There is a beautiful hymn that we will hear during the first week of Great Lent at the Canon of St. Andrew of Crete that many of you know very well. We kneel down in the candle lit Church and the choir sings: “My Soul My Soul Arise! Why are you sleeping! The end is drawing near! Awake then and be watchful, that Christ our God may spare you, He Who is everywhere present and fills all things!”
This beautiful and repentant hymn serves as a potent introduction to what the Church is trying to teach us, now just one week away from the Great Fast. We call to mind today the dread “The Last Judgment”, the moment when the Son of Man will come in glory with His Angels, and will sit on the Dread Judgment Seat.
“All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep and the goats. He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on His left…
Then the King will say to those on the right: “Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world…”
Then He will say to those on the left: “Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and His angels.”
The gospel today is a scary dose of reality for us…one that should quite literally “scare the hell” out of us! And perhaps that is the question we need to ponder on this week: “What comes to mind when we hear these words from our Lord? How affected are we by the lesson our Mother is trying to teach Her Children Today?”
When I was meditating on this question this week, the image of the Titanic came to mind. There are some reports from the survivors that said that once that “unsinkable boat” hit the iceberg, there were those on the ship that didn’t even feel the impact and were fast asleep in their beds. If you remember the movie that came out in the 90s, there were those that even were kicking the iceberg remnants around after seeing the impact without a care in the world!
Perhaps this is where the thoughts of many of us are at this morning. Just like the iceberg, we know the judgment will come…yet we don’t feel the need to worry about what it’s effects might be. We might have the temptation to think to ourselves: “Well, this warning about the goats doesn’t apply to me…because I’ve been pretty good to others in my life, and I go to Church on Sundays.”
The Church reminded us of how scary that thinking can be two weeks ago, when we heard about a Pharisee who echoed similar sentiments…rather than the publican who beat his breast and asked God for mercy.
After the titanic struck the iceberg, many of the testimonies of the survivors spoke about how they were told there was no danger to the ship, and certainly no urgency to get people into lifeboats. Many of the decision makers were convinced that the ship was unsinkable and didn’t begin the evacuation until it was too late…a decision which, despite the lack of lifeboats, could have saved even more lives.
How many of us, if we dig deep down inside, don’t see the urgency to care…or perhaps feel apathetic…when it comes to the state of our souls?
How many of us are too bothered or too consumed with the external things we have going on in our lives, that we simply don’t have the time, energy, or the desire to care about the judgment, even though we are literally on the sinking ship of life that is one day destined to perish?
We are all indeed, a single “heartbeat” away from coming face to face with our Lord. The Church, our Mother, cries out to us today that we can no longer afford to sit idle. Lent is coming. The time for repentance draws near…and we can’t sleepwalk through this life any longer. She says to us in last night’s hymns:
“Awake O My Soul! How long will you continue in evil? How long will you live in idleness? Why do you not think of the dread hour of death? Why do you not tremble at the dread judgment seat of the Savior? What defense will you make or what will you answer? Your works will be there to accuse you. Your actions will reproach you and condemn you!” O my soul, the time is near at hand…”
What better way to prepare for our place at the Judgment Seat of Christ, than to experience it right here and right now. There is a false image that many of us have in our heads of Christ’s judgment seat being this massive throne where He is going to give us a thumbs up or thumbs down…but the true judgment seat is something that is more familiar than that.
Next week, we will bring the Golgotha out into the center of the Church. We will stand before the Crucified Christ Who was not given a crown of precious stones, but rather was crowned by our sins with thorns. Rather than being seat on a cushy chair made for an earthly king, He will be seated on the wood of the cross with His arms outstretched to the world. The description the Church places above His head doesn’t describe the mocking “King of the Jews” title the Romans gave him…but rather His True title: The King of Glory.
Next week, we will bow down low before the King on His Throne, and standing in His presence, we will be convicted from within of what our own sins have caused. Yet, like the Father of the Prodigal Son, we will also see His outstretched arms welcoming those “who turn to Him and live.”
As the hymn I quoted above ends: “Let make haste before its too late and cry out in faith: “I have sinned O Lord, I have sinned against You, but I know your love for man and Your compassion. O Good shepherd, deprive me not of a place at Your Right hand in Your Great Mercy.”
Humility, Repentance, and Vigilance over our souls in the anticipation of the Dread Judgment Seat of Christ. These are the very serious and important lessons that our Mother has been trying to convey to us in the Pre-Lenten Sundays of Great and Holy Lent. Like good children, it falls on us to listen and to act, as next week, we begin our Lenten journey in the desert of our souls!