Eternal Life
- Michael Haldas
- Jul 2
- 3 min read
“…although humans could feasibly have united the various natural divisions in the created order, they could not of their own accord bridge the uncreated-created chasm. Even so, “With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible” (Matt. 19: 26). By the Incarnation, the Lord heals the brokenness of human nature and makes it receptive to eternal life.” (St. Maximus the Confessor, Fr. Joseph Lucas)
“The most important thing is where a man’s will is directed: What does he want? Is he looking to be born for the spiritual world? The Lord knocks at every soul. He calls us to church. He wants to save us. He gives us everything for life—not only this life, but most importantly, eternal life.” (Schema-Archimandrite Iliy Nozdrin)
“The proper movement in our Christian life is one in which we come to understand the mystery (the hidden, eternal life) of the creation in which we live. We reveal water in the actions of Baptism (and the Great Blessing of the Waters). We reveal bread and wine in the Eucharist. We reveal human beings in the many sacramental actions of the Church. In the same manner, each of us serves a “priestly” role within creation, revealing and contemplating the logoi of all things. Creation does not “fight” with us. It does not overpower or impose its voice on our consciousness. All things eternal respond to love, in love, and with love. This is an echo of Matt. 5:8, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” As we nurture the love of Christ within us, and His love for all creation, we slowly come to see and know things for what they are – sacramental wonders that reveal the glory of God.” (Father Stephen Freeman)
“Now, sometimes when I look at my own life, and I happen to know the lives of many other people (they are very similar to mine), I see how mundanely we live, how easily we become angry or confused, how easy it is for us to be lazy about holy things and diligent about things that don’t matter. It seems that we are always living in the way of the world. But that wasn’t what we were born for. We were born for perfection. We were born for eternal life. And that eternal life is to be in God, and with God; to be united with Him, to not have anything in us that is corruptible. We see corruption every day in our lives, but we weren’t born for that. We were born for another way. We were born to know Jesus Christ personally, intimately, by becoming like Him. And that is what the incarnation of the God-man provides—for us to become like Him. Now, there is much that must transpire for us to become like Him. He gives us the ability, but He does not give us the will. He strengthens our will, but He does not give it to us. We must desire to follow this other way. And if we do, then we will indeed become perfect. We will become what we were born for.” (Fr. Seraphim Holland)
“—Why can’t anything in eternal life be changed? If life continues, why can’t its qualities also continue? It seems strange that we can perfect ourselves in this life, but we cannot do so in the next. —In this life, a certain vector of motion toward eternity is given to a person, but in eternal life, there is only the unfolding and revealing of what that person acquired here on earth. In this life there is a moment of moral choice; in eternal life that moment does not exist. Why? —Because there, God is obvious to every person. There, there is no faith; instead there is knowledge. These are two completely different states of being--here, and there. Here is the determining state; there, the eternal unfolding of the state already determined on earth.” (Igumen Nektary Morozov, Elena Balayan)
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