-
Elder, what is Hell like?
- Let me tell you a story
that I've heard:
Once there was a simple man who kept asking God
to show him what Paradise and Hell are like...
So, one night, in his sleep, he heard a voice
saying: «Come, let me show you what Hell looks like».
He suddenly found himself in a room, where many
people were seated around a table. In the middle of that table was a
pot filled with food. But all those people were hungry,
because they were unable to eat. They each held a very long
spoon in their hand. They were able to take food out of the
pot, but couldn't bring the spoon to their mouth. Because of this,
some were complaining, others were shouting, others were weeping...
Then he heard the same voice saying to him: «Come
now, and let me show you what Paradise also looks like».
He again found himself suddenly in another room,
where many people were seated around a table, just like the one
before, and in the middle of that table was -again- a pot full of
food. Those people also held the same kind of long spoon in their
hand. But every one of these people was full and happy,
because each would dip his spoon in the pot and feed the person near
him....
- Do you understand now, how you too can feel
that you're living in Paradise, from this lifetime?
Whoever does a good deed feels gladness, because
he is rewarded with a divine consolation.
Whoever does bad things suffers, and he makes the
terrestrial Paradise a terrestrial Hell.
Do you have love, kindness inside you? Then you
are an angel, and everywhere you go or stand, you will be carrying
Paradise with you.
Do you have passions, meanness? Then you
have the devil inside you, and everywhere you go or stand, you carry
Hell along with you.
We begin to live Paradise or Hell from this life,
here......
Source:
© THE SACRED MONASTERY OF THE EVANGELIST JOHN THE
THEOLOGIAN, SOUROTI, THESSALONIKI.