Every Divine Liturgy, we ask our Lord to Grant us: “A Christian ending to our life, painless, blameless, peaceful, and a good defense before the dread judgment seat of Christ.” On this Last Sunday before the beginning of Great Lent, the Church draws our attention that terrifying last step in our journey: The moment when the Son of Man will come into His Glory to judge the living and the dead.
For those who have lived like sheep, who by their nature peaceful, obedient to their master’s call, meek, and humble, these men and women will inherit the Kingdom that has been established before the foundation of the world. For those who have lived as goats, who by nature are wild, disobedient, unfruitful, and rebellious in character, our Lord warns us today that they are destined for an everlasting punishment.
The question that is often asked is “Why?”. If God is all loving, why would he want to punish? The answer is that God does not desire the death of a sinner! He is the judge who has come to save! The question that needs to be asked is why do the goats desire to punish themselves by ignoring the warnings that Jesus and the Church have been giving us for centuries!
Those who will find themselves on the left are those who never learned to converse with God. When our Lord comes, the sound of His voice doesn’t penetrate the depths of their hearts to change it. Their hearts remained closed and hardened, because they are trapped in the hell of their own ego. [1]. As C.S. Lewis so pointedly stated, “the gates of hell are locked from within”. Those who are there, have chosen by their own free will to be there, regardless of how often our Lord has tried to penetrate their hearts and bring their lives back towards Him. The fire that they find themselves in isn’t a material fire like we see in the images of “Dante’s Inferno”…it is rather a furnace of remorse and bitterness, an eternal reminder of their own failure to respond to such a God, Who has done all things for the salvation of the world![2]
The destiny of every one of us lies in our own hands, dearest brothers and sisters in Christ. The Church reminds us today, one week before the season of repentance, that how we react in our lives towards Christ, and how we treat each other, ultimately dictates where our hearts truly want to dwell for eternity.
As we reflect on the Gospel for this Sunday of the Last Judgment, there are two parts that I want to draw our attention to. The first is the responses given to us by the sheep and the goats. To the sheep, the King says: “Come, you blessed of my Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world…”. Our Lord them tells them why they are receiving this inheritance, by going down the list of ways in which they had showed love to others. The sheep, who had spent their life in a state of loving humility…not even thinking they were close to the Kingdom, were blown away! Acts of Love were so natural to them, and were apart of their very existence, that they were surprised that they were about to enter the Kingdom! They were so humble…lowering themselves to others and to God their entire lives…and our Lord came to them, and out of His infinite Love for them says: “No dear ones…go higher!”
What was the response of the goats? They tried to justify themselves and to lift themselves higher: “Lord, when did we see you hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and didn’t minister to you?” There is an incredibly fearful thought that is subliminal in our minds, where we begin to justify ourselves when we think about the last judgment. We say to ourselves: “I go to Church, I haven’t killed anyone, I tend to follow the ten commandments, I give to the poor…I should be good!” When we have these kinds of thoughts, we should banish them from our minds and hearts immediately, lest we begin to act like the pharisee!
Humility is the Key to the Kingdom dear ones! To borrow a phrase from St. Basil’s Liturgy, we enter not because of our own righteousness, because we have done nothing good upon the earth…but because of His mercies and Bounties which He has so richly poured out on us.[3]
The second lesson we can take from this Sunday, is to remember that not only is our salvation dependent on the works of Love that we participate in with our brothers and sisters, but also how we look upon Christ…Who Humbled Himself to take the form of a servant. He says to all of our hearts as we prepare for this time of repentance: I am hungry and thirsty for your salvation…will you allow me to feed and water your heart in order to build the temple of God? I am naked within you…will you clothe me with Love that comes from humility? I am imprisoned in your heart, yet did you beat your chest like the publican, trying to enter with repentance to meet me and find ineffable joy?[4]
May we all be humbled by the Last Judgment, bringing ourselves low so that we might find ourselves in the heights of Heaven…Amen!
[1] “At the Doors of Holy Lent”, Archimandrite Zacharias Zacharou
[2] “At the Doors of Holy Lent”, Archimandrite Zacharias Zacharou
[3] Anophora Prayers of the Liturgy of St. Basil the Great
[4] “At the Doors of Holy Lent” by Archimandirte Zacharias Zacharou