Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.” (I Peter 3-5)
The Divine Liturgy begins with a proclamation, a direction and a promise: “Blessed is the Kingdom of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, now and ever and unto ages of ages.” We announce the Kingdom because it is, it is where God is, and it is where we ultimately shall be. God is not just the Creator [although many in our times dispute even that], but we believe that God is our Father. How do we know that? Because the unique Son of God came from the Kingdom to find us and to lead us there whence He had come, sending the Holy Spirit to continue directing us there.
That promise is affirmed in the poignant phrase above from the epistle of St. Peter: “begotten us again to a
living hope.” Is not all hope by definition alive? Hope might be a promise written in a document, even in the Holy Bible, a term not all or even many believe any longer. The Apostle means by living hope what one can feel in the human hearts of those who do more than read about it, but rather whose lives are proof of such hope, a vital force motivating and energizing their existence.
One could imagine a deed performed by a relative who had willed you a mansion in some exotic foreign land. You know about it, you hold the deed to it, but you have neither the time nor the means to go there. Nevertheless, just by the awareness that it is your possession, it offers you a promise for the future. Living hope is more than that. It is not a location, not even a mansion; given our mundane imagination, our Lord chose to phrase the Kingdom in such a way that it is understandable even with our limitations (John 14:2). The Kingdom is not a location in outer space or even beyond space. The Kingdom of God is life in and with the Holy Trinity — the Father-Creator of all existence, life and being, the Son of God Whom we know as Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit. Put in other terms, the Kingdom is union with God not as the Trinity exists per se, but a union nonetheless in God’s energy or love for all eternity. The question is: Why would God do such a glorious deed? Why us? Why union with divinity? Is not immortality sufficient? The overwhelming promise, so great a glory contrasts to anything or everything we experience on earth since birth. The only adequate answer is love.
The resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead is living proof of the heavenly Father’s mercy to us, an incomprehensible compassion that He manifests by giving us a new and second birth infusing with divine life. That life is different from this earthly existence because that Kingdom is our inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away. Jesus contrasts earthly with heavenly treasures. Stain, moth, mildew can damage the most expensive cloth. Beautiful paintings, like flowers, fade with time. Valuables can be defiled by the elements or stolen by thieves. What does the promised inheritance that we bear as a living hope mean to us? For one, we are to evaluate our priorities. We must sort out those parts that perish with our death from what accompanies us into eternity. The images that are false, fleeting and unhelpful ought to dissipate and disappear from our value system along with all the deeds and thoughts that hinder us from appreciating the glory that lies ahead.