Thoughts on the Last Judgment from St. Nikolai of Zicha
“One, and only one has spoken to us clearly and definitely about all that will come to pass at the end of time: the Lord Jesus Christ… For human understanding and logic, however great they may be, are too puny to reach to the world’s beginning and its end. Understanding is useless where vision is needed. We need a seer, who sees as clearly as we see the sun – to see the whole world, from its beginning to end…their has only been one such: the Lord Jesus Christ….” (St. Nikolai of Zicha, Homily on the Last Judgment. Homilies.)
[Concerning the inward meaning of the words of the Lord, "I was hungry and you fed Me, thirsty and...."] “If our minds hunger for God, and we feed it, we have fed Christ within us; if our heart is bare of every good and noble thing that is of God, and we clothe it, we have clothed Christ within us; if our soul is sick and imprisoned by our evil being, our evil actions, and we are mindful of it and visit it, we have visited Christ within us.” (Ibid.)
“Let us therefore be wise and sober, keeping always before our spiritual eyes the image of the Last Judgment. This image has already turned many sinners from the way of destruction to the way of salvation. Our time is short, and when it has run out there is no more repentance. By our life in this brief time, we must make a decision that will be fateful for us in eternity: Shall we be placed at the right hand, or at the left of the King of glory? God has given us a short and simple task, but the reward and the punishment are vast, going far beyond the power of any human tongue to express them.” (Ibid.)