Father Alexander Schmemann writes in his "Journals" (October 12, 1976, p. 297): "The beginning of 'false religion' is the inability to rejoice, or rather, the refusal of joy. Yet joy is so absolutely important because it is the unmistakable fruit of the sense of God's presence. One cannot know that God is and not rejoice. And only in relation to joy are the fear of God, repentance, and humility correct, genuine, and fruitful. Outside this joy they easily become 'demonic,' a distortion in the very depth of religious experience. A religion of fear. A religion of pseudo-humility. A religion of guilt: all these are temptations, all these are spiritual delusion. [...] Fear of sin does not save from sin. Joy in the Lord saves."

But this is exactly what the prophet Joel calls us to remember today. Yes, he speaks of "fasting, weeping, and mourning." But for what purpose? Why does such a great man as Theophan the Recluse, in his word for today, not want to see the words that follow these tragic ones? What makes him break off his reflections on such a hopeless note: "The priests do not stop crying out: 'Spare us, Lord!' But from the Lord there surely comes the stern answer: 'I will not spare, for there are none seeking mercy.' Everyone stands with his back to the Lord; they have turned away from Him and forgotten Him."

All this is true, but not the whole truth, not the whole truth. Yes, the world has become corrupt; we see this with our own eyes. But if we allow ourselves to stop at such heartrending notes, then our whole faith will become neurasthenia. And for most believers it already is neurasthenia, and 90% of them should be referred to psychiatrists - sadly.

But one need only hear at least what the prophet says today: "And in that day the mountains shall drip sweet wine, and the hills shall flow with milk", and immediately remember what the Apostle answers: "Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen" (Heb 11:1). For people may tell us that the prophet is only promising us that this will happen someday, and that the fulfillment of the promise is being delayed. But precisely the assurance of things hoped for is our faith. This we must without fail remember, and somehow see and do in our own life.

A girl of about seven went to Sunday school. She listened to stories about how Jesus was rejected, how He was not recognized and was killed. She cried and did not sleep for several days, and then she decided to ask a question of the teacher who led the classes. "Tell me," the girl asked, "what will we do when He comes a second time and we do not recognize Him again? What if we miss Him again?" "Oh no," the teacher answered, "the second time it will be impossible not to notice. He will come in glory."

The girl was so glad. When she grew up, she said that the longer she lived, the more she met people who do not see when the mountains drip with wine, the hills flow with milk, and deserts turn into streams of water. It would not even have surprised her if there had been people who failed to notice that the sun and moon had grown dark and that there were no more stars. Then she understood for herself that these signs alone are not enough for a person; for the sake of preserving one's delusions and refusing to acknowledge one's mistakes, a person can reject any facts. From then on, evangelization became her main work. "The harvest is so great," she says now.

So what is really God's judgment? Is it a punishment coming from heavens, against which God has to protect His people, or it is all the same a judgment in our usual understanding, when the affair of each is examined by an infinitely wise and infinitely merciful Judge, for Whom nothing can be hidden? It would probably have been easier to say that these two points of view on Judgment replace each other historically, that the image of God chastising the sinners without distinction is changed to the image of a wise and merciful Judge. Is all this true? We are not going to say that the God, clattering with thunders and flashes of lightning on the sinful humanity, is not also really foreign to the religions that grew on the Christian ground.

It is about another thing: the image of the Judgment is sometimes doubles even in the Bible, and hardly it will be necessary to put this double vision only on history. And maybe, all the problem is, what is considered as judgment? For us today the judgment supposes an evaluation of man or his acts, given by the judge, who because of diverse reasons is entitled to it. And we look at God's judgment very often almost in the same way, adjusted by the omniscience and the mercy of the One who judges. And for the prophets, for example, the judgment already became the meeting with God face to face, and man was already condemned here because of his own sin, and not of God.

In fact, what can feel a man who met God, but rejected His love, mercy, guidance? What remains to him to do? Obviously, only one thing: the power of God. Because love, mercy, and guidance are voluntarily accepted, in them God's will manifests itself according to the human nature, by condescending to its weaknesses and its limits. If there is no voluntary acceptance, there is only the power: because God will not disappear from the world only because His presence in this world does not please someone, and that is why this someone will see not the face of God, turned to man, but the power of God, which is not intended for man. With all the ensuing consequences here.