Homily for Meatfare Sunday -- On the Dread Last Judgment (St. Cleopa of Sihastria)

Homily for Meatfare Sunday
(Sunday of the Dread Judgment)
About the Fearful Last Judgment

By St. Cleopa of Sihastria

“For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each may receive according to what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.” (2 Corinthians 5:10)

Beloved faithful,

Today all of us present have heard the words of our Savior Jesus Christ about His coming at the most dreadful Last Judgment. Know that from the foundation of the world until the end of the ages nothing is more fearful than the coming of the Lord at the Last Judgment. Not even the angels can describe to us in detail that most terrible coming of the Lord, when He will judge all the nations of the earth from Adam until the end of the world. We, being very weak and uncomprehending, cannot speak fully about that unspeakable terror and fearful coming of the Lord.

But from what we have heard today in the Holy Gospel and from what Divine Scripture shows, as well as from the teachings of the Holy Fathers about the Judgment of the great day, we shall set down here a few teachings, according to our weak understanding, about the Lord’s coming at the Last Judgment. And first we will show, with testimonies from Holy Scripture, in what manner the Lord will come and what will be the first signs of His coming.

A Simple Priest Gives Profound Meaning to the Triodion

I asked an elder priest:

"My dear father, the Triodion is beginning. What can we say about this period?" (The elder is simple and has not studied the theology of the universities, but the theology of prayer, as he himself says.)

"My child, the word 'Triodion' itself says it… That is: we sinners, if we have three passions to fight, let us make them two… That is the Triodion… the striking down of our passions, the reduction of our weaknesses… In short, to drive away the defects we have… We won’t manage to get rid of all of them, but even if we drive away just one, God is pleased.*

But we must be careful not to cover them up, like women do when they put on makeup — or men, who nowadays I think adorn themselves even more — that is, only outwardly… A passion needs uprooting from the root. You must dig deep into the soul to find where it begins and then uproot it completely…

Holy Martyr Pamphilos and Those With Him in the Hymnography of the Orthodox Church

 

 

By Fr. George Dorbarakis

These glorious martyrs, in the sixth year of the persecution of Diocletian, were led to martyrdom from various cities and from various professions and ranks, and were united in the one faith of Christ. The manner of their arrest was as follows: As they were about to pass through the gates of the city of Caesarea, the guards demanded to know who they were and from where they came. They called themselves Christians and said that their homeland was the heavenly Jerusalem. For this reason they were arrested and led before the governor Firmilian; and after many tortures he beheaded Elijah and those with him, just as he also beheaded Pamphilos and the rest. Porphyrios, because he sought the body of his master Pamphilos, was also arrested and delivered to the fire. Likewise Julian, because he embraced the bodies of the Saints, was cast into the flames. And Theodoulos was crucified upon a piece of wood and thus bore witness in martyrdom.

Like another twelve apostles, our Church today presents the Holy Twelve Martyrs: the priest Pamphilos, Valens, Seleucus, Daniel, Theodoulos, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Elijah, Porphyrios, Paul, Julian, and Samuel — because of their mindset, which moved with the same apostolic zeal regarding the firmness of their faith and their fearlessness before torments.

Prologue in Sermons: February 16

Virtues Are the Steps of the Ladder Leading to Heaven

February 16

(An Edifying Parable from the Paterikon.)

By Archpriest Victor Guryev

Among the teachings and counsels of the Holy Fathers there are parables that are very instructive and greatly beneficial for the salvation of the soul. Today I will relate one of them.

A certain simple layman, a pious man, once came in the company of many other Christians to the Venerable Poemen and asked him for instruction. Poemen replied: “Today you yourself speak a word to the brethren.”

The visitor exclaimed, “How can I, wretched as I am, speak, Father?”

“You,” Poemen answered - and all present joined him, insisting that the simple man speak.

Then he said: “I am an unlearned man and cannot say anything except the following parable, which I once heard from a great elder. Here it is.

On the Second Coming of the Lord (St. Chrysostomos of Smyrna)

On the Second Coming of the Lord

By the Holy Hieromartyr Chrysostomos, Metropolitan of Smyrna

The discourse concerns the Second Coming of the Lord.

But does the Second Coming of the Lord truly exist?

Is there immortality and a life everlasting to come?

Is there a future judgment?

Is there recompense after death?

Or do all things cease at the grave in this present life, and is the grave the final end — where together with the body life itself is buried and forever extinguished — and beyond the grave there exists nothing but the void?

This question is among the most serious of all and bears the highest importance for every earthly human being.

In View of Meatfare Sunday, a Sermon on the Second Coming of the Lord (Metropolitan Chrysostomos of Mani)

In View of Meatfare Sunday, a Sermon on the Second Coming of the Lord 

By Metropolitan Chrysostomos of Mani

We confess and say in the seventh article of the Symbol of Faith:

“And He shall come again with glory to judge the living and the dead, whose kingdom shall have no end.”

This concerns the Second Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ — a subject exceedingly important, primary, and of interest to every human being.

Let us recall, for consolation and spiritual edification, a few things about the Second Coming of the Lord.

First of all, the Second Coming of the Lord is called in Holy Scripture a “day” (1 Cor. 3:13), and indeed “that day” (Matt. 7:22; Luke 6:23; John 14:20), “the last day” (John 6:39), “the day of the Lord” (1 Cor. 5:5), “the day of Jesus Christ” (Phil. 1:6), “the coming” (Matt. 24:3), “the appearing of glory” (Tit. 2:13), and “the revelation of His glory” (1 Pet. 4:13). The hymnography calls it “a dreadful day,” “a fearful day,” “the day of judgment.”

Homily for the Sunday of the Last Judgment (Fr. Daniel Sysoev)

Homily for the Sunday of the Last Judgment

By Fr. Daniel Sysoev

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit!

I congratulate you on Meatfare Sunday, during which we remember the terrible events that await us all — the Last Judgment. God will clearly appear on earth to reward each according to their deeds, to restore the whole world.

Then the whole universe will change, the heavens will pass with a roar and melt in flames, and the earth and all the works that are on it will burn up, and then all people will appear before the terrible Throne of God Almighty and Christ will gather us all to judge and reward each according to his deeds.

Each of us will stand in the flesh before God, naked, clad only in the garments we wove on earth from our deeds. If we lived ordinary lives as ordinary people, without doing good deeds, or even worse, if we committed iniquity, then we will remain naked. And on the day of great trial, on the Day of Judgment, all our deeds will be tested. All Christians have one foundation — Jesus Christ — but everyone builds their lives on Him differently. Some build houses of straw, others of wood, and such houses will burst into flames on the Day of Judgment.

Saint Anthimos of Chios (1869-1960): Hesychast, Philanthropist and Confessor

 

Christos Klavas, 
Theologian, Sociologist, Chanter

It is an indisputable fact that even in more recent times, closer to us, the Orthodox Church continues to bring forth saints. This admission is of great significance for contemporary man who, perhaps more than in any other era, has need of hope as well as lofty ideals.

A contemporary sanctified figure is, among many others, Saint Anthimos of Chios, whose life constitutes a model of spirituality and philanthropy.

Born in Chios on July 1, 1869, Argyrios Vagianos (his name in the world) grew up in an environment of deep faith and piety. He did not receive much formal education, although he was endowed with remarkable natural gifts. On August 23, 1889, at the age of 20, he visited the Sacred Skete of the Holy Fathers in order to deliver to the monastery’s icon workshop the icon of Panagia Voitheia (the Helper), which he had received as an heirloom from his ancestors. This visit became the occasion for him to make the great decision to enter the ranks of the monks and submit to the Elder Pachomios, "renowned for his virtue.”[1] This was the elder who taught the ascetical, neptic tradition to Saint Nektarios of Aegina, Bishop of Pentapolis.[2] Consequently, Saint Anthimos and Saint Nektarios were disciples of the same spiritual teacher; they were spiritual brothers, flowers that sprang from the same root.

Holy Apostle Onesimos in the Hymnography of the Orthodox Church

By Fr. George Dorbarakis

Saint Onesimos was a slave of Philemon, a Roman man, to whom the Holy Apostle Paul writes (the homonymous epistle of the New Testament, the Epistle to Philemon). Onesimos became a disciple of Paul (when he had fled from his master Philemon and took refuge in Rome, where he met the Apostle Paul, who was under custody awaiting trial before Caesar), and he ministered to him. After the death of the Apostle, he himself was also arrested and brought before Tertullus, the governor of the region, and by him was sent to Puteoli. When Tertullus also went there, he found Onesimos persisting in the faith of Christ, and so he first ordered him to be beaten severely with rods and then to have his legs broken. In this manner he departed from this temporary life.

The Apostle Onesimos is yet another case of a man who received in his life the almighty energy of divine grace and was converted: from a harsh and difficult slave he became an Apostle of Christ. That is to say, from a man who, because of the oppression he felt, harbored negative feelings toward the world, he became one who placed himself in loving service to his fellow human beings, even giving his life in the end for Christ’s sake. This of course means that, in order to reach the point of accepting the word of the Gospel, he preserved within himself good elements; that is, there existed in his soul a certain search for the truth. In this respect he resembles his spiritual father, the Holy Apostle Paul, who himself, from being a persecutor of the Christian faith, became its greatest preacher and theologian.