Revelation 22:12Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Let us consider the whole multitude of His angels, how they stand before Him and fulfill His will. For Scripture says, “Thousands of thousands ministered to Him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before Him” (Dan 7:10). And they cried out: “Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord Sabaoth; all creation is full of His glory” (Is 6:3).

So let us also, gathered in one mind, with one spirit, as if from one mouth, cry out to Him unceasingly. Thus we may become partakers of His great and glorious promises.

For Scripture says, “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor has it entered into the heart of man, what He has prepared for those who hope in Him” (1 Cor 2:9).

In that flesh He, being immortal, deigned to perish for the sins of the world. After the close of this hour the Lord does not call workers into the vineyard. Rather, He will come to give to each according to his works, as He Himself says: “Behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me.”

Spare, O Lord, spare Thy creation, for no one is without sin, except Thou alone. Dreadful, beloved, is that day and hour when God will judge sinners. Human judgment is dreadful to us, but the judgment of God is incomparably more dreadful.

At a human judgment, a man like ourselves judges. At that judgment, God Himself judges. At a human judgment, witnesses accuse or acquit a man. There they are not needed, for the Judge Himself knows all things perfectly.

By contrast, the impious, that is, those who do not believe in Christ, and the wicked in faith, that is, heretics, inherit eternal torment together with the fallen angels. So do those Orthodox Christians who passed their life in sins, or fell into some mortal sin, and did not heal themselves by repentance.

The Patriarchs of the Eastern Catholic Church say in their epistle: “The souls of people who have fallen into mortal sins, and at death did not despair, but repented before their departure from this present life, yet did not manage to bring forth any fruits of repentance, such as prayers. Tears, kneeling during prayerful vigils, contrition of heart, consolation of the poor, and the expression by deeds of love for God and neighbor, all of which the Catholic Church from the beginning acknowledges as pleasing to God and most needful, the souls of such people descend into Hades.

They endure punishments for the sins they have committed, yet are not deprived of hope of relief from them. They receive relief through infinite goodness, by the prayers of priests and the benefactions performed for the departed, and especially by the power of the Bloodless Sacrifice.

This sacrifice the priest offers in particular for each Christian on behalf of his relatives, while in general the Catholic Apostolic Church offers it daily for all.”

“The death of sinners is cruel” (Ps 33:22), says Scripture. But for the pious and holy, it is a passage from the noise and confusion of life to unshakable peace. It is a passage from continual sufferings to continual and unending blessedness.

It is a passage from earth to heaven and union with the countless assembly of holy angels and the countless assembly of holy men. The highest and essential delight of the inhabitants of heaven consists in the insatiable contemplation of God and in unceasing burning with love for Him.

Venerable Macarius the Great speaks of this subject as follows: “When the human soul departs from the body, a certain great mystery is accomplished. If it is guilty of sin, then hosts of demons, opposing angels, and dark powers approach it and seize the soul into their own realm.

No one should marvel at this as though it were extraordinary. If a man, while still living in this age, submitted to them, obeyed them, and became their slave, then all the more, when he departs from the world, is he captured and enslaved by them.

Likewise, in regard to the better state, one must understand this: even now angels stand before the holy servants of God, and holy spirits preserve and surround them. When they depart from the body, angelic ranks receive their soul and carry it into their own country, into the world of holiness, and lead them to the Lord.”