Word VII

The second coming of our Lord Jesus Christ is commonly called the dread judgment: and rightly so, for at it both the living and the dead will be judged. The judgment is dread: for it will terrify every creature, heavenly and earthly, unseen and seen. It will be dread to the heavenly creatures: for the powers of heaven will be shaken. It will be dread to earthly creatures: for the earth will be shaken to its very foundations. At the second, glorious coming of Christ to the earth, all will hear the loud voice of the Archangel and the trumpet of God; this sound, or rather this thunder, will resound through the whole universe: the dead, hearing it, will rise and stream to judgment.

Here, first of all, there will be great fear for sinners, when the voice of the trumpet commands every soul to enter its body—that body which, having once turned to dust, will now, by God’s command, receive again its frame and its members.

For just as a seed sown in the earth, though it decays, in its own time sprouts and yields first grass, then the ear, and bears fruit, according to the Lord’s word: if a grain of wheat, falling into the ground, does not die, it remains alone; but if it dies, it brings forth much fruit (Jn 12:24); so too the human body, having died and decayed and become dust, will in an instant receive a quickening power from the voice of the trumpet, and will again become a body, and in a moment will be brought to life by its own soul.

At that time, I say, there will be fear for the sinful soul, released from the prisons of hell to its body for reunion with it; for when it approaches its body, it will see it wholly unlike what it was before—in this life it was comely, beautiful, pleasant, but then it will be hideous, foul, repulsive, like some monster; and even before it is cast into hell, it will already bear within itself the beginnings of eternal torment and will itself be like a living hell. The sinful soul, seeing all this, will be horrified at its own body, as at a place of fiery torment; it will abhor it as an unbearable abomination, and will not want to enter it.

Then another fear will seize the sinner—from the exposure of all his foul, sinful deeds and from indescribable shame; for as soon as the sinner rises from the grave, all his sins are at once exposed, and openly, before the whole world, will appear all those foul deeds which he did before, secretly from everyone, in some hidden place, in the darkness of night. Then in very deed the words of the Gospel will be fulfilled: for there is nothing covered that shall not be revealed, nor hidden that shall not be known and come to light; what you have spoken in the ear shall be proclaimed upon the housetops (Lk 12:2-3). Thief spoke to thief in the ear, fornicator to fornicatress, plotting sin; but then these foul words will be trumpeted, as through a great resounding trumpet, in the hearing of the whole universe! Oh, what shame will be ours, sinners that we are! But we will be put to shame above all by those who, having been sinners like us in this life, afterward amended themselves through true repentance and were found worthy to be among the saints, while we remained without repentance. And what shall be said of those who in this life are accounted good, upright, and holy, and who condemn others? Will they not be put to utter shame, when those whom they condemned and mocked and counted as sinners they see in glory, as the righteous, while they themselves are put to shame and, as antichrists, cast down into the abyss—for whoever condemns his brother is an antichrist?

To the fear that will arise from exposure and utmost shame will be added a new fear, when sinners see those whom in this life they hated, persecuted, grieved, insulted, beat, tormented, killed!

They will hear how these last cry out against them to God: Judge, O Lord, those who wrong us, avenge us, O Lord, righteous Judge! Repay them for the evil they did to us! Every righteous man will then say to the one who wronged or killed him: why did you wrong me; why did you persecute me, torment me, and kill me without mercy?

With bitter remorse and groaning the sinners will then say: these are they whom we once held in derision and reproach; how are they now numbered among the sons of God, and their lot is among the saints (cf. Solom 5:1-5). Above all this, an especially strong fear will fall upon sinners at the face of our Lord Jesus Christ, the righteous Judge and fearsome Avenger — who can stand before the face of His wrath? and who can withstand the fury of His anger? (Naum 1:6).

From such a wrathful and fearsome face, what else can we sinners expect to hear but that voice, more terrible than every thunder and lightning: depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels (Mt 25:41).

After all this the dark demons will come upon the sinners and drag them away—demons whose very appearance is more terrible than any torment. They will come and drag them into the abyss of hell, into the everlasting fire and into Tartarus and into the unsleeping worm of endless eternity.

Let us, sinners that we are, always keep in mind this fear and horror that will overtake us on the day of judgment, and let us fear those torments which no tongue can utter, no mind can grasp.

Let us fear His dread judgment, let us fear it and cease from sinning. Let us more often call to mind our last things: death, hell, judgment, that we may not sin. Let us appease the fearsome Judge with tears, repentance, and almsgiving before our departure, that we may be delivered from the fate of the condemned and be numbered among the justified. Amen.