2Pe 1:3-4

His divine power [dynameos] has granted to us

 All things that pertain to life [zoen] and godliness [eusebeian]:
- Through knowledge [epignoseos] of Him,
o who has called us to his own glory [doxe] and virtue [arete]…
…by which he has granted to us
 His precious [timia] and very great [megista] promises
- Through these (promises) you may…
o become partakers [koinonoi] in the divine nature [physeos].
o escaping the corruption that is in the world because of concupiscence.
Analysis:

1. Divine power  has granted participation in  divine nature

a. Granted through  Knowledge of all things that pertain to: life and godliness.
b. Called by  His own virtue and glory
c. Which has granted  Promises that are: precious and very great
d. Promises to  escape the corruption of the world and partake in divine nature

2. Linear movement of the ‘two columns’ of Christian Life:

Knowledge of Him  Called by Him Promised by Him  Sacraments (divine power)
For life  To virtue  That we escape corruption  Confession
For godliness  To glory  That we partake in DN  Eucharist

3. We are called to Christ’s own virtue and glory. Christ’s virtue is the entire character of His humanity; His glory the entire
character of His divinity; but as these two have been made perfectly one in the Incarnation, we speak of a reality that
supersedes the understanding. Thus, we must speak of epignosis of Him, the God Incarnate. This is a demand of the encounter
with Christ. It is by knowledge of Him that we find divineness in human life [zoe] by our human worship [eusebeia] of him; this
helps us to live out the calling He has made to us to be conformed to Him, to practice His virtues and be transformed into His
glory; and in the measure that we are conformed to Him, we possess His promises: life preserved from corruption by virtue is
 precious (highly honored) and godliness reveals the immense glory of communion [koinonoi] with the Divine Nature which is
Trinitarian Love.

4. This plays out in two “theaters”:

a. Our humanity as the defining character of daily life
i.  enriched by virtue in Christ (a life conformed with Jesus)
b. Our worship (or prayer) as the character of divine life in which we participate, adhering ourselves willing and freely.
i.  enriched by godliness in Christ (through which His glory resides in us)
c. These two theaters are inseparable because they make up the existential coordinates of our one life before God’s eyes.
However, it is helpful to understand that there exist moments of strong prayer – explicit eusebeia, which is the
culminating expression of our humanity (cf. LG 11) – and moments of continual or existential prayer, by which our lives
themselves give glory to God, in our daily tasks, by being adhered to his Plan, with our conscience maintained in His
presence. In this second way, we speak of our lives being made into a “truly liturgical gesture” (Puebla 213), where we
offer not only out acts of worship but our entire lives to give Him glory. In other words we seek to live in a way so that
our very humanity become an act of worship to Him, so that the Father may repeat the words which sounded out at
Christ’s baptism in the river Jordan, “This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased” (Mt 3:17).
d. It would be unnatural to try and live only one of these ‘theaters’ without the other; strong moments without coherence
in everything else, or the pretense of continual prayer without any culminating moments of worship. Virtue and glory
go together because they are Christ’s; in Him they are together and He cannot be divided.
e. Our daily efforts to live virtue are nurtured, preserved and presented to God formally in our acts of strong prayer,
especially in the celebration of the Eucharist, which is our point of contact with the promise of becoming partakers in
the Divine Nature, our active participation in the Mystical Body. Our moments of strong prayer find their fulfillment in
the measure that they impact, strengthen and orient our lives toward the virtues that we seek to possess. Our
existential offering finds its renewal only in the strong moments as a place of healing and renewal, for we know that we
often fail to escape the corruption that our passions impose on us. The sacrament of confession holds a definitive role
here as our point of contact with the promise of Christ that we may escape such corruption, because He has defeated sin
and calls us to new, virtuous life in Him.

From these things follow the spiritual ladder, which in certain measure is already contained within its logic. Faith is the beginning
of all of this, by which we have been granted everything that follows. In faith, epignosis of Christ is implied, but it has not yet become
explicit. Knowledge [epignosis] of Christ becomes explicit when faith is placed in act, hence becoming virtue. Within virtue, knowledge
(gnosis) of this logic is implicit, but it must be made explicit, and becomes so in acts of knowledge, by which we come to understand the
interior unity and depth of the mysteries of the faith as they are lived out in our own experiences of faith (that is, the re-reading of our
reality; informing all of what we go through according to the vision of faith). Within this awareness (gnosis), which transforms the quality
with which reality is apprehended, self-control is implicit; but it must be made explicit in act; for the apprehension of reality is not merely
a reality of thought, but of thought and life becoming adequated as one (getting rid of existential asynchrony). Within this integrated
apprehension of reality according to the faith, hopeful perseverance is implicit; but it must be made explicit in acts of endurance and
hope in what faith has promised; that is, in fruits of ‘reaction’ before the threats of concupiscence and before the prospect of communion
with God. Within this enduring hope the element of prayerful oblation is implicit; but it must be made explicit in acts of worship, prayer,
thanksgiving, petition, and so many other gestures that can participate concretely in the Divine Power when their acts involve Sacramental
action; and in this consists the godliness of human life. This godly life which could also be called a life made ‘love for God’ implicitly
includes brotherly love as the second part of the Commandment of Love; but this brotherly love must be made explicit in acts of
communion, hospitality and kindness; for as the Apostle John tells us, “If one loves not his brother, it is proof that the love of God is not in
him” (1Jn 4:20). So finally, the most perfect love of charity is implicit in every act of brotherly love (and really in the whole chain of
virtues), but it must be made explicit in acts of agape, whose most concrete expression is that which Jesus taught, “A greater love hath no
one than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends” (Jn 15:13). Concretely, this is not merely something that we do on our own, to
choose to ‘martyrize’ ourselves out of ‘goodwill’. No, by its very nature it must be an act that proceeds from, operates through and carries
toward the implicit communion [koinonoi] with God’s nature, which is made explicit every time our acts conform to the logic of this ‘divine
indwelling’ in human action.
Through this indwelling, human effort is transformed and transcended in such a way that it becomes clear, as it was implicit from
the beginning, that it is the Power of God that is acting, and that wants to act through us, if we would but allow Him to. The issue here is not
the amount of physical exertion that is applied (whose ‘amount’ is to be indicated anyway by God according to His Providence), but of
urgency; as effort from the Greek “spoude” indicates not a measure of strength but of solicitude, earnest, diligence, haste, zeal. A solicitude
to which we are called precisely by the excellence and glory that we have discovered in Christ. He is the inspiring drive that urges us
forward “to confirm our calling and election” (2Pe 1:10), because in Him all things are made new, all human activity is renewed; made to
zeal, for “zeal for my Father’s house will consume me” (Jn 2:17). Such zeal/activity regards a mystery of human edification, in Christ, of the
Father’s dwelling place (Cf. 1Pe 2:4-6). The third chapter of the Gaudium et Spes speaks of man’s activity using the Latin word navitas, itself
being a synonym of spoude, meaning promptness, assiduity, zeal. A quick look at the chapter’s contents reveals also a clear presence of the
two abovementioned ‘theaters’ or dimensions by which human activity comes to participate in the physeos of Trinitarian Love.

“Thus, far from thinking that works produced by man's own talent and energy are in opposition to God's power, and that the rational creature
exists as a kind of rival to the Creator, Christians are convinced that the triumphs of the human race are a sign of God's grace and the
flowering of His own mysterious design. For the greater man's power becomes, the farther his individual and community responsibility
extends. Hence it is clear that men are not deterred by the Christian message from building up the world, or impelled to neglect the welfare of
their fellows, but that they are rather more stringently bound to do these very things. Human activity, to be sure, takes its significance from its
relationship to man. Just as it proceeds from man, so it is ordered toward man. For when a man works he not only alters things and society, he
develops himself as well. He learns much, he cultivates his resources, he goes outside of himself and beyond himself. Rightly understood this
kind of growth is of greater value than any external riches which can be garnered. A man is more precious for what he is than for what he has.
[...] The norm of human activity is this: that in accord with the divine plan and will, it harmonize with the genuine good of the human race, and
that it allow men as individuals and as members of society to pursue their total vocation and fulfill it. […] To those, therefore, who believe in
divine love, He gives assurance that the way of love lies open to men and that the effort to establish a universal brotherhood is not a hopeless
one. He cautions them at the same time that this charity is not something to be reserved for important matters, but must be pursued chiefly in
the ordinary circumstances of life. [...] He frees all [men] so that by putting aside love of self and bringing all earthly resources into the service
of human life they can devote themselves to that future when humanity itself will become an offering accepted by God. The Lord left behind a
pledge of this hope and strength for life's journey in that sacrament of faith where natural elements refined by man are gloriously changed
into His Body and Blood, providing a meal of brotherly solidarity and a foretaste of the heavenly banquet.” (GS 34-38)