Вечность

Think, Christian, more often about eternity - this way you will more easily avoid sin. Eternity always abides and never ends. A thousand, a hundred thousand, a thousand thousand centuries will pass, and more will pass, but eternity is just beginning. And no matter how much you stretch forward with your mind, eternity is just beginning, but you cannot reach its end with your mind, since it has no end. It is impossible to think and remember about eternity without sighing and fear. Thinking about eternity makes crying and tears sweet, makes every labor easier, every temporary punishment, that is, sadness, bonds, prisons, exile, insults, wounds, dishonor, reproach, poverty and death itself, allows you to accept with love and gratitude. But he will not allow you to fall into lawless snares, he will not allow you to wallow in uncleanness, lie, steal, rob, deceive, be proud, be arrogant, condemn your neighbor, or slander him. Whoever thinks diligently about eternity will want to hear the Word of God and instructions for salvation more than everyday food; he will not want to be decorated with corruptible beauty; even bitter food will seem sweet to him. Banquets, dancing, games, singing, choirs will disgust him as preventing him from achieving salvation; There will be more crying than laughing. Poverty will be more dear to him than wealth, dishonor than honor, reproach, reproach, bitterness than praise. A double eternity will appear to his mind. One is the blessed and desired eternity of the righteous, who in the Kingdom of Heaven with Christ and His holy Angels will rejoice endlessly forever; and the other is the unhappy and terrible eternity of poor sinners, condemned to eternal torment in fire with the devil. And these will go into eternal torment, but the righteous into eternal life (Matthew 25:46). Blessed eternity excludes any opposition: there is a kingdom without fear, without labor and care; there glory always shines; there is health without any illness; there is joy without sorrow; there is peace and quiet without danger; there is joy without sadness; there is unfeigned friendship there; there is wisdom without madness (1 Cor. 3:19), there is life without death; there, all good is not involved in any evil. For God, the Source of all good things, will be all in all (1 Cor. 15:28). Those who die in the Lord, as it is said, begin a new, better life and a blissful eternity. Here, living every day in anticipation of death, we are doing nothing more than dying every day and getting closer to death day by day. But after death this will not happen: there will be only unceasing abiding in blissful eternity. Eternity, in which we will remain after the resurrection from the dead and the end of Christ’s righteous Judgment, is nothing more than one beginning without end: it will always begin, but will never end. Imagine in your mind that a hundred thousand years will pass - there is no end to eternity. A hundred thousand centuries will pass (a century contains a hundred years) - there is no end to eternity. A thousand thousand and a million million centuries will pass - there is no end to eternity, but only the beginning. And although you will further enter eternity with your mind, you will see one beginning without an end. No matter how many millions of centuries you collect in your mind, they are all against eternity, like one drop of water against the whole ocean, or like a poppy seed against the whole world, or, better said, like nothing. For everything can diminish little by little and end, but eternity cannot, because it is infinite. The further you extend your mind into eternity, the greater its length opens, for it is infinite. Well, some depict eternity with these words: eternity is always and never, that is, it will always be, but will never end. God's Holy Word tells us about a double eternity: blessed and unhappy. Blessed eternity or eternal bliss will be in heaven, according to the word of the Apostle: our residence is in heaven (Phil. 3:20). Unfavorable eternity - in hell and fiery Gehenna. In a blissful eternity there will be immortal life, and in an unhappy eternity there will be immortal death. In a blessed eternity there will be a sweet vision of God's Face, and in an unhappy eternity there will be a distance from the Face of God. In a blessed eternity there will be a reign with Christ and a kind friendship with His holy Angels, and in an unhappy eternity there will be a stay with the devil and his evil demons. In a blissful eternity there will be indescribable light, and in an unfavorable eternity there will be pitch darkness. In a blessed eternity there will be joy and unceasing joy, the voice of joy and joy will be heard (Jer. 16:9), and in an unhappy eternity there will be unceasing sorrow and sadness and the voice of sighing and crying will be heard. In blissful eternity all the blessings that no eye has seen, no ear has heard, and have not entered into the heart of man will be united (1 Cor. 2, 9); in a dysfunctional situation all the evil will converge, which the tongue cannot say and the mind cannot understand. All people living on the face of the whole earth go towards eternity and, having completed the path of this life, move into eternity, but only pious Christians who do not love the world and follow the way of the cross, as the Gospel teaches, achieve blessed eternity. Nothing moves a sinner to repentance more than eternity, and nothing is so useful to every Christian as memory and reflection on eternity. Eternity keeps a person from sin, pacifies passions, turns him away from the world and all its vanity, crushes the heart, gives birth to tears of repentance, encourages prayer and arouses true heartfelt sighing. Memory and reflection on eternity can correct even the most depraved. Thinking about eternity filled the deserts, caves, mountains and abysses of the earth with inhabitants. Thinking about eternity, the holy martyrs preferred to endure the most severe torments rather than submit to the will of wicked kings and renounce Christ. From thinking about eternity, thieves, murderers, robbers, fornicators and harlots and other serious sinners became saints and the chosen ones of God. Glory to God’s love for mankind for opening the doors to Himself to everyone, even the worst sinners. It is amazing that modern Christians, hearing about eternity in Holy Scripture, cleave to the vanity of this world and seek honor, glory and wealth in this world, and build, expand, and decorate their houses and other buildings as if eternity does not exist. This occurs in them from oblivion of eternity, and their hearts are darkened by the charm of visible vanity. Beloved Christians! Let us imprint eternity in our memory, and then we will invariably be in constant true repentance, contrition of heart and prayer, and we will not be deceived by any of the vanities of this world, and we will shy away from every sin, like a poisonous snake. Everything that we, the sons of this age, like, seem favorable and dear, will become disgusted. Truly, we will be content with a loaf of bread, a small hut and a poor robe. Remembering and reflecting on eternity will teach us to be content with them. Do you know what eternity is? Eternity is a beginning without end, that is, it will begin once and never end, it is always and never, that is, it will always be and will never cease. This is eternity. All centuries from the creation of the world to the end are like the smallest point in comparison with the whole world, or like a minute against a thousand centuries, or, better said, like nothing. This is eternity. There are two types of eternity: the most prosperous and the most unfavorable. In a prosperous eternity there will be the Kingdom of God, God will be seen face to face, there will be joy and indescribable joy, the soul and body will receive their all-perfect bliss and man will be honored with blessings that the eye has not seen, the ear has not heard, and has not entered the heart of man (1 Cor. 2:9). Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the Kingdom of their Father (Matthew 13:43). In an unfavorable eternity there will be deprivation and removal from God, all suffering and torment in body and soul. Then people will want to die, but death will escape from them. This is the second death and eternal death. Sinners! We hear the word of God about eternity and see that there is a double eternity: prosperous, joyful and filled with all good things, that is, eternal life; and dysfunctional, full of torment, sadness, illness and all evils, that is, eternal death. Let us repent and wash our sins with tears, so that we may escape an unhappy eternity and enter eternal life and the Kingdom of God. After the Last Judgment of Christ, everyone will go to their own eternity. For then the Judge Christ will give the proper definition to everyone. He will open the doors of His eternal Kingdom to the righteous and say to them: Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the creation of the world (Matthew 25:34). He will turn to sinners: depart from Me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels (Matthew 25:41). And these will go into eternal torment, but the righteous into eternal life (Matthew 25:46).