By Sister Abigail Hester, OFC

For much of Christian history, eternal life has been imagined as a reward waiting for us after death. Many people picture heaven as a distant place above the clouds where faithful souls go when they die. Others have been taught to fear hell as a place of eternal punishment. Yet when I read the Gospels through the lens of modern biblical scholarship, Franciscan spirituality, and the teachings of Jesus himself, I find a different vision emerging.

I believe eternal life begins now.

Jesus did not spend much time describing heaven as a future destination. Instead, he spoke repeatedly about the Kingdom of God being among us, within us, and breaking into the present moment. In the Gospel of John, eternal life is not merely something promised after death. It is a reality that can be experienced here and now through relationship with God. The Johannine tradition presents eternal life as participation in the divine life rather than simply endless duration.

John Shelby Spong challenged Christians to move beyond outdated images of heaven, hell, and a supernatural God who lives somewhere above the universe. He argued that eternal life is not about preserving the individual ego forever but about entering into the fullness of life, love, and being. He came to see God not as a supernatural ruler but as the source of life, the source of love, and the ground of being itself.

I find much wisdom in that perspective.

As a Franciscan Clarean Christian, I understand eternal life as participation in the Divine Mystery that animates all creation. Every act of compassion, every moment of justice, every experience of beauty, every expression of love is already a taste of eternity. Eternal life is not primarily about where we go when we die. It is about how deeply we awaken to God’s presence while we live.

St. Francis saw God reflected in Brother Sun, Sister Moon, the animals, the poor, and the entire created order. He understood that divine life flows through everything. Eternal life is not escape from creation; it is communion with creation. It is recognizing that we already live and move and have our being within the sacred reality we call God.

This understanding changes how we think about salvation.

Salvation is not obtaining a ticket to heaven. Salvation is awakening. It is becoming fully alive. It is being liberated from fear, hatred, violence, greed, and separation. It is growing into the image of Christ, who embodied radical compassion, courageous love, and complete openness to God.

In this view, heaven and hell are not primarily future locations. They are realities we experience whenever we live in harmony or disharmony with love. Whenever we choose mercy over cruelty, inclusion over exclusion, peace over violence, we participate in the life of heaven. Whenever we choose hatred, domination, or fear, we experience something of hell.

What happens after death?

The honest answer is that none of us knows with certainty.

I do not claim to possess detailed knowledge of the afterlife. I do not know whether there are pearly gates, mansions, or streets of gold. I do not know what form consciousness may take beyond death. What I do trust is that the love which sustains us in life does not abandon us in death.

The God revealed through Jesus is not a God of rejection but a God of radical embrace.

I believe death is not the end of our participation in divine life. Rather, it is a deeper entrance into the mystery of Love that has always surrounded us. The same sacred reality that carried us through birth, childhood, joy, suffering, and aging will also carry us through death.

As a Christian universalist, I trust that God’s ultimate purpose is reconciliation rather than condemnation. The arc of divine love bends toward healing, restoration, and wholeness. The Apostle Paul envisioned a day when God would be “all in all.” I believe that vision points toward the final destiny of creation.

Eternal life, then, is not endless time.

It is participation in the timeless reality of divine love.

It begins now.

It continues beyond death.

It embraces all creation.

It is found wherever compassion flourishes, justice is pursued, and love becomes flesh in the world.

The invitation of Jesus is not merely to prepare for eternal life someday.

The invitation is to enter eternal life today.