My beloved brothers and sisters in Christ Our Only True Lord, God and Savior,
CHRIST IS IN OUR MIDST! HE WAS, IS, AND EVER SHALL BE.
THE ETERNAL BLESSED LIFE
"Now I saw a New Heaven and a New Earth, for
the first heaven and the first earth had passed
away. And there was no more sea" [Revelation 21:1]
The Eternal Blessed Life is presented in the twenty-first chapter of the Apocalypse (Revelation): "And I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. And there was no more sea." In the future Kingdom everything WILL BE SPIRITUALIZED, IMMORTAL, AND HOLY.
But the chief thing is that those who attain the future blessed life and become "partakers of the Divine Nature" [2 Peter 1:4] will be participants IN THE MOST PERFECT LIFE, whose source is in God alone. [This is the ultimate state of man's theosis (deification): A STATE, HOWEVER, WHICH IS NOT STATIC BUT WHICH IS CHARACTERIZED BY A NEVER-ENDING PROGRESS TOWARD GOD. By the words "partakers of the Divine Nature." we are NOT of course to understand that we can become God by nature, but rather, THAT WE CAN PARTAKE OF GOD'S NATURE THROUGH PARTICIPATION IN His Grace."] In particular, the future members of the Kingdom of God will be vouchsafed, LIKE THE ANGELS, TO "SEE GOD" [Matthew 5:8], TO BEHOLD His glory not as though a dark glass, not by means of conjectures, but FACE TO FACE. And not only will they behold this glory, but THEY THEMSELVES WILL BE "PARTAKERS" of it, shining "the sun in the Kingdom of their Father" [Matthew 13:43], being "FELLOW HEIRS" with Christ, sitting with Christ on a throne and sharing with Him the Royal grandeur [Revelation 3:21; Romans 8:17; 2 Timothy 2:11-12].
As is symbolically depicted in Revelation, "They shall neither hunger anymore nor thirst anymore; the sun shall not strike them, nor any heat; for the Lamb Who is in the midst of the throne will shepherd them and lead them to living fountains of waters. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes" [Revelation 7:16-17]. Heavenly life is pictured as one of unending worship from which all suffering has been banished. Here we have the ultimate sanctification of time, THE CONSECRATION OF ALL LIFE TO THE SERVICE AND WORSHIP OF GOD, CARRIED OUT ALONG WITH THE HEAVENLY HOSTS. As Saint Paul says, drawing from the words of Prophet Isaiah: "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; cif Isaiah 64:4].
Blessedness in God will be all the more desirable in that it will be ETERNAL, WITHOUT END: "The Righteous (shall go) into LIFE ETERNAL" [Matthew 25:46).
However, this glory in God, in the thoughts of the Holy Fathers of the Church, will have its degrees, corresponding to the MORAL DIGNITY OF EACH ONE. One may conclude this also from the words of Sacred Scripture: "In My Father's house are many mansions" [John 14:2]; "He shall reward every man ACCORDING TO HIS WORKS (Matthew 16:27); "every man shall receive his own word ACCORDING TO HIS OWN LABOR" [1 Corinthians 3:8); "one star differeth from another star in glory" [1 Corinthians 15:41].
Saint Ephraim the Syrian says: "Just as everyone takes enjoyment of the rays of the sensual sun according to the purity of his power of seeing and of the impressions that are given, and just as in a single lamp which illumines a house each ray has its place, while the light is not divided into many lamps; so also IN THE FUTURE AGE ALL THE RIGHTEOUS WILL DWELL INSEPARABLY IN A SINGLE JOY, BUT EACH IN HIS OWN DEGREE WILL BE ILLUMINATED BY THE SINGLE MENTAL SUN, AND TO THE DEGREE OF HIS WORTH HE WILL DRAW IN JOY AND REJOICING AS IF IN A SINGLE ATMOSPHERE AND PLACE, AND NO ONE WILL SEE THE DEGREES THAT ARE HIGHER AND LOWER, LEST LOOKING ON THE SURPASSING GRACE OF ANOTHER AND PON HIS OWN DEPRIVATION, HE WILL THEREBY HAVE SOME CAUSE IN HIMSELF FOR SORROW NOR SIGHING; BUT EVERYONE ACCORDING TO THE GRACE PROPER TO HIM IN HIS MEASURE WILL REJOICE INWARDLY, WHILE OUTWARDLY ALL WILL HAVE A SINGLE CONTEMPLATION AND A SINGLE JOY" [Saint Ephraim the Syrian, "On the Heavenly Mansions"].
Saint Symeon the New Theologian describes the TRANSFORMATION and RENEWAL OF CREATION AS FOLLOWS: "You should know likewise what is to be the glory and the brightly shining state of the creation in the future age. For when it will be RENEWED, it will not again be the same as it was when it was when it was created in the beginning. But it will be such as, according to the divine Paul, our body will also be. Concerning our body the holy Apostle Paul says: "It is sown a natural body, but is raised… A SPIRITUAL BODY" [1 Corinthians 15:44] and unchanging, SUCH AS WAS THE BODY OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST, the Second Adam, after the Resurrection…In the same way ALSO THE WHOLE CREATION, according to the Commandment of God, is to be, AFTER THE GENERAL RESURRECTION, Not such as it was created, material and sensuous, but IT IS TO BE RE-CREATED AND TO BECOME A CERTAIN IMMATERIAL AND SPIRITUAL DWELLING, SURPASSING EVER SENSE, and as the holy Apostle says of us, "We shall not sleep, but WE SHALL ALL BE CHANGED, IN A MOMENT IN THE TWINKLING OF AN EYE" [1 Corinthians 15:51]. Thus also the whole creation, after it shall BURN UP IN N THE Divine fire, is to be changed…"
"The heaven will become incomparably more brilliant and bright than it appears now; it will become COMPLETELY NEW. The earth will receive A NEW, UNUTTERABLE BEAUTY, BEING CLOTHED IN MANY-FORMED, UNFADING FLOWERS, BRIGHT AND SPIRITUAL… THE WHOLE WORLD WILL BECOME MORE PERFECT THAN AN WORD CAN DESCRIBE. Having become spiritual and divine, it will become united with the NOETIC WORLD; it will be a certain MENTAL PARADISE, A HEAVENLY JERUSALEM, THE INALIENABLE INHERITANCE OF THE SONS OF GOD. Such an earth HAS NOT BEEN INHERITED AS YET BY A SINGLE MAN; WE ARE ALL STRANGERS AND FOREIGNERS. But when the earthly will be united with the heavenly , then also the RIGHTEOUS WILL INHERIT THAT ALREADY-RENEWED EARTH WHOSE INHERITORS ARE TO BE THOSE MEEK ONE WHO ARE BLESSED BY THE LORD" [First-Created Man, pp. 103-5]. (Source: Orthodox Dogmatic Theology by Protopresbyter Michael Pomazanski]
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"Glory Be To GOD
For
All Thongs!"
– Saint John Chrysostomos
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With sincere agape in His Divine and Glorious Diakonia (Ministry),
The sinner and unworthy servant of God
+ Father George
The Eastern Orthodox Christian Ethos 