Saved by Hope: more on the topic of Eternity

Yesterday, Father John recommended I read Spe Salvi (Saved by Hope), an enyclical by Pope Benedict XVI given on Nov. 30, 2007. Sections 10, 11, & 12 look at the question "Eternal Life - What Is It?"

Here's a quote from the end of section 12:

"To imagine ourselves outside the temporality that imprisons us and in some way to sense that eternity is not an unending succession of days in the calendar, but something more like the supreme moment of satisfaction, in which totality embraces us and we embrace totality—this we can only attempt. It would be like plunging into the ocean of infinite love, a moment in which time—the before and after—no longer exists. We can only attempt to grasp the idea that such a moment is life in the full sense, a plunging ever anew into the vastness of being, in which we are simply overwhelmed with joy. This is how Jesus expresses it in Saint John's Gospel: “I will see you again and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you” (16:22). We must think along these lines if we want to understand the object of Christian hope, to understand what it is that our faith, our being with Christ, leads us to expect."

Please click here to read the whole encyclical.