WHY IS MAN SO CARELESS ABOUT HIS PERISHING SOUL? Homily by Hi | DRIIIVΞR
WHY IS MAN SO CARELESS ABOUT HIS PERISHING SOUL?
Homily by Hieromartyr Thaddeus (Uspensky) on The Sunday of the Last Judgment
They remember better what occupies them, what is more pleasant to them. They forget about the Last Judgment, because the memory of it could destroy the joys of earthly life; they forget about it, thinking that it’s a long way off to the Judgment and no one knows when it will be.
Just as people do not worry about earthquakes that will not come soon—so they think—or that will come at an undetermined time, so neither do they worry about the coming Judgment, and their unbelief only hardens their careless state.
Just as people before the Flood did not want to believe Noah’s preaching, so also now do people remain in negligent unbelief—especially since modern science very often suggests that the Flood and the Last Judgment are just empty fairy tales. They think, “How can the Judgment be so terrible if the Judge is Christ, Who is filled with such great love for people, with meekness and forgiveness?” But this meekness will only increase our fear of the Judge.
If a sinner who lives on earth is so afraid of a righteous one that he tries to keep his distance from him and not meet up with him, then how will he meet face to face with Christ, the meek and sinless Righteous One, when he remembers all the acts he committed that angered Christ, all the days of his life? The meek countenance of Christ will be a pure mirror in which all the impurity and unrighteousness of their lives will be reflected!
And although the Lord’s countenance remains unchangeably meek, won’t this very meekness gather burning coals on the heads of sinners (Prov. 25:22; Rom. 12:20)? Woe to them in whose hearts these burning coals do not ignite flaming repentance during earthly life.
Because of their stony-heartedness, these coals will turn into the unquenchable fire of Gehenna!
Excerpt from: https://orthochristian.com/144691.html
