General Epistle of 1999
The life on earth of each human being is given to him by God. This life is very short, even when it lasts one hundred years or more. Death only touches one's body, which decomposes and with time becomes dust; but even this body will be resurrected by the power of Allmighty God during the general Resurrection of the dead. Therefore, every human being, as we see him every day, is, in his essence, immortal, eternal. Nobody should marvel at this, because the Holy Scriptures say that God has created man in His image and likeness, i.e. to be eternal. This is why we glorify the Lord by singing "'Holy God, Holy Mighty, Holy Immortal have mercy on us ". The Prophet King David, in his psalm, addressing us, says: "ye are gods".
All the above indicates that our short earthly life will determine the state of our eternal life. Our death is the beginning of our eternity, good or bad. Therefore, this short earthly life should be lived in the right way, i.e. we must think righteous thoughts, we must have righteous feelings, and we must lead a righteous life. We could call our earthly life a "temporary time", and time itself remains a mystery for us, because it is not "yesterday", not "today" nor "tomorrow", but rather "forever". The Lord is Love Itself; therefore, when He calls us to eternity, it is at the right moment of our earthly life, so that we will blessedly live forever.
The All-Powerful God, Jesus Christ, became Man, so that there would be Someone to Whom we could come nearer, Whom we could imitate, Whom we could follow. We are human; of this, there is no doubt whatsoever, but our main goal in this life is our deification; with God's help we should come nearer and nearer to the only Holy God-Man, our Lord Jesus Christ: only this makes our salvation possible.
Amen.
+ Metropolitan Vitaly
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