"What Would Live Be Like To Be Separated from Christ for Eternity?"

A Question that Awakened Within Me The Faith I Didn't Realize I Had

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Lectio Brevis is a reflection as part of the Perpetual Catechesis. As the Latin so eloquently puts it, it’s "a short reading," but no less meaningful.

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Someone, I cannot remember for the life of me who, challenged me to think about what it would be like to be eternally separated from God. At this point, I can’t remember the context. But this frightened me—a testimony to the faith I didn’t realize I had.

For the past couple of months, I’ve longed for a deep and devoted love of Christ that didn’t feel rote or rehearsed. The prayers that I continued to say, but perhaps, didn’t feel. I would tell anyone, without a doubt, that I believed in Christ and that He died for our sins. That he is Lord and His name is above any other name. It was something I knew and believed, but not exactly what I felt thrive deep in my heart. At least, not in the transcendent way that you look upon the birth of your child. Or the way that you look at your spouse on your wedding day. It was something you felt just as much as you felt when the wind blew outside in mild or temperate weather: it just was. It wasn’t bad, mind you, but it was neither cool or warm.

But the moment I considered what it would be like without Him for eternity paralyzed me, and even does a bit as I reflect on this. Picturing a quiet blackness of unfeeling, unseeing, and unsaying forever. A world that you couldn’t even pray if you wanted to; where the words wouldn’t even escape your lips. Like you had a threadless, featherless pillow smothering your face, where you couldn’t as much as even pass a word or breathe in a bit of air. Like a black room without walls, floor, or a light switch. And worse yet, knowing that just outside of this wall-less and floor-less room, Christ and all His creation was present. The worship. The songs of praise. Where angels and saints glorified Him. The warm, rejuvenating light of His love reaching out to touch everything in existence, both in Heaven and on earth—just not me. And then facing the sobering reality that it would be like this for eternity. This is what came to mind for me, anyways.

In that moment, I realized how much I loved Him, how empty life would be without Him, and I prayed that my devotion to Him would continue to deepen. For anyone seeking to get past what feels like a hollow or routine faith life, one that inspires you to go into prayer not because you’re “supposed to,” but because it excites you, I challenge you to consider the same question. Try to imagine what it would feel like to be eternally separated from Christ in whatever way that seems real to you. Maybe, just maybe, your dormant reverence will wake up and shock you just as much as it did me. And better yet, then realizing how this love of Jesus shapes the way you live out your faith every single day.