Man's Insatiable Desire for Justice

Icon of Christ carrying His cross, Church of Panagia Dexia,
Thessaloniki, Greece

God is merciful! But human beings have an insatiable desire for
justice. Fr Stephen Freeman talks about the solution to this 
problem. Please click to listen below;

Justice Enough - Glory to God - Ancient Faith Radio

From the wonderful Orthodox blog, Discerning thoughts we read

a section from Alexander Kalomiros' The River of Fire that 

complements Fr Stephen's podcast.

The Prodigal Son’s brother?

 by Alexander Kalomiros, , The River of Fire,

Now if anyone is perplexed and does not understand how it

is possible for God’s love to render anyone pitifully 

wretched and miserable and even burning as it were in flames,

let him consider the elder brother of the prodigal son. Was he

not in his father’s estate? Did not everything in it belong to 

him? Did he not have his father’s love? Did his father 

not come himself to entreat and beseech him to come and take

part in the joyous banquet?

What rendered him miserable and burned him with inner 

bitterness and hate? Who refused him anything? Why was

he not joyous at his brother’s return? Why did he not have

love either toward his father or toward his brother? Was it

not because of his wicked, inner disposition? Did he not 

remain in hell because of that? And what was this hell?

Was it any separate place? Were there any instruments

of torture? Did he not continue to live in his father’s house?

What separated him from all the joyous people in the house

if not his own hate and his own bitterness? Did his father,

or even his brother, stop loving him? Was it not precisely 

this very love which hardened his heart more and more?

Was it not the joy that made him sad? Was not hatred 

burning in his heart, hatred for his father and his brother,

hatred for the love of his father toward his brother and 

for the love of his brother toward his father?

This is hell: the negation of love; the return of hate for love;

bitterness at seeing innocent joy; to be surrounded by love

and to have hate in one’s heart. This is the eternal condition

of all the damned. They are all dearly loved. They are all 

invited to the joyous banquet. They are all living in God’s 

Kingdom, in the New Earth and the New Heavens. No one 

expels them. Even if they wanted to go away they could 

not flee from God’s New Creation, nor hide from God’s 

tenderly loving omnipresence. Their only alternative 

would be, perhaps, to go away from their brothers and

search for a bitter isolation from them, but they could never

depart from God and His love.

And what is more terrible is that in this eternal life, in this

New Creation, God is everything to His creatures. As Saint

Gregory of Nyssa says, “In the present life the things we 

have relations with are numerous, for instance: time, air,

locality, food and drink, clothing, sunlight, lamplight, and

other necessities of life, none of which, many though they

be, are God; that blessed state which we hope for is in 

need of none of these things, but the Divine Being will 

become all, and in the stead of all to us, distributing Himself

proportionately to every need of that existence. It is plain,

too, from the Holy Scriptures that God becomes to those

who deserve it, locality and home and clothing and food

and drink and light and riches and kingdom, and 

everything that can be thought of and named that goes to

make our life happy” (On the Soul and the Resurrection).

See note 46

In the new eternal life, God will be everything to His 

creatures, not only to the good but also to the wicked,

not only to those who love Him, but likewise to those who

hate Him. But how will those who hate Him endure to 

have everything from the hands of Him Whom they 

detest? Oh, what an eternal torment is this, what an 

eternal fire, what a gnashing of teeth!

Depart from Me, ye cursed, into the everlasting inner

fire of hatred,” (see note47) saith the Lord, because I was

thirsty for your love and you did not give it to Me, I was

hungry for your blessedness and you did not offer it to Me,

I was imprisoned in My human nature and you did not
come to visit Me in My church; you are free to go where
your wicked desire wishes, away from Me, in the torturing
hatred of your hearts which is foreign to My loving heart
which knows no hatred for anyone. Depart freely from love
to the everlasting torture of hate, unknown and foreign to
Me and to those who are with Me, but prepared by
freedom for the devil, from the days I created My free,
rational creatures. But wherever you go in the darkness
of your hating hearts, My love will follow you like a river
of fire, because no matter what your heart has chosen,
you are and you will eternally continue to be, My children.

Amen.

 —Dr. Alexandre Kalomiros (The River of Fire)

Notes:

 46 “‘I am father, I am brother, I am bridegroom, I am
dwelling place, I am food, I am raiment, I am root, I am
foundation, all whatsoever thou willest, I am.’ ‘Be thou
in need of nothing, I will be even a servant, for I came to
minister, not to be ministered unto; I am friend, and
member, and head, and brother, and sister, and mother;

I am all; only cling thou closely to me. I was poor for thee,
and a wanderer for thee, on the Cross for thee, in the 

tomb for thee, above I intercede for thee to the Father;

on earth I am come for thy sake an ambassador from 

my Father. Thou art all things to me, brother, and joint

heir, and friend, and member.’ What wouldest thou more?”

St. John Chrysostom, Homily 76 on the Gospel of Matthew 

(PG 58. 700).

47 “ ‘The end of the world’ signifies not the annihilation of
the world, but its transformation. Everything will be
transformed suddenly, in the twinkling of an eye…. And
the Lord will appear in glory on the clouds. Trumpets will
sound, and loud, with power! They will sound in the soul
and conscience! All will become clear to the human
conscience.

The Prophet Daniel, speaking of the Last Judgment,
relates how the Ancient of Days, the Judge, sits on His
throne, and before Him is a fiery stream 

(Dan. 7:9-10).

Fire is a purifying element; it burns sins. Woe to a man if
sin has become a part of his nature: then the fire will burn

the man himself. 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.