God’s Love, His Justice and the Last Judgment, the Dreadful Day of Judgment. Ex meditationibus patristicis
Everything that can be stated about God’s infinite love is apodictically certain. God is not willing to rebuke, to punish as we might be tempted to imagine or to believe. He expects all of us with open arms, eagerly looking forward to be in communion with us, but He will never compel us to do so. He will respect our freedom. Where there is love, there is freedom. However, we all might be tempted at any time to presume upon God’s goodness by sinning and believing that His forgiveness is ceaseless. It would be too inappropriate to believe this because by expecting ceaselessly His forgiveness, we would slip into more sins and passions. Therefore, starting from a series of texts of the Holy Fathers of the Church, I intend to emphasize both God’s love, which is infinite, and His justice, which is full of goodness and accompanied by mercy. These two – love and justice – will be weighed in the balance on the day of God’s dreadful judgment, a judgment that no one could escape.