Today, in some way we want life itself, true life, untouched even by death; yet at the same time we do not know the thing towards which we feel driven.

This unknown “thing” is the true “hope” which drives us, and at the same time the fact that it is unknown is the cause of all forms of despair. The term “eternal life” is intended to give a name to this known “unknown”. To imagine ourselves outside the temporality that imprisons us and in some way to sense that eternity is not an unending succession of days in the calendar, but something more like the supreme moment of satisfaction, in which totality embraces us and we embrace totality —this we can only attempt. It would be like plunging into the ocean of infinite love, a moment in which time—the before and after—no longer exists.

—This is how Jesus expresses it in Saint John's Gospel: “I will see you again and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you”.