Blessed is the man who obtains boldness in the terrible day of judgment and hears with the others: Come, ye who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom that has been prepared for you since the creation of the world!

Then each man, when he sees himself in the light, will begin to examine himself and wonder: Can this be me? And how did it happen that I who am unworthy have made it here?

The angels will come with great joy and begin to glorify the saints and extol their lives: their struggles, restraint, vigilance, prayers, voluntary poverty, per­fect lack of acquisitiveness, tolerance of thirst, perseverance in hunger, constant maintenance of prayerful attention, joy in nakedness endured for the love of Christ — all this shall the angels proclaim with joy to the righteous.

And in answer the righteous will say to them: There was not even one day when we could be found with as much as one good deed.

The angels will remind them anew of the times and places where they performed their deeds, and again they shall marvel at themselves and begin to glorify God, seeing that their bodies shine in the heavens more than light — and thus are they repaid for the minor deprivations and sorrows they suffered voluntarily on earth.

They found a treasure hidden in a field and, having sold all they had on earth, they acquired it and found a wondrous pearl. By their suffering did they receive and harbor this pearl in themselves and, though they were unaware of it, they prepared themselves an undefiled and incorrupt garment.

The labor of ascetic struggle is not great, but great is the respite it brings. The struggle to achieve restraint is brief, but the repose that is its reward lasts unto the ages of ages.