Sunday of the Last Judgment – Metropolitan of Strumica, Nahum
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Refer to: Matthew 25, 31-46
The questions we will have to answer at the Last (Terrible) Judgment do not refer at all to the faith and the Church to which we belong, nor to the state, nation and party to which we belong, nor to our personal sins, but to specific personal acts of mercy towards those who suffer, and with whom the Lord identifies Himself: “Assuredly, I say to you, Inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me” (Matthew 25:40).
This is the minimum that every Christian living in the world must fulfil. For two reasons. Firstly, because the Lord does not ask Christians to heal the sick or to liberate the captives, but to visit and comfort them. And secondly, because God does not make the criterion for salvation not doing of evil, but the doing of good. What could be easier than this? If someone does not have time to read to the end, let them move on to the last paragraph.
From an ascetic-hesychastic point of view, the place where we seek the God-man Christ is our heart, which is polluted by the passions and closed for the mind. Since our mind cannot enter into a closed heart and reach the Son of Man, He resides there alone, hungry, thirsty, a stranger, unclothed, in prison … Therefore, in order to reach Christ and serve Him, we must first purify our heart from the passions, recognise the place of the heart, discover the entrance of the Kingdom of Heaven within ourselves, and with our mind humbly to stand before the King of Glory, Who suffers for us and for our salvation.
It is interesting and useful to know what the words “Lord, when did we see You …” mean to those whom the Last Judgment finds at each of the stages of the spiritual development, separately:
– Those found by the Last Judgment on the stage of the purification of the heart from the passions, say the aforementioned words because despite the struggle to fulfil Christ’s commandments in reality, living in the cares of the world, they did not see the Lord in their heart through the gift of the prayer of the mind in the heart.
– Those, found by the Last Judgment on the stage of the enlightenment of the mind, say the aforementioned words because despite the struggle of the prayer of the mind in the heart and love for their enemies, mostly due to pastoral responsibilities in the world, they did not see the Lord in their heart and outside around themselves through the gift of seeing the uncreated light.
– Those found by the Last Judgment on the stage of deification say the aforementioned words because despite the struggle of unceasing prayer and weeping for the whole world, because of the abuse of their liberty by those who put themselves on the left side (of God), they (deified people) did not see God in their (people on the left) salvation. Lord, have mercy!
What happens to those found by the Last Judgment in sin and fall? In actual fact that the God-Man Christ enters into a dialogue with them at all, no matter how terrible it may sound (“Depart from me, you cursed” – Matthew 25,41), is nothing but giving them another opportunity for repentance and instead of acknowledgment that they deserved the punishment and ask for forgiveness and mercy from the Merciful God, in order to be saved at the last moment, they justify themselves and accuse Christ even on the Last Judgment itself: “Lord, when did we see You … Matthew 25,44“
This is another example that self-justification always goes hand in hand with shifting blame to the other (even if it was God Himself) and falling away from God.
Terrible judgment before the Terrible (Last) Judgment is every encounter with a neighbour (fellow man) who suffers.
Take a good notice, every Christian who has the opportunity -alone or organised together with others, is obliged to even seek and find someone who is suffering and to help them; for example, to support at least one person or a family who for justified reasons cannot support themselves, otherwise there is no Christianity. Where there is no Christianity – Holy Communion is in vain!
Most-Holy Theotokos, save us!
Metropolitan of Strumica Nahum
(07.03.2021 17:02)
