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”This fire will be kindled within a man; seeing the Cross, some will rejoice, but others will fall into confusion, terror, and despair. Thus will men be divided instantly. The very state of a man’s soul casts him to one side or the other, to right or to left.
”The more consciously and persistently a man strives toward God in his life, the greater will be his joy when he hears: ’Come unto Me, ye blessed.’ And conversely: the same words will call the fire of horror and torture on those who did not desire Him, who fled and fought or blasphemed Him during their lifetime!
”The Last Judgement knows of no witnesses or written protocols! Everything is inscribed in the souls of men and these records, these ’books’, are opened at the Judgement. Everything becomes clear to all and to oneself.
”And some will go to joy, while others – to horror.
”When ’the books are opened,’ it will become clear that the roots of all vices lie in the human soul. Here is a drunkard or a lecher: when the body has died, some may think that sin is dead too. No! There was an inclination to sin in the soul, and that sin was sweet to the soul, and if the soul has not repented of the sin and has not freed itself from it, it will come to the Last Judgement also with the same desire for sin. It will never satisfy that desire and in that soul there will be the suffering of hatred. It will accuse everyone and everything in its tortured condition, it will hate everyone and everything. ’There will be gnashing of teeth’ of powerless malice and the unquenchable fire of hatred.
”A ’fiery gehenna’ – such is the inner fire. ’Here there will be wailing and gnashing of teeth.’ Such is the state of hell.” Archbishop John Maximovitch, ”The Last Judgement,” Orthodox Word (November- December, 1966): 177-78.
