The Last Judgment

Image via Wikipedia

If I could convince you to memorize – or even just remember – only one portion of the Bible, it would have to be the reading today from the Gospel according to St. Matthew. It tells us, of course, about the Last Judgment. The hymns from the Triodion at the Vigil last night return constantly to the remembrance of death, and the need to prepare ourselves in this life to be ready for the day when our secrets will be revealed, and we will received what we are owed – and to remember that the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Today is also the day we commemorate the holy New Martyrs and Confessors of the Russian land, who did not surrender themselves to those who wished to erase from the landscape of Russia the churches and monasteries and seminaries that covered the land – and to turn the hearts and minds of the people away from God and the preparation for a life in the kingdom of God, to obeying the secular rulers and building, as if such a thing were possible, the kingdom of heaven on earth. They resisted these efforts to destroy the Church and the Orthodox Faith, and suffered, some being killed and so becoming martyrs, while others endured imprisonment and tortures, becoming confessors. If, as Tertullian said, the blood of the martyrs – and the confessors, who also shed their blood, just not unto death – is the seed of the Church, then the Russian land was renewed by their blood. Just look at Russia today: the Bolsheviks no longer rule; their movement is shattered; and the Church is once more alive and growing.

But even as the cathedrals and churches and monasteries and seminaries in the Russian land are rebuilt and renewed, all of this means nothing if we do not understand and apply what we are told in this parable from St. Matthew today. Beautiful churches are nothing more than gaudy tombs if the people inside them care more about the building than they do for the hungry and the sick and the homeless and the lonely. Reading your morning and evening prayers is a waste of time if you get angry at people in traffic, or judge another, or harbor evil thoughts against another in your heart. Fasting does nothing if we abstain from meat but take advantage of those around us for our own pleasure or our own gain. How terrible will it be for us to have received the Body and Blood of Christ, Who, because of His great love for us when we were unlovely and unlovable, became one with us and died for us, only to have us not love everyone who is made in His image more than we love ourselves?

Brothers and sisters, the fathers tell us that we must be ever mindful that one day we will die, and then it will be too late to achieve the transformation of our souls. The New Martyrs and Confessors tell us that death can come suddenly, and unexpectedly, and so we must not waste a day, an hour, a minute – but must resolve today to live as Christians should, in the hope that, on that great and terrible day of Judgment, we shall be set on the right hand, with those who will enter into the rejoicing of the kingdom of heaven, and not sent to condemnation and torment because we loved ourselves more than we loved others. Let us love one another, as Christ loves us and gave Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God. May we put this love in action by reaching to others who are in need in body, mind and spirit, giving of ourselves and from what God has given to us, to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, visit the lonely, and to love and care for each other as icons of Christ.