Some thoughts about life after death by Cardinal Leo Suenens:
“If nothing was to be expected after death, for me life would have lost sense and meaning. I cannot understand either suffering or love if I cannot see both in the light of eternity. Suffering cannot be without meaning. Suffering cannot be just nonsense. Let us imagine a child in the womb of his mother. Let us suppose for a moment that that unborn child should become conscious before birth. What a chaos of impressions that child would have. It would all seem so meaningless. But all that apparent nonsense receives a meaning on the day the little child is born, and sees the sunlight. Then it appears clearly that every moment of his growing was a novitiate for life, preparation for the future.
If life here on earth is a preparation, then I come out of darkness, and see a ray of sunshine in all that happens to me. In the same way, I cannot understand real love without the perspective of eternity. True love involves, in the heart of each of us, that love will last for ever and ever. Every song of love will have some way of expressing that ‘I will love you always’.
But, of course, we wish to have at least a glimpse of that future, and to get some idea about where we go from here.
The question was put to a philosopher when he was dying: ‘what do you feel now?’ His answer was: ‘An immense curiosity.’
I hope my answer will be: ‘An immense confidence in God’s love.’ I meditate very often upon the words of Saint Theresa: ‘in Heaven everybody will smile at each other.’ Think of that. Go into the streets of any city, go to any airport or any railway station, and look for a while at the faces of the people running through those places. Look at the faces. It is so rare to see a smile. Everybody is in a hurry. Everybody is busy with his own business. Nobody has time to really look at each other. We are millions who live in the same city or the same street, but without any human communication.
Life after death, for a Christian, means rest and peace with God, rest and peace with all our brothers and sisters, known and unknown”.