[....]
This is my opinion of how Judgment will take place; that is,
Christ is not going to say: “Hey you - come here! What have you
done?” or “You: you are going to Hell” or, “You: you are going
to Heaven”; but rather, each one of us will compare himself to
the others and will proceed to where he knows is his place.
~~~~~~~~
“Elder, how is a soul purged?”
“When a person upholds God’s commandments, works on himself and
cleanses himself of passions, that is when his nous becomes
illumined, then reaches the heights of Theoria
(“seeing” God)
and the soul is brightened and becomes like it was before the
Fall of the First-fashioned humans. It is the state a person
will be in, after the resurrection of the dead. However, one
can see the resurrection of his soul even before the common
resurrection, if one becomes cleansed of all his passions; his
body will then become angelic, immaterial, and it will not care
about material sustenance.”
~~~~~~~~
“Elder, how will the Final Judgment take place?”
“On the Day of Judgment, each person’s state will be revealed in
an instant and each one will move on to where he deserves to
be. Each person will observe his own wretched state like on a
TV screen, as well as the other’s state. He will see himself
reflected against the other and will bow his head in shame and
thus move on to the place that he deserves.
For example, a daughter-in-law who used to sit indifferently
cross-legged in the presence of her mother-in-law, who although
suffering a broken leg, was nevertheless taking care of her
little grandchild, will not be able to say “Why, o my Christ,
are you putting my mother-in-law in Paradise but not me?”
because that precise scene will appear before her eyes
(during Judgment).
She will be recalling the scene of her mother-in-law standing on
her broken leg to attend to her little grandchild, and she will
know she doesn’t deserve to go to Paradise – and neither will
there be any space for her there.
Or, when monks who have seen the difficulties and the trials
that secular people have been undergoing and how they were
confronted - but they themselves
(as monks)
had not lived accordingly - they will hang their heads in shame,
and head for where they deserve.
Nuns who had not pleased God will see there all the hero-mothers
- who had taken no vows nor had the blessings and opportunities
that the nuns had - and how those mothers struggled and to what
spiritual state they had reached - when they as nuns had
preoccupied and tormented themselves with all those petty
matters - will be ashamed of themselves!
That is how my thoughts perceive Judgment will take place.
Christ is not going to say: “Hey you - come here! What have you
done?” or “you: you are going to Hell!” and “you: you are going
to Heaven”; but rather, each one of us will compare himself to
the others and will proceed to where he knows his place is.
~~~~~~~~
Note 1.
Saint John of Damascus writes: "Let no-one believe that there
will be no recognition of one another on that terrible
gathering. Yes, indeed, each one will recognize the one
near him - not by the form of his body, but by the discerning
eye of the soul." (PG 95 276A)
[Grk: Μη
γαρ οιέσθω τις, ότι ουκ αναγνωρισμός εκάστου προς έκαστον επί
της φοβεράς εκείνης συναγωγής γενήσεται. Ναι, όντως έκαστος
αναγνωριεί τον πλησίον αυτού, ου τω του σώματος σχήματι, αλλά τω
διορατικώ της ψυχής όμματι]
Note 2. Saint
Simeon the New Theologian writes: "And quite simply, every
sinful person will see opposite him on that terrible day of
Judgment in the eternal life and in that ineffable light the
one who is
like him, and
he will be judged by him." (On
Repentance, Discourse 5, Sources Chrétiennes 96, 434)
[Grk.: «Και απλώς πας
άνθρωπος αμαρτωλός εν τη φοβερά ημέρα της κρίσεως απεναντίας
αυτού εις την αιωνίαν ζωήν και εις το ανεκλάλητον εκείνο φως
όψεται τον όμοιον αυτού και κριθήσεται παρ’ αυτού»]