Page 126 - Orthodoxy Zizioulas

O r t h o d o x y
forever. The light will come, and the truth will be revealed.
And by what measure will this judgment take place? The
Gospel gives one answer—only one: love. Judgment is not ac-
cording to external achievements, nor according to moral
correctness in a narrow sense, but according to love—both the
love of God and our love in response.
It is not by chance that judgment is entrusted to Christ: “He
has given Him authority to execute judgment, because He is
the Son of Man” (Jn 5:27). Christ judges not from afar, but
from within our own existence. The love of God has become
incarnate, and therefore judgment is not abstract—it is per-
sonal, existential, and relational.
Christ identifies Himself with the least—with the forgotten,
the marginalized, the unnoticed. And thus, one cannot claim
to love God while neglecting man. There is no direct path to
God that bypasses the other. We reach God through the hu-
man person, because God has reached us through humanity.
“Inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My breth-
ren, you did it to Me.” Here lies the criterion: not what we
claimed, but what we loved.
And even more striking is this: judgment is not based pri-
marily on what we have done wrong, but on what we have
failed to do. It is the sin of omission that weighs most heavily.
Ethics may tell us: do not transgress. But love goes further—it
always asks for more. It never rests in sufficiency.
As Basil the Great reminds us, even what we possess justly
may, in the light of love, reveal itself as withheld from another.
Love does not measure itself by minimum requirements. It
gives, and still feels that something remains ungiven.
Thus, judgment is not easy. It surpasses all calculations. It
reveals not only our actions, but the depth—or the poverty—
of our love.
126