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Sinful people will also be afraid on the last day, when Christ, our Savior, comes to judge the living and the dead, for at that hour He will send them to hell to suffer forever; there they will suffer different torments for different sins. There they will endure an unquenchable fire, for Christ, our Savior, said: “their fire does not go out” (Mark 9:44). Unclean people, fornicators, adulterers and angry people will burn in this fire because they were inflamed either with anger or with lust. There will be a fierce winter there, and sinners, enduring the cold, will grind their teeth. Christ, our Savior, spoke about this: “There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Luke 13:28). Such a fierce winter will be endured by those people who are unmerciful to the wretched, who do not accept into their homes strangers who lie homeless on rotting soil and endure snow and severe frost; such people themselves will have fellowship with the devil and his angels, for to them Christ God said: “Depart from Me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels” (Matthew 25:41). Proud people who now despise the poor, abhor them and pass them by with their eyes will also have such a partnership with the devil. There will be a constant movement of worms, which will, without ceasing, torment and eat sinful people, and they will never die, for it is said: “their worm does not die” (Mark 9:44). These worms will torment and eat those people who here take away something from others through covetousness. There will also be an unbearable stench there from the brimstone fire, for it is written: “fire and brimstone and a stormy spirit are their portion from the cup” (Ps. 10:6). This stench will be endured by those people who care about making themselves happy with all sorts of fragrant perfumes and with intense diligence look for all sorts of fragrant potions for themselves. There will be great melancholy there and so terrible that if it were possible to die, they would be glad to accept death as sweetness, but they will never die there, for it is written: “People will seek death, but will not find it; They will wish to die, but death will flee from them” (Rev. 9:6). Those people who are now constantly in joy, drunkenness and great luxury, with music and dancing, and never think about God, will endure such melancholy. In addition, there will be outer darkness there, for it is written: “having tied his hands and feet, take him and throw him into outer darkness” (Matthew 22:13). Those cast into this darkness will sit in it forever, they will never see the face of God. Such darkness is inherited by those who do not allow the poor to approach them. There will be famine there, for Christ Himself said: “Woe to you who are full now! for you will hunger” (Luke 6:25), and this hunger will be endured by those people who in this century do not feed the poor and wretched. There will also be thirst there, for Christ Himself said: “You will thirst” (see John 4:13). This thirst will be endured by those people who here do not want to give drink to thirsty strangers and the poor. There will also be great crowding there, for hell will be full of sinful people: some at the top, others in the middle, and others at the very bottom of hell. Just as someone fills a bag full of coins and ties it, or as someone puts a full barrel of fish and seals it, so God will fill all hell with sinful people and ban it so that sinners cannot come out of there. At the Last Judgment, when Christ our God will say to sinners: “Depart from Me, you cursed, into eternal fire,” - at that hour the earth will part under the sinners, as it once parted under Korah, Dathan and Abiron, and then all sinners will fall into hell. After this, the earth will again close in its original place, and sinners will remain underground in hell, as if locked in a tight and iron vessel, and will not come out of there forever, as the Lord Himself says: “These will go away into eternal torment” (Matthew 25:46). Those who here take away something from others by violence, for example, estates, chambers or houses, and oppress the poor and orphans will be thrown into this hellish crampedness; and whoever has sinned in any way will suffer. This is exactly what Solomon said: “Whenever anyone sins, he is punished” (Wis. 11:17 (1). At one time our Lord appeared to His beloved disciple John and said: “Do not be afraid; I am the First and the Last, and the living; and was dead, and have the keys of hell and death” (Rev. 1:17–18). The following thing deserves special consideration here. Why does Christ the Lord not Himself bear the keys of eternal life and the Kingdom of Heaven, but gave them to Saint Peter: “I will give you the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven” (Matthew 16:19); - did He begin to carry the same keys that open and close hell and death? “I have,” He said, “the keys of hell and death” (Rev. 1:18). Is our Lord really so cruel and unmerciful that he is rather ready to destroy a person than to save, rather ready to open for people the gates of hell and death rather than life and the Kingdom? But this cannot only be said about Him, but also thought about, for He is our Most Generous and Most Merciful Creator: “for He is good, for mercy endures forever.” Him” (Ps. 118:2). He exclusively “wants all people to be saved” (1 Tim. 2:4), but He does not want death for any sinner, for he says: “Do I want the death of the wicked?.. Is it not that he should turn from his ways and live?” (Ezek. 18:23). Why doesn’t the Lord say: “I have the keys of life and the Kingdom of Heaven,” but: I have the keys of hell and death? Our Lord was pleased to do this for the same reason that some owners do this. If any gentleman sees that his treasurer is too wasteful, that he opens the doors of his storehouses too often and drains his treasury, then he takes the keys from him and keeps them for himself. Likewise, our Lord knew human character, knew that people are very quick to open death and hell, both for themselves and for each other. They open themselves to death and hell by frequent falls into sin, to which they are very prone, for a person does not fall so easily into anything as sin, to which he has long been accustomed. People open the doors of death and hell to each other with anger, rage and rancor, for each, if something angers him, becomes so enraged in anger that he is ready to send the other to hell and to death. Isn't this true? Our Lord, seeing such unkind human disposition, takes the keys of death and hell for Himself, carries them Himself, and that is why he says: “I have the keys of hell and death.” With these words He says the following: “Sinful man! Due to your cruelty and your unrepentant heart, you have long since gathered up wrath for the day of wrath, there is already a mortal scythe over your neck, hell is already opening its mouth to devour you, however, I am still waiting for your conversion and repentance, I do not allow death to suddenly kill you and hell to devour you: I keep hell prisoner so that it does not kidnap you, so that it does not devour you: I have the keys of hell and death. O man! I also see that you are at enmity with your neighbor and wish him harm, not good, you would like to immediately put him to death and hell, you curse him, anathematize him, but you do not have such power over him: the keys have not been given to you for this, and I will not give them to you. I carry them myself and don’t give them to anyone: I have the keys of hell and death.” We thank You, our Lord, for such Your Providence, for the fact that You did not give us those keys, like a knife to a little child. Oh, that we had these keys, the keys of death and hell! Long ago we would have destroyed our neighbors, giving them over to death and hell, and we ourselves would have perished, being devoured by death and hell (1). You might be interested in: