‘Life after death’ is a misleading expression
"'Life after death' is a misleading expression if it is allowed to imply that the new life of the resurrection is postponed until after death. A better, more comprehensive way to express the Christian belief would be to say that we believe in life greater than death. This greater life will, of course, outlast death, but even now it can disperse the 'shadow' that death casts forward into our lives. This is true whether the shadow is the vague anxiety, the angst, that seems to lurk within the human psyche or whether the fears and worries are the more concrete and identifiable troubles of the day. Christians believe there is nothing they can run into that will prove greater than this life, than Him Who is this Life.
"When we say of this Life that it is eternal we must understand by this that it is constantly new and renewing, innovative and surprising, always fresh in its relevance to every situation. Theological eternity is not to be simply equated with the mathematical concept of infinity. If endless time is all that is meant here, how could the experience not eventually succumb to dull tediousness and boring monotony? Eternal life really means Divine Life in this context; our life is eternal only in the sense that it is a participation in God Who is Eternal. In the Life of God, The Creative Origin of all that is, we need never fear that we will find anything tired or stale. God's Eternity is always fresh like an open-ended morning. Each day we can begin a new adventure in the wilderness of this eternity. 'The Steadfast Love of The LORD never ceases, [God's] mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning."'
May the New Life which God gives to each of you, at Jesus The Christ's resurrection, as we celebrate the 50 Days of Eastertide, be with each of you in the days and weeks to come. A Blessed Easter to you!
The Peace of The LORD be with you always.
Sincerely, Pastor Jon Beake
(The above is quoted from Saint Augustine 's House Newsletter, Summer A.D. 2004, Rev. Fr. Richard G. Herbal, Oxford, Michigan; Fr. Richard's cover article.)