God’s love, His righteousness and the Last Judgment, the Dreadful Day of Judgment. Ex meditationibus patristicis
LIVIU PETCUABSTRACT. 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 being communion with us, but He will never compel us to do so. He respects our freedom. Where there is love, there is freedom. However, we all might be tempted at some 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, beginning with a series of texts from the Holy Fathers of the Church, I intend to emphasize both God’s love, which is infinite, and His righteousness, which is full of goodness and accompanied by mercy. These two – love and righteousness – will be weighed in the balance on the day of God’s dreadful judgment, a judgment that no one can escape.
Keywords: God’s love; righteousness; mercy; Last Judgment; the Holy Fathers of the Church