In 2 Corinthians (5:17), Paul says that whoever has committed himself, through baptism, to Jesus Christ, joins or participates in the "new creation". Everything begins again, because the real world (as distinguished from our fantasy world of fear, selfishness, greed, and malice) is a world where everything is joined together because of the love of Christ. We live in this new creation, in this radically new universe: in the new city, with its new "polity", where no one is a slave or a serf, deprived of his dignity. We look at the here and now, but at the same time, at a future that is already present. We live at the "point" where the present meets the future.

As we begin to mature as Christians, an awareness dawns that our hope in Christ is not just about some future event. It concerns a future that has already begun, and which is manifested in our relationship with the other, with Jesus Christ, and with the One whom Jesus calls "Abba, my Father". It is the life of the Triune God, unfolding before us and becoming our life – in the present moment, yes; but in a way that assures us that it will continue to grow in depths beyond which we can find words or images, in the immensity of the "riches and wisdom and knowledge of God" (Rom. 11:33).