We know as devotees of St. Jude that there is always hope when we are connected to Jesus. Regardless of any circumstance, we can find hope in His promise of eternal life.
As we live a life of faith connected to Christ and God through prayer and devotion, we discover how the promise of eternal life brings dimension, joy, and power to our lives. The ups and downs of our days are supported by the foundational trust that God is right here with us. St. Jude offers an additional way for us to hold that peace even closer in our hearts.
For those near the end of their life on earth, the hope of the ongoing life of the soul in the loving presence of God brings a sense of healing and restoration. Yet these comforts are not something that begin simply when we die; they exist here and now, afforded to us as an essential part of how we live and move and have our being as Christians (Acts 17:28). The immediate and future promise of eternal life brought to us through Christ’s life, death, and resurrection, is everything to our lives of faith. Without these, we are nothing.
God asks us to wait until we die of human life to receive some of His promises, but we don’t have to wait until then to possess and enjoy the gift of eternal life. We can live our lives for Him confidently and courageously by simply accepting this gift He has given us—acknowledging always that we are eternal beings. The hope of eternal life then becomes not a “hope-so” hope, but a lived reality of today and confident expectation for eternity.