How will the Lord judge?

How do we judge? Influenced by the passions we have within us. Therefore we do not judge clearly, neither fairly nor unfairly! How does the Lord judge? Impassionately. Therefore clearly and fairly. Since we have passions and restricted powers of reason, we do not understand the judgement of the Lord. It is a towering mountain, hard of access, or rather, entirely inaccessible. "Your righteousness is like the mountains of God, your judgements like the great deep" (Psalm 35, 7).

"Judge me, Lord, according to my righteousness" (Psalm 7, 9). Judge me, Lord according to my weakness, to my capabilities. Do not ask anything more of me. "And do not enter into judgement with your servant, for in your sight shall no man living be justified" (Psalm 142, 2). Because if You judge normally, in accordance with Your demands, everyone will be guilty in Your sight! "Judge me, Lord, according to your judgement" (Psalm 34, 24). Judge me, Lord, according to Your judgement, Your mercies and Your compassion.

Let us at this point listen to the voice of Abbas Dorotheos: "It is for God alone to justify and to condemn, He Who knows the circumstances and the potential, the reversals and the gifts, the temperament and the skills and Who judges each as He alone knows. For God judges differently the sins of the Bishop and those of the eminent citizen; those of the abbot and the school-child differently; those of the old man and the youth differently; those of the sick and those of the healthy differently. And who can know all the judgements of God, save He alone, Who made all things and knows all things!" (Abbas Dorotheos, Κατανυκτικοί Λόγοι, p. 54).

And he asks: "Will God judge the young woman who was raised in a licentious environment, and sins, in the same way as one who was raised and cared for in a Christian environment, and sins?" And he answers: "Certainly not!". That is, God will take everything into account, each person’s environment, knowledge, age, judgement, nature, disposition, will and understanding. The Lord Himself said to Saint Pachomios: "In the last times, those who, without examples and leaders, struggle to save their souls will be given the reward of a great athlete". Which is why a very spiritual contemporary Athonite ascetic says: "In Paradise there’ll be some surprises".

On the day of Judgement, all those healthy people who did not put their health to good use, will envy and be jealous of the sick who bore their sicknesses in a way pleasing to God! Sighted people will envy the blind, the able-bodied will be jealous of the halt and the lame. Those who are intelligent and wise, but did not put their wisdom to good use will be envious and jealous of the stupid and the mad, precisely because they will be judged leniently and will gain Paradise. This is why Saint Arsenios of Cappadocia gave a blessing in disguise to an impious woman, who was given to blasphemy and pride, that is, that she should lose her mind, go mad, so that she would be judged by God as a little child and that her soul would be saved.

The Gospel for the Sunday of Meat-fare: In this Gospel (Matthew 25, 31-46), the Lord is not at all demanding. All He asks is a basic standard of virtue. Have we fed the hungry, slaked the thirst of the thirsty, clothed the naked, visited the sick? Something that even non-Christians manage to do with ease. No matter how callous people are, they will have pity on any hungry person they come across. They will have pity on anyone they see naked in winter. If one of their family or friends is sick, they will visit them.

But Christ Himself said that whoever calls his brother a fool, "shall be liable to the fire of Gehenna" (Matthew 5, 22).

"Do not judge, that you be not judged" (Matthew 7, 1).

We shall be accountable for every careless word on the Day of Judgement (Matthew 12, 36).

If we do not forgive, we shall not be forgiven (Matthew 6, 14-15).

If you look at a woman with desire, you commit adultery (Matthew 5, 28).

Sodom and Gomorrah will be judged with greater leniency than those who deny the word of God (Luke l, 12) and so on.

Why then, does He overlook all this, and much else besides, on the Day of Judgement?

Christ has before Him all the nations of the earth. That is, nations who have heard but a little, or nothing at all about Christ. Nations without preachers of the word of God, without churches, without priests, without scriptures, idolatrous nations. And it follows that they are in ignorance of all this. Which is why they themselves are at a loss! When did they see Christ naked, hungry, sick, imprisoned and were indifferent? They did not know that what we do to our neighbour applies to Christ. This is why Christ demands from them a basic standard of virtue. But for Christians, who know the Scriptures, the Judgement will be different, strict. For them it is not enough to give a piece of bread, or a glass of water and to get to Paradise on the strength of them. If they do not forgive their neighbour, how will they get to Paradise? And so on. "From everyone to whom much has been given, much will be required, and of those to whom much has been committed much more will be demanded" (Luke 12, 48).

The Gospel of the last Judgement has a double explanation for the Christian. First: material concern for the poor. Second: spiritual concern for the soul, one’s own and one’s neighbour’s. As if the Lord were saying: "Your soul was thirsty and you did not feed it with the word of God. It was denuded of virtues and you did not clothe it. It was sick with sin and you did not heal it. It was imprisoned by the passions and you did not release it!" "Since I was hungry for your return", says Saint Symeon the New Theologian, "and for your repentance and you did not give me anything to eat, and to satisfy my desire, therefore, you did not repent of your evil. I was thirsty for your salvation, and you did not give me anything to drink. I was denuded of your virtuous acts and you did not clothe me with them. I was in the narrow, polluted and dark prison of your heart and you did not wish to visit me and let me out into the Light. You saw how I lay sick with the illness of your own neglect and inaction and you did not serve me with your good deeds. Well, then, begone from me" (Saint Symeon the New Theologian, ibid., p. 296).

- After Death, Archimandrite Vasilios Bakogiannis, Second English Edition, Tertios Publications, Katerini, 2001, pp. 108-112.