any good on earth thou art already rewarded for it. Thou hast received wealth, health, pleasures, honors.[1] I owe thee nothing further; thou hast received what thou didst seek. But now dost thou know how many sins thou art guilty of, for which thou hast not been paid during life? Now therefore it is thy turn to be in My debt; therefore thou art now tormented, and shalt remain so during My time, that is, for all eternity. But, thou sayest, why does Lazarus sit in Thy lap and rejoice? Has he not also sinned? Yes, he has; but remember how things went with him during life. While thou wert enjoying prosperity, Lazarus sat before thy door a poor beggar amongst the dogs, suffering hunger and thirst, full of wounds and sores; thus he atoned for his sins, while he had not as yet received anything for his patience in bearing poverty and affliction, and for the other good works he performed for My sake; therefore “now he is comforted,”[2] therefore now during My time he shall enjoy consolation and an exceeding great reward. Try to understand this, ye vain children of the world, who live in wealth, honor, and prosperity on earth, and yet do not serve God zealously in your good fortune, as you ought, but commit many sins; conclude from this that after this life an eternity of pain awaits you. So far, Chrysostom. See, my dear brethren, how the mystery of the unequal fate of the just and the wicked, which seems so hard to explain, actually helps to strengthen the basis of our faith in the resurrection to heaven. But besides that, it strengthens our hope in the resurrection to heaven, as we shall see in the
Second Part.
Already in the Old Law the just grounded their hopes of an eternal life on the trials of this. Holy Job. Already in the Old Law just and holy people used to build their hopes on the trials of this life, and to strengthen them by suffering. I hear Job speaking of the happiness of the future life as if he were already assured of it and had the title to it in his hand, “I know that my Redeemer liveth, and in the last day I shall rise out of the earth, and in my flesh I shall see my God.”[3] Where? when? in what circumstances did he use those words? When he was the richest and greatest of the land? No, although he then served God in his first innocence, but when he was de-
