Hi Dondi —
Indeed, there seems to be a variance of degrees of loss depending on what we have done with what we have been given.
And various degrees of reward, some might speculate.
I wonder is there is some kind of summation point where we are judged where our whole life is somehow algebraically weighed and the result of the pluses and minuses will determine our standing in the purging process. I'm not sure how this works.
There are references to this in the teachings of many traditions. Notably 'the weighing of the heart against a feather' in Egyptian eschatology, and Daniel's warning at Balthasar's feast "you have been weighed in thr balance and found wanting."
Modernity tends to view this as a cut and dried decision — at the judgement, it's either heaven or hell. The fathers were far more discriminatory, assuming it made something of a mockery of justice to suppose that it was either one thing or the other, with no intermediate degree. Whilst perhaps not entirely right, this aspect has tended to drop from modern eschatalogical discussion, as the language of symbol has been lost.
There is always the danger of reading too much into texts (eisegesis), and the Fathers were all prone to symbolic speculation ... Origen more than most ... but nevertheless the Fathers did investigated some very thorny issues, and gave some quite startling resolutions, which without being references nevertheless underpins a lot of later thinking.
In the Catholic Tradition, pagan philosophy is not deemed necessarily wrong or evil, far from it. So when, for example, my old sparring partner Wil sees in the Sacraments nothing more than the accrual of or borrowing from pagan traditions, I see it as the Christian Sacrament removes the veils of ignorance, that intimations of truth are revealed in their essence, and so Chritianity gathers up everything that is good to itself, as it should, so pagan traditions are absorbed, subsumed and transfigured as a deeper and yet deeper spiritual reality is revealed, in that same way that human reason is illuminated by revelation.
Pagan religions are nature religions, and there is every reason to assume that the cycles and rhythms of nature will manifest in Christianity, and the Christian liturgical cycle ... it would be more remarkable if they did not. But Christianity is a supernatural religion, so there should be no surprise that we see in the Myasteries those things which are occluded to the unaided reasoning faculty.
Drawing from many streams then, ands following the cycles of nature, I think there is much we might reliably speculate with regard to the eschaton even though, at the end of the day, we are all in the dark.
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Back to the point:
There is an exegesis of Matthew 13:23
"But he that received the seed upon good ground, is he that heareth the word, and understandeth, and beareth fruit, and yieldeth the one an hundredfold, and another sixty, and another thirty."
The Fathers believed that "for everywhere the Saviour will be seen, according as they shall be worthy who see Him. But that there is this distinction between the habitation of those who produce an hundred-fold, and that of those who produce sixty-fold, and that of those who produce thirty-fold; for the first will be taken up into the heavens, the second class will dwell in Paradise, and the last will inhabit the city; and that on this account the Lord said, "In my Father's house are many mansions" John 14:2."
For someone who is a criminal all their life and near the end repents and turns to God and receives the necessary forgiveness through the blood, will nevertheless be subject to a more intense purification than say someone who has been faithful for most of their lives. Or is it possible to gain 'instant karma'?
Taking the story of the robber on the cross, we would have to say 'yes'.
What the fathers did insist on however, which is something that we might overlook, is that he who receives 30-fold is not 'worse off' than he who receives 60 or 100 — his bliss is 100% according to his nature.
There will be no jealousy, no sense of loss-and-gain, no comparison of one state with another — all will be just as they should be, all will be in the fullness according to their given nature. In the symbol of the choir, every voice will find its right place.
The big toe might not play a great part in our activities, but you try walking without it.
Thomas
