1 John 1:11

And this is the testimony, &c. This means, 1st God hath not only testified that Christ is His Son, but also that He is our Saviour and Redeemer, so that he who believes in Him is justified, and receives the spiritual life of grace and glory.

2d. This very thing is the end and fruit of the testimony, i.e., of the faith by which we believe God's witness concerning Christ, that by this faith we obtain the life of grace and glory. There is an allusion and reference to the words of the Gospel (xvii. 3), "This is life eternal, that they may know Thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent."

Hath given to us eternal life. By these words hath given, S. John denotes the firmness and certainty both of the Divine promise and of our hope, namely, that we are just as sure of everlasting life, if we persevere in faith and obedience, as if it had been actually now bestowed upon us.

The primitive Christians represented this faith and hope of life eternal by the Phœnix, which after death is said to be born again and rise up in a fresh and youthful life, as Lactantius testifies in his poem on the Phœnix. Therefore it was often depicted on the tombs of the faithful. S. Cecilia, as the Acts relate, ordered it to be sculptured on the sarcophagus of S. Maximus the Martyr. So too at Rome the Phœnix is often found depicted on tombs in the catacombs. For Christ rising again to life eternal is our Phœnix. And He by raising up Christians to the same life, will make them phœnixes likewise.