О блаженных обителях

The Savior calls the measures of understanding of those installed in that country many abodes with the Father; I understand the differences and differences with which they enjoy there, in accordance with my understanding, for the Lord named many monasteries not according to the difference in places, but according to the degree of talent. Just as everyone enjoys the rays of the sensual sun, according to the purity of visual power and impression, and just as from one lamp illuminating one house, each ray is different, while the light is not divided into many lamps: so in the next age all the righteous are settled inseparably, in one joy. But each, in its own measure, is illuminated by a single mental Sun, and according to the degree of dignity, draws joy and joy, as if in one air and place, seat, contemplation and image. And no one sees the measure of both the higher and the lower, so that, looking at the superior grace of another and at his own deprivation, he does not have a reason for grief and anxiety in this. Let this not happen where there is neither sorrow nor sighing, but everyone, according to the grace given to him, rejoices internally in his own way, and outwardly everyone has one contemplation and one joy! Apart from these two ranks, there is no other intermediate rank, but I mean one rank above, and the other below; the middle of them is this diversity in the difference in rewards. And if this is fair, as indeed it is fair; What is more reckless or crazier than to say: “It is enough for me to escape Gehenna; but to enter the Kingdom, I do not care about that.” To escape Gehenna already means to enter the Kingdom, just as to lose the Kingdom means to go to Gehenna. Scripture does not tell us about three countries. But what does he say? “When the Son of Man comes in His glory... He will set the sheep on His right hand, and the goats on His left” (Matthew 25:31, 33). He did not say about three ranks, but one rank on the right hand, and the other on the left, and separated their borders according to their villages, saying: these, that is, sinners, are going away into eternal torment, “but the righteous into an eternal life” (Matthew 25:46), “and they will be enlightened like the sun” (Matthew 13:43); and again: “from the east and the west they will come and lie down” in Abraham’s bosom “in the Kingdom of Heaven. The sons of the kingdom will be cast out into outer darkness: there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matthew 8:11-12). You might be interested in: