1. To live a life of fear is the life of a slave (whether it be fear of punishment or fear of death).  Christians are not meant to be slaves.  Rather, they are supposed to have the freedom of sons – sons of God!  (Sons do not fear the father of the house; they know the father’s will and obey it freely.  The live, not in fear, but with faith in the goodness and love of their father and respond, then, in love.)

2. If we are not to have a fear of death, then I would suggest:
 (a) On the one hand, we need a notion of life after death, so that this life will not seem meaningless.  And yet,
 (b) On the other hand, we need a notion of life after death that doesn’t make this life meaningless.  (In other words, if heaven is so great, why did we have to suffer through all this stuff?  Why, if we’re going to just shuck all this stuff in the end, did we have to muck our way through it in the first place?)

3. Christ is the First Fruits* of what we too will enjoy:  Our only revelation of what life after death will be like is the person of the resurrected Jesus.
 (*Christ is the “first fruits,” in the sense of the first-born slain as the Paschal sacrifice.  He is also the “first fruits”, in the sense of the first part of the harvest.)

4. What does the resurrected Jesus reveal to us?
 (a) On the one hand, we will enjoy and share the glory, dignity, and infinite happiness of Yahweh, God the Father.
 (b) On the other hand, we will retain our personal identity.

5. This is the meaning of Jesus retaining his earthly wounds and doing characteristic things with those He knew: We take all our earthly experiences with us, all of our loving relationships; nothing essential or important to what made each one of us who we are is lost or diminished.  Rather, it is saved from the loss of death and glorified in its Source – the Source of all good things.

6. Thus, the activities and relationships of this life are not meaningless.  We carry them all with us.  They have meaning both now and eternally.  We sense this now and again even in this world when we experience those rare “timeless moments” – whether it be a moment with someone we love or doing something we love or an experience of surpassing natural beauty.  At those moments, we know we have experienced something eternal – something timeless – that will be with us forever.  It takes us up into its timelessness – even if just for a moment – and we are transformed: something timeless takes root in us.  But note, the “timeless moment” is often something very particular: the touch of her skin, the view of the Alps shrouded in mist, a home run to win the game in the bottom of the ninth inning.  Such moments, if planted in good soil, will not lose their meaningfulness as time moves on; rather, they transform us, and we become a little of what is good in them.

7. The result, as I mentioned before (both with conversion and resurrection) is transformation (glorification), not obliteration.  You become more free to be who you really are united to the One who is your maker and the Source of your very Being.

8. And yet, though united with God (indeed, precisely because we are united with God, Who is omnipotent and omnipresent), we can be present to those we love with a new intimacy: present now not only beside them, but in them and all around them, at every moment and in every place.

9. Thus our love can be even more effective in bringing about their good – in helping to make them good (and thus happy or blessed).

10. This is the heart of the notion of the “Communion of Saints.”  The love that existed before us, and shined so brightly through the lives of God’s servants, has not died or been lost.  These lovers love us still, no less than when they were alive.

11. What is the good news?  Start living in heaven today today.  You can stay there as long as you want.  Because no power on heaven or earth (no tyrants, no concentration camps, no mobs, no devils or demons) can separate us from the love we bear for God and for our neighbor.  And if they can’t kill that, then they can’t destroy us: they can’t destroy the essence of what makes you, you.

12. And that is what allows us to be free from fear.  That is what give us hope that life is everlastingly meaningful.  That is what allows us to be happy, no matter what the external circumstances or suffering.  Because no matter what they do – no matter what “the world” does – they can’t destroy you.  The power of love can overcome the power of death.

If that’s not good news, then what is?

But question: How can we become “one” with God, and yet retain our personal identity?

Answer: We need to think about the Trinity.