Today is the Sunday of the Last Judgment, more popularly known as Meatfare Sunday, because it is also the last day to eat meat until Pascha. The hymnography for this week is about as fire and brimstone as we get in the Orthodox Church. For example:
When the thrones are set in place and the books are opened,
then God will take His place on the judgment seat.
Oh, what a fearful sight!
The Angels stand in awe, and the river of fire flows by.
What shall we do, who are already condemned by our many sins,
as we hear Christ call the righteous to His Father’s Kingdom,
and send the wicked to eternal damnation?
Who among us can bear that terrible verdict?
Hasten to us, O Lover of mankind and King of the universe;
grant us the grace of repentance before the end,
and have mercy on us! (Doxastikon at Lord, I Call)
However, the point of this hymnography is, as with all the Pre-Lenten Sundays, to rouse us from our complacency:
Woe, to you, O my darkened soul!
Your life is stained by depravity and laziness;
your folly makes you shun all thought of death.
How complacent you remain!
How can you flee the awesome thought of Judgment Day?
When will you change your way of life?
On that day your sins will rise against you.
What will your answer be then?
Your acts will condemn you; your deeds will expose you.
The time is at hand, O my soul.
Turn to the good and loving Savior!
Beg Him to forgive your malice and weakness, as you cry in faith:
“I have sinned, O Lord, I have sinned against You,
but I know Your love for all mankind.
O good Shepherd, call me to enjoy Your lasting presence on Your right
hand!” (Doxastikon at the Aposticha)
The measure by which we will be judged is laid out for us very clearly in today’s Gospel reading:
When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory. All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats. And He will set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left. Then the King will say to those on His right hand, “Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: for I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in; I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me.” Then the righteous will answer Him, saying, “Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You drink? When did we see You a stranger and take You in, or naked and clothe You? Or when did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?” And the King will answer and say to them, “Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.” Then He will also say to those on the left hand, “Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels: for I was hungry and you gave Me no food; I was thirsty and you gave Me no drink; I was a stranger and you did not take Me in, naked and you did not clothe Me, sick and in prison and you did not visit Me.” Then they also will answer Him, saying, “Lord, when did we see You hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to You?” Then He will answer them, saying, “Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.” And these will go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life. (Matthew 25:31–46)
It’s all so simple! As Fr John reminded us today in the seminary chapel, none of these things are beyond us; it’s not as if we’re going to be judged on whether we fast with great asceticism, or if can preform miracles. And yet, as with so much else in the Gospel, the very simplicity is to our condemnation because we so often don’t actually do what is in our grasp. Even so, the saints show us the way, providing us with examples of the Christian life we are all called to live. My own patron, St Maria of Paris, fully grasped the significance of the Last Judgment:
The way to God lies through love of people, and there is no other way. At the Last Judgement I shall not be asked whether I was successful in my ascetic exercises, how many bows and prostrations I made. I shall be asked, Did I feed the hungry, clothe the naked, visit the sick and the prisoners. That is all I shall be asked. About the poor, hungry and imprisoned person the Saviour says “I was hungry and thirst, I was sick and in prison.” To think that he puts an equal sign between himself and anyone in need… I always knew it, but now it has somehow penetrated to my sinews. It fills me with awe.
Once she grasped this true understanding of the Last Judgment, she lived in accordance with that Judgment, even to the death. May we follow her example!
Loving the Word 