“We expect what God promised: a new heaven and a new earth.” (2 Peter 3:13) Again, the reason for our expectation is the reason of relation/communion; not one that is based on the conclusions of scientific observation. We expect that at the end, every tiny expression of God’s love will be saved: not only the beauty of the trivial wild flower but the breathtaking harmony of the rotation of galaxies, too; not only the astonishing beauty of a leopard’s gallop but also the dazzle in a child’s eye that is transformed into a smile on the lips of his mother.
We expect that the beauty and wisdom of the heavens and the earth, the offspring of the word of God and His creative energies, will be saved. “He spoke and they were created, and the word of the Lord lasts forever.” We expect the whole creation to be redeemed, delivered from decay, grief, and death, from the attributes of the created. We expect everything to be saved and become one with the imperishable flesh of the Son, enthroned on the right of the Father. We expect time itself to be saved; not as an endless and thus scary sequence of past and future; but as liberty from any predetermination, as a potential of a wonderful transformation “from glory to glory,” a potential that guides us to experience a face-to-face relation with Christ the Bridegroom, the lover of our souls. –Dr. Christos Yannaras
The sinner is unable to comprehend the grace of His resurrection. Where is gehenna, that can afflict us? Where is perdition that terrifies us in many ways and quenches the joy of His love? And what is gehenna as compared with the grace of His resurrection, when He will raise us from Hades and cause our corruptible nature to be clad in incorruption, and raise up in glory him that has fallen into Hades? – Saint Isaac of Nineveh
No comments:
Post a Comment