The May 14, 2007 issue of National Review had several memorial tributes to the late Patricia Taylor Buckley, the wife of National Review founder and retired Editor at Large William F. Buckley, Jr. In his tribute to his wife, Buckley included a portion of a letter from a friend that praised her elegant greatness. “I am a confirmed nonbeliever, but for once I would like to be mistaken, and hope that, for you, this is not goodbye, but hasta luego (“See you later”—BP).” Buckley concludes, “No alternative thought would make continuing in life, for me, tolerable.” Is not he correct? What is the alternative to knowing that there is something beyond this life, that we will see one another again?

Pity the poor nonbeliever who does not believe in the life to come. Has he considered the fact that if we believers are wrong, and there is  nothing beyond this life, then we will still have had full lives of hope and, the blessing of associating with fellow believers? And if he is wrong, then he will not only have lived a life of hopelessness, having missed the greatest blessings in this life, but he will have also forfeited the blessings God has prepared for His children. “But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him” (1 Corinthians 2:9).

The resurrection of Christ was not only the heart of apostolic preaching, but it was and is the motivation for us to trust and look to the future. “Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory” (1 Corinthians 15:51-54).