Eternal life, therefore, is a living personal relationship with God which is also everlasting because God himself is everlasting.  But for that very reason it overlaps both this life and the next; and physical death is merely a natural incident which does not interrupt the continuity of that relationship, but only marks a change of environment from this world to the next.

Our Lord made that truth plain by speaking of eternal life, not only as a future state in the next life, but as a present possession already in this one.  “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears my word and believes him who sent me, has eternal life…”.  And then Jesus added, he “has passed from death to life” (RSV Catholic edition, John 5:24, our emphasis).