepa, Pune, and later specialized in the hermeneutical thought of the Canadian philosopher, theologian and economist Bernard Lonergan, earning a PhD in philosophy at the Gregorian University – Rome, for his work on “The Development of the Notion of the Universal Viewpoint in Bernard Lonergan: From Insight to Method in Theology” (1994). He was principal of Divyadaan: Salesian Institute of Philosophy (1988-90) and Reader in Gnoseology and Metaphysics. He was also rector at Divyadaan (1994-2002), secretary of the Association of Christian Philosophers of India (2000-02), and provincial of the Mumbai province of the Salesians of Don Bosco (2002-08). Since 2014 he is based in Rome where he is in charge of the training and formation sector of the Salesians of Don Bosco. He is the author of Hermeneutics and Method: The ‘Universal Viewpoint’ in Bernard Lonergan (Toronto, 2001) and a number of articles. He has also been editing the writings of Richard De Smet (1916-1997), with the following having been published so far: Brahman and Person: Essays by Richard De Smet (Delhi 2010); Understanding Śaṅkara: Essays by Richard De Smet (Delhi 2013); and Richard De Smet, Guidelines in Indian Philosophy (Delhi 2022). Till 2019 he was editor of Divyadaan: Journal of Philosophy and Education.