9. Let us turn now, O dear head! and let us do the will of God. He created us and brought us into existence in order to make us partakers of eternal blessings, in order to bestow the kingdom of heaven, and not in order to cast us into hell and put us on fire; This is not for us, but for the devil, but for us from ancient times the kingdom was built and prepared. Explaining both, the Lord says "to those who are on His right hand, Come, ye blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world"; and "to those on the left, depart from me, you cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels" (Matthew 25:34,41). Therefore Gehenna is not prepared for us, but for him and his angels; And the kingdom was prepared for us even before the creation of the world. Let us not make ourselves unworthy to enter the palace: as long as we remain here, then, even though we have committed a multitude of sins, it is possible to wash away everything, repenting of sins; but when we go there, then, even if we show the strongest repentance, there will be no more benefit, and no matter how much we gnash our teeth, or lament, and pray a thousand times, no one will give us a drop from the end of a finger, embraced by flames, but we will hear the same thing as the famous rich man - that "a great gulf has been established between us and you" (Luke 16:26). Let us repent here, I exhort, and let us know our Lord, as it is proper to know. Only then will we have to reject the hope of repentance when we are in hell, because only there is this medicine powerless and useless, and as long as we are here, if it is used even in old age, it exerts great power. For this reason the devil also makes every effort to root in us the thought of despair: for he knows that even if we repent a little, it will not be fruitless for us. But just as he who gives a cup of cold water expects recompense, so he who repents of his evil deeds, even if he does not show repentance commensurate with his sins, will receive recompense for this. No good, however unimportant, will be neglected by the Righteous Judge. If sins are examined with such severity that we will be punished for both words and desires; then much better works, whether small or great, will be imputed to us at that time. Thus, even if you are not able to return to your former strict life, but even a little distracted by the present infirmity and intemperance, then this will not be useless; Only lay the foundation of the work and begin the asceticism, and as long as you remain outside, it will indeed seem to you difficult and inconvenient. Before experience, even very easy and tolerable things usually seem to us very difficult; but when we have tried them and taken up them boldly, the greater part of the difficulty disappears, and cheerfulness, taking the place of fear and despair, diminishes fear, increases the feasibility and strengthens good hopes. For this reason the evil one also turned Judas away from this, so that, having made the right beginning, he would not return through repentance to the place from which he had fallen. Truly I would say, although such words are strange, that his sin is not higher than the help we receive from repentance. Therefore, I beseech and beseech you, pluck out of your soul every satanic thought and turn to this means of salvation.

Where did all this fly now? What was this body, which was vouchsafed such care and purity? Go to the grave, look at the dust, at the dust, at the worms, look at the ugliness of this place, and - groan bitterly. And oh, if only the punishment were limited to these ashes! But from the grave and these worms now be transferred in thought to that undying worm, to the unquenchable fire, to the gnashing of teeth, to utter darkness, to sorrow and contrition, to the parable of Lazarus and the rich man, who, having previously possessed such wealth and clothed himself in purple, could not receive even a drop of water, and moreover was in such extremity. Everything here is no better than dreams. For just as those who work in the mines, or who bear some other still the most grievous punishment, when, having fallen asleep after many labors and the most bitter life, they see themselves in pleasure and wealth in a dream, when they wake up, they are not in the least happy about their dreams; so it was with the rich man who, using wealth in the present life as if in a dream, suffered a heavy punishment after departing from here. Think about this, and having opposed that fire to the flame of lust that now envelops you, finally get rid of this furnace. For he who has extinguished the furnace here well will not experience the furnace there; and whoever has not overcome this one, after departing from here, will be more strongly possessed by the one there.

However, if you will, let it be so that you live so many years and experience no change: what is this in comparison with the endless ages and those grievous and intolerable punishments? Here both good and evil have an end, and a very quick one at that, and there both continue for endless ages, and in their quality they are so different from this that it is impossible to say.

10. When you hear about a fire, do not think that the fire there is the same as the one here: this one, having embraced something, burns and extinguishes; but he who is once seized burns constantly, and never ceases, which is why he is called inextinguishable. For even sinners must put on immortality, not for glory, but in order to have a constant companion of the torment there; and how terrible it is, words can never depict, and only from the experience of small sufferings can one get some faint idea of those great sufferings. When you are in a bath that is heated more than it should be, imagine the fire of Gehenna, and if you burn in a great fever, then transfer your thoughts to that flame: and then you will be able to understand this difference well. If even the bath and fever torment and disturb us so much, then what will we feel when we fall into that fiery river that will flow before the dreadful judgment seat? Let us gnash our teeth from suffering and unbearable torment, but no one will help us. Let us groan strongly when the flames begin to envelop us more and more strongly, but we will see none but those who are tormented with us and the great desert. And what can be said about the horrors that darkness will bring upon our souls? For that fire neither destroys nor illuminates; otherwise there would be no darkness. In general, that time alone can sufficiently show that confusion and trembling, exhaustion and great ecstasy will befall us at that time. The torments there are many and varied, and the streams of plagues from everywhere envelop the soul. If anyone says: how can the soul be sufficient for such a multitude of torments and remain in punishment for endless ages? Let him imagine what happens here, how often many have endured a long and serious illness. If they died, it was not because the soul disappeared, but because the body was exhausted, so that if it had not been exhausted, the soul would not have ceased to suffer. When the soul receives an incorruptible and indestructible body, then nothing will prevent the torment from continuing into infinity. There cannot be both together, that is, the cruelty and duration of the torments, but one resists the other because of the perishability of the body and the inability to endure both at the same time; and when at last incorruptibility comes, this resistance will cease, and both these monsters will embrace us with great force into infinity. Therefore let us not now reason as if the excessiveness of torments will exhaust our souls: for at that time the body cannot be exhausted, but will be tormented with the soul forever, and there will be no end. And so, how great is the pleasure and how long do you want to oppose to this punishment and torment? Do you want a hundred years and twice as much? But what is this in comparison with endless centuries? What the dream of one day is in relation to the whole life, so does the enjoyment of the goods of this world in relation to the duration of future goods. Is there any man, therefore, who, in order to have a pleasant dream, would dare to endure punishment for the rest of his life? Who is so foolish as to dare to take such a reward? However, now I do not yet rebel against pleasure and do not reveal the bitterness contained in it: for now is not the time to speak about it, but when you will be able to flee from it. But now, when passion possesses you, we would seem to you idle talk if we called pleasure bitter; but when you, by the grace of God, are freed from your infirmities, then you will know for sure that it is malignant. Therefore, putting this aside for another time, let us now say the following. Let pleasure be pleasure, and pleasure pleasure, which has nothing unpleasant or reprehensible in it: what shall we say about the punishment that is prepared? What then will we do, who enjoyed the blessings of this world as it were in shadow and image, and there we were actually subjected to eternal torment, and moreover, when it was possible in a short time both to escape the aforementioned torments and to receive the blessings prepared for us? Truly, it is also a work of God's love for mankind that our ascetic deeds do not last for a long time, but after striving for a short and the shortest time, like the twinkling of an eye (such is precisely the present life in comparison with the future), we will be crowned for endless ages. Much will grieve the souls of the punished when they imagine that while in these short days everything could have been corrected, they, through their carelessness, gave themselves over to eternal torment. In order that we also may not suffer this, let us arise as long as the time is favorable, as long as the day of salvation is, as long as the power of repentance is great. For if we remain careless, then not only the above-mentioned disasters will befall us, but also other, much more grievous ones. Such and even the most bitter calamities will be in hell, and the deprivation of blessings will cause such sorrow, such sorrow and torment, that even if no punishment awaited the sinners here, it in itself would torment and disturb our souls worse than the torments of Gehenna.

11. Imagine the state of that life as far as it is possible to imagine it: for no word can fully depict it, but from what we hear, as from some riddles, we can get some vague idea of it. "They will depart," says (the Scriptures), "[sickness], sorrow, and sighing" (Isaiah 35:10).

The light there is not darkened either by night or by the condensation of clouds; it does not burn or burn bodies, because there is neither night nor evening, nor cold, nor heat, nor any other change of times, but some other state, which only the worthy know; there is neither old age nor the calamities of old age, but all that is perishable has been cast aside, since everywhere incorruptible glory reigns. And what is most important is the uninterrupted enjoyment of communion with Christ, together with the angels, with the archangels, with the heavenly powers. Look now at heaven, and turn your thoughts to that which is above heaven, imagine the transfiguration of all creation: it will no longer remain so, but will be much more beautiful and brighter, and as gold is shining as tin, so much will the structure of that time be better than the present, as Blessed Paul says: "That creation itself shall be freed from slavery to corruption" (Romans 8:21). Now, as a partaker of corruption, it endures many things that are peculiar to such bodies; but then, having put off all this, it will present us with imperishable splendor. Since it must receive incorruptible bodies, it will itself be transformed into a better state. Nowhere will there be strife and strife, because there is great harmony among the saints, with all always being of one mind with one another. There is no need to fear the devil and demonic snares, nor the thunderstorm of Gehenna, nor death - neither this present, nor the one that is much heavier than this; but all such fear is destroyed.

And so that these words do not seem like mere eloquence, let us ascend in thought to the mountain where Christ was transfigured; let us look at Him shining, how He shone forth, although even then He did not yet show us all the radiance of the age to come; From the very words of the Evangelist it is evident that what was revealed then was only condescension, and not an accurate representation of the object. For what does he say? "He shall shine like the sun" (Matthew 17:2). The glory of the incorruptible bodies does not reveal such a light as this perishable body, nor such as is accessible to mortal eyes, but such as is necessary for the contemplation of incorruptible and immortal eyes. And then on the mountain He revealed only as much as it was possible to see without harm to the eyes of those who saw; and in all this they could not bear it, but fell on their faces.

Tell me, should we deprive ourselves of such blessings in order to avoid short-term burdens? If it were necessary to endure many deaths every day, even Gehenna itself, in order to see Christ coming in His glory, and to be numbered among the saints, then would it not be necessary to endure all this? Listen to what Blessed Peter says: "It is good for us to be here" (Matthew 17:4). If, however, he, seeing only a vague image of the future, immediately poured everything out of his soul as a result of the delight that arose in his soul from this sight, then what can be said when the very truth of things is revealed, when the royal palaces are opened, and it will be possible to contemplate the King himself no longer in divination and not in a mirror, but face to face, no longer by faith, but by a vision?

12. Many foolish people would only like to be delivered from hell, but I consider it a much more grievous punishment for hell not to be in that glory; and he who has lost it, I think, should grieve not so much from the torments of Gehenna as for the deprivation of heavenly blessings: for this alone is the most grievous of all punishments.

And in relation to the King of all, Who possesses not a part of the earth, but the whole circle of the earth, or, rather, encompasses all of it with his hand, and measures the heavens with a span, bears all things by the word of His power, before Whom all nations are as nothing, and as "spittle" (Isaiah 40:15)

One says: "Our God is coming, and not in silence: before Him is a consuming fire, and around Him is a mighty storm. He calls heaven and earth from on high, to judge His people" (Psalm 49:3,4). And Isaiah adds the punishment itself to us in the following words: "Behold, the day of the Lord is coming, fierce, with wrath and burning fury, to make the earth a desolation, and to destroy its sinners from it. The stars of heaven and the luminaries do not give light from themselves; the sun is darkened at its rising, and the moon does not shine with its light. I will punish the world for its evil, and the wicked for their iniquities, and I will put an end to the arrogance of the proud, and I will humble the haughtiness of the oppressors; I will make men more precious than pure gold, and men more precious than the gold of Ophir. For this I will shake the heavens, and the earth will be moved out of its place because of the wrath of the Lord of hosts, in the day of His burning wrath" (Isaiah 13:9-13). And again, "the windows," he says, "will be dissolved from the [heavenly] height, and the foundations of the earth will be shaken. The earth is crushed, the earth is disintegrated, the earth is greatly shaken; the earth shakes like a drunken man, and shakes like a cradle, and its iniquity weighs upon it; it will fall, and it will not get up again. And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall visit a host on high high, and the kings of the earth on earth. And they shall be gathered together as prisoners in a pit, and shall be shut up in prison" (Isaiah 24:18-22). And Malachi agrees with this, saying, "The Lord of hosts is coming. And who shall endure the day of His coming, and who shall stand when He appears? For He is like a refiner's fire, and like a purifying lye, and He will sit down to refine and refine as gold and as silver" (Mal. 3:2,3). And again, "Behold," he says, "the day will come, blazing like an oven; then all the haughty and wicked shall be as stubble, and the coming day shall burn them up, saith the Lord of hosts, so that it shall leave them neither root nor branches" (Mal. 4:1). And the man of desire says: "I saw at last that thrones were set up, and the Ancient of Days sat down; His garment was white as snow, and the hair of His head was like a pure wave; His throne is like a flame of fire, His wheels are a blazing fire. A river of fire went out and passed before Him; thousands of thousands served Him, and thousands of thousands stood before Him; the judges sat down, and the books were opened" (Dan. 7:9,10). Then, a little lower, "I saw," he says, "in the night visions, behold, with the clouds of heaven came as the Son of man, and came to the Ancient of Days, and was brought up to Him. And to Him was given power, glory, and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and tongues should serve Him; His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and His kingdom shall not be destroyed. My spirit trembled in me, Daniel, in my body, and the visions of my head troubled me" (Dan. 7:13-15). Then all the gates of the vaults of heaven will be opened, or rather, the heavens themselves will be destroyed. "The heavens will be rolled up," says (the prophet), "like a scroll of a book" (Isaiah 34:4), rolling up like the skin and covering of a tent in order to change for the better. Then everything will be filled with amazement, horror and trembling; then the angels themselves will be seized with great fear, and not only the angels, but also the archangels, and the thrones, and the dominions, and the principalities, and the powers: "and they shall be shaken," says (the Lord), "the powers of heaven" (Matt. 24:29), because their concelebrants will be required to give an account of this life. If, then, when one city is judged by earthly rulers, all tremble, even those who are out of danger, then when the whole universe will be judged by such a Judge, who needs neither witnesses nor accusers, but even without them will reveal all deeds, words, and thoughts, and will show everything, as in a picture, both to sinners themselves and to those who do not know, "Is it possible that then all power should not be shaken and shaken?" Truly, if the river of fire did not flow and the fearful angels did not stand before them, but only if some of the gathered people received praise and glorification, and others were driven away with dishonor, so that the glory of God would not behold - for "the wicked," says (the prophet), "will not behold the majesty of the Lord" (Isaiah 26:10) - and this would be the only punishment, then would not the deprivation of such blessings torment the souls of the outcasts more painfully than any hell? How great this calamity is, it is now impossible to depict in words, but then we will clearly know in practice. But now add another punishment - how people are not only tormented by shame, without cover and with a drooping face, but are also drawn along the path that leads to the fire, how they approach the very places of torment and give themselves over to fierce forces, and endure this at a time when all who have done good and worthy of eternal life are crowned, glorified and placed before the throne of the King.

13. So it will be in that day, and what will follow then, what word will depict to us this, that is, the delight, benefit, and joy that comes from communion with Christ? For the soul, having regained its own nobility and finally coming to the state of being able to contemplate its Lord with boldness, it is impossible to say what pleasure it receives, what benefit it receives in being consoled not only by the goods it possesses, but also by the certainty that these blessings will never end. All this joy cannot be depicted in words, not comprehended by the mind. However, I will try to present it, although it is not clear and in the way that the great is shown by means of the small.

And if even these goods bring such joy to those who possess them, what do you think will happen to souls called to innumerable heavenly blessings, which are eternal and always reliable? And not only in this one, but also in quantity and quality, they are so much more excellent than real goods, that it has never even entered the heart of a person.

Do not, my friend, completely destroy these features of ours, but, having quickly restored them, bring them to a better condition. God has confined bodily beauty within the boundaries of nature, but the beauty of the soul, as incomparably better than bodily beauty, is free from such necessity and subordination, and fully depends on us and on the will of God. Our Lord, who loves mankind, has especially honored our race because He has subordinated what is less important and of little use to us, the loss of which is indifferent, to natural necessity, and has made us the stewards of what is truly good. If He had made us powerful in bodily beauty, then we would have received superfluous care, and would spend all our time on useless things, and we would be very despicable about the soul.