“This is Life Eternal”.Saint Sophrony the Athonite.

Saint Sophrony the Athonite.
By Camil Rahal.

        'When Jesus ... had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost (John 19:30). What was Christ aware of when He said, It is finished? No one has the power wholly to uncover the eternity wherein our Lord dwelt. But it would not be mistaken to suppose that His global vision included not only extreme Self-emptying to the extent of descent into hell but the spectacle of His victory over death. He beheld the multitude of them whom He had saved in the Light of the Father's Kingdom. What the creative mind of God had designed for man 'before the foundation of the world' is now possible and accomplished. The 'work' which the Father had given to Christ to do - He has finished (cf. John 17:4).

We are fearful, we are appalled, when we see the dreadful extent of the suffering that lies before us. But the peculiarity of the Christian way lies precisely in the fact that descent into the domain of torment may parallel the human spirit's ascent into the sphere of uncreated Light. When we are seized by what seems to us unbearable anguish, suddenly the possibility of really measureless abundance of life opens out before us. Then it is that we begin to cognize Christ more deeply, both as Man and as God. And our spirit rejoices, marveling at the miracle that God has performed with us. Just as the Gethsemane prayer continues eternal in its operative puissance; just as Christ's death at Golgotha has for all time seared the body of the created world; just as the Lord's deeds and words can never be effaced from the history of man - so will our labors to follow after Christ stay engraved in us for eternity, but transfigured by the power of Divine Love.

To the faithful believer states of being are accorded that liken him to the Incarnate God - we do not speak of complete identity but we do not deny an analogy. (It would be folly to claim identicalness; profanity and ingratitude to reject similitude.) And if it were never given to anyone to live in prayer be it only a faint likeness to the spiritual states of the God-man, how could people ever manage to recognise God in Him? 'This is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent' (john 17:3). The whole point of our arduous striving is to know the one true God. Our spirit is focussed, not on ephemeral phenomena but on eternal Being. Our mind aspires to Him, Who IS, the foundation of all that exists, the First and the Last. And how could we ascribe such attributes to the historical Christ if following His commandments did not bring the fruits of which the Fathers from generation to generation speak with such reverence and rapture; if He were as hidebound as we are? But ... 'the Son of God. . . hath given us an understanding, that we may know him that is true and may be in his Son Jesus Christ ... ' [cf. I John 5:20]. And St. Paul says .that in us must be 'this mind which was also in Christ Jesus' [Phil. 2:5]. And again, Paul 'bows his knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ ... That he would grant us to be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man; That Christ may dwell in our hearts; that we ... may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that we might be filled with all the fullness of God' [cf. Eph. 3:14-19].

So then, if at the beginning of Christianity the Spirit put these words into the mouth and heart of St. Paul, the same Spirit right up to this day never ceases to move the hearts of the faithful to like prayer for the whole world, that every man may know through and through that the Lord calls each and all of us 'into his marvelous light' [I Pet. 2:9].

Reference:

We Shall See Him As He Is. Archimandrite Sophrony(Sakharov).1988.