Teacher, I have brought my son to Thee, having a dumb spirit; and where he has it, he breaks it, and foams it, and gnashes his teeth, and is numb (Mark 9:1718)

Whoever follows the path of vice will certainly eventually fall into the abyss of perdition. Evil deeds always lead to misfortune, and in general a vicious way of life ends in a terrible calamity. For an evil life, death is also evil. Look at the perverted way of thinking of the disobedient youth, at the hardness of the ungrateful son, I speak of the wicked Absalom, who, under the influence of the innate arrogance of a proud spirit and pernicious counsellors, takes up arms, seeks the throne and the death of the meek David, his father and king. But look also at the end of this insolent indignation, an end quite worthy of such iniquity. In uncontrollable rage, breathing deadly malice against his father, the rebellious son carelessly rode on a donkey under a tree; his long hair was tangled in the branches of the tree, and he hung in the air, miserable. At the same time, Joab, David's faithful commander, rode up to the same place, and seizing three spears, thrust them into his heart, and Joab took three arrows in his hands, and I thrust into the heart of Absalom... yet I live unto him (2 Samuel 18:14). And who would believe it? Despite three terrible, mortal wounds, he, although he experiences great suffering, still does not die. What a deplorable sight! He hangs, unfortunate, on the fatal tree and hangs on his own hair. Three deadly spears pierced his chest, and despite the gaping wounds, his tormented soul still does not come out. He rushes, spins, torments, kicks in the air, grabs his hair and wounds with his hands, rolls his eyes wildly, moans pitifully, exerts his strength to the last, but can neither die nor escape. Not dying even one death, he experiences the torments of a thousand deaths.

O judgment, O soul! So I exclaimed last Sunday. And now I exclaim: O torments, O soul! Last Sunday I accompanied the unfortunate sinner to the very lips of hell; with trembling, with sighs and tears, I presented him on the day of the Last Judgment, and he was judged by God, Who is all wrath, without mercy; as a criminal, he was condemned and heard a terrible sentence for himself: "Depart from me, the curse, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his aggel" (Matt. 25:41). Today I want to show you the image of the same sinner in eternal torment. True, for his living depiction the young man of the Gospel today also gives me colours: he, like a living nest of a dumb spirit, foams, gnashes his teeth, becomes numb, falls down as if dead from excessive torment, all this is a semblance of eternal torment. But I take the image of the unfortunate Absalom. Joab thrust three spears into his heart, while he was still alive; and I will show you the other three spears, i.e. the arrows of the Mighty One are sharpened (Psalm 119:4), with which God's truth strikes the soul of a sinner doomed to torment. The first arrow is bitter but useless repentance: it wounds the memory with the remembrance of a past life. The other is excessive and incurable pain: it strikes the mind with the consciousness of its present state. The third is an extreme but hopeless desire: it strikes the will with the deprivation of a future blissful life. Absalom remained alive with his wound in order to experience even greater torment. In the same way, a sinner who is tormented by all three arrows does not receive final death in order to experience eternal death. This, above all, is the torment of which we shall speak.

I. Imagine, my hearers, a gloomy subterranean prison of utter darkness, the deepest abyss, the stinking sepulchre, the joyless place of weeping and sorrow, or the most terrible furnace of dark fire, the inextinguishable flame of immeasurable breadth, ineffable depth, and imagine in it imprisoned, buried, burning in the flames of the unfortunate sinner. The sovereign right hand of the Most High constantly strikes him with three arrows in the three main powers of the soul: intellect, will, and memory, and inflicts on him three terrible wounds: bitter repentance without benefit, immeasurable torment without joy, extreme desire without hope, so that this unfortunate man is nailed to the earth by memory, by his mind to hell, and by his desire to heaven. By remembrance to the earth, for it remembers the past life; with his mind to hell, for he is clearly aware of his torment; desire for heaven, for he will always, but hopelessly, desire heavenly glory. What is the cross in comparison with this torment? The gnashing of teeth, the worm that never sleeps, the pitch darkness, the unquenchable fire, the joint torment with demons, and all the like that we know from the Holy Scriptures, are only the smallest part of the torments, all these bodily torments, which are quite insignificant in comparison with the spiritual torments to which I indicate.

It is an indisputable truth, based on the common opinion of theologians, that all those who descend into hell, deprived of all the supernatural gifts of Divine grace, nevertheless retain all natural gifts. They have all five bodily senses: sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch; the three powers of the soul are also intact: the mind, the will, and the memory. Moreover, both the external bodily senses and the inner spiritual forces become even more receptive, so that they suffer more intensely, and become more deeply aware of their suffering. From this comes true eternal torment.

Thus, the first arrow that strikes the sinner in memory is a living memory of a past life. Memory, alas! bitter, leading to even more bitter repentance. Oh, that this brief life of ours, fading like a flower, disappearing like lightning, would disappear from our thoughts as quickly as it passes before our eyes! Oh, that we would lose all remembrance of worldly pleasures as soon as we lose the taste of them! But what was cannot change, and what was, was in time, and has passed, and in time has ended. What has happened goes beyond time and remains there forever. All worldly pleasures are like those sweet but unhealthy viands that delight the palate for a while, but remain undigested in the stomach with pain; so they also come for a moment and delight the senses, but remain forever and torment the memory. "They," says Basil the Great, "delight the eater for a while, but then their consequences are more bitter than gall." The past life remains entirely in the memory of the sinner and has two opposite sides: on the one hand, it seems very short, on the other very long. And just as a telescope on the one hand magnifies and on the other decreases objects, so the tormented memory, on the one hand, when it compares life with an endless sojourn in hell, finds it very brief, instantaneous, nothing, yesterday that has passed (Psalm 89:5), how much torment there is in the mere realization that for such a short life the soul has found such eternal torment! on the other hand, when memory compares life with time, life finds a very long journey of many years. How much torment it is to realize that in the course of so many years she could repent a thousand times, but during all this time she always preferred torment! The wound with which this arrow strikes the memory of the sinner is bitter but useless repentance. He only now repents of what he has done, but the time for forgiveness has already passed. He is only now weeping over his sins, but his tears no longer wash away his sins, but further inflame the flames of his torment. "In hell there is no repentance. For those who have departed to hell, confession and correction are no longer possible," says Gregory the Theologian. Here, in this life, the sinner repents and receives benefit, confesses and receives forgiveness, weeps and receives purification, since this is an auspicious time, says the Apostle, a time of repentance, for which God has entrusted the keys to His priests: with them they open the doors of the kingdom of heaven when they will, before the penitent. But there, in another life, it is not so. There is a time of retribution, when everyone after judgment will receive what he deserves. There the Lord takes back the keys and, after judging the righteous and the sinners, closes the gates, which remain closed forever. And the doors were shut (Matt. 25:10). There, within, in the kingdom of heaven, are the eternally blessed righteous, and outside are the sinners who are forever banished; The door does not open, for there are no keys. But why do I say that I don't? There is repentance, but it is bitter and useless. Saul, the king of Israel, once persecuted the Philistines. He addressed his people with a speech that no one should dare to eat absolutely anything during the day until the final victory over the enemies was won, and whoever transgressed the king's commandment, even if it be his own son Jonathan, he swore by a terrible oath to put to death at that very hour. And indeed, his son Jonathan, accidentally finding a beehive in the field, forced by hunger, dipped the end of his stick in honey and as soon as he brought it close to his lips, he was doomed by his royal father to death. By death, by death, let him die today! There is no mercy for him, there is no forgiveness. The unfortunate Jonathan is asked what he has done: to proclaim... What hast thou done? (1 Samuel 14:43). He only answers: tasting little honey... and behold, I am dying (Ibid.) I put a little honey in my mouth, and behold, I am compelled to die. Such a small sweetness, and so bitter now! Such a slight pleasure, and now it gives me such a heavy punishment! Damn honey! Hot honey! Oh, that I had never found thee, that I had never touched thee with my lips! Poor Jonathan, tell me, what have you done? I tasted a little honey and now I am dying. A little honey is my fault, and death is my punishment! The consciousness of this is what makes death so bitter to me.

O Most High, the All-King of the ages, Who has, as Thou Thyself says, the keys of hell, give them to me now, in order to open this gloomy prison, where transgressors of Thy commandments are doomed to eternal death. I do not intend to pour balm on their wounds or water on the flames. No. I only want to ask one of those sinful souls and say to her: Tormented soul, tell me what you have done? Why are you so terribly tormented? What are you guilty of? And you suffer like this forever? What brought you to this prison? What threw you into this furnace? What did you do? Nothing else, except for a little honey. One moment of tasting is all my guilt, this is the whole cause of my torment. How great was that intoxication with satanic lust, because of which I carried away so many pure girls, disgraced honest wives, gave all my possessions, soul, and heart to a lewd harlot! All this is just a drop of honey! Was it great that I received in drinking and drinking from feasts and dances, from festivities and weddings, from games and spectacles? Only a drop of honey! How great was the joy I experienced when I satiated my vengeance, saw the misfortunes of my neighbor, disgraced his honor for the sake of my passion, for the sake of envy? A drop of honey! And was the wealth that awaited my money-loving passion, for the sake of which I burdened my conscience with countless untruths and lawless deeds? A drop of honey! And the glory, honor, and peace which I enjoyed in my power, dignity, and wealth, with such pride, haughtiness, and so little fear of God, what were they? A drop of honey! Everything, absolutely everything, is but a drop of honey, and that poisoned by so many cares, fears, labors, illnesses! But even if the whole path of my life were a continuous series of happy days, my whole life, even the longest and most prosperous, what is all this in comparison with the painful eternity? A drop of honey, nothing, the day of yesterday, which passed by (Psalm 89:5). Woe is me! I remember and feel a flame that gnaws at my memory more than the one that burns my body. I have sinned for a minute and am tormented forever. Oh, the accursed honey of temporary pleasures! You have become the poison of eternal torment for me. Past fleeting life, you have become the fault of endless torment! Oh, the shortest life! But why do I call it the shortest? It was long for me, and very long in order to receive salvation. I had lived so many years on earth and had the keys of paradise in my hands, I knew that torment was intended for sinners like me, I knew how to avoid it, I could have easily done it and I did not. I was a free man, gifted with intelligence. Who blinded me, who carried me away?

Oh, past life, whether I imagine your brevity, whether I imagine your duration, you are an equally bitter memory for me. Oh, golden years, precious days, past and lost, forever lost to me!

Who will now give me one of those watches that seemed so long to me then? Who will now give me even a little of the time that I have squandered on sins or spent in vanity? Who will give me one single moment to repent? But there is no more time, it has already passed, and only in vain do I desire it and will forever desire it. Oh, the arrow that strikes my memory! My guilt is a drop of honey, and my punishment is eternal torment. Oh, bitter remembrance, useless repentance!

These, brethren, are words that strike the heart of those who hear, much less the one who speaks them. And imagine: then he will curse the womb that bore him, and the breast that nursed him, and the parents, children and friends he knew, and most of all the drop of honey that became so bitter. Think about it, he, like today's possessed man, will foam with rage, he will boil with anger like a furious animal, he will rush at himself to tear himself to pieces, to devour his entrails, if possible. He is guilty of himself and tortures himself; He is both a victim and a weapon of eternal torment.

And when he passes from the remembrance of his past life to the consciousness of the present situation, how great will be his suffering! This is the second arrow that strikes his mind. Holy Soul, grant me now of Thy Divine power, that I may explain to my hearers what pain this arrow causes! The state of sinners in hell is an eternal life of torment, just as the state of the righteous in heaven is an eternal life of bliss. But what does "eternal life" mean in general? Theologians give us a material image and explain it in the following way. A large iron ball on a stand, according to the property of spherical bodies, touches it only at one point. All the weight of the ball is concentrated in it alone; As much as the whole ball weighs, it weighs the same at each separate point when it rests on it.

In the same way, eternal life, as it is in its entirety, is the same at every single moment, for it is inseparable.

That is why the Apostle calls eternal blessed life "the burden of immortal glory" (cf. 2 Corinthians 4:17), and learned theologians say that it is a perfect delight for a full, endless life in one moment. "Instantaneous and perfect" means that the righteous man at every indivisible moment of eternal life rejoices in all the instant, and all in perfection, in that joy which he ought to enjoy during the whole of that blissful, infinite eternal life. He enjoys all the glory all the age, and in every moment of eternity. This eternity in its fullness is revealed before the blessed mind of the righteous and always makes his blessedness boundless.