Homily for the Sunday of the Last Judgment
By Fr. Daniel Sysoev
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.
The straw deeds of people are the deeds of selfishness, pride, impure deeds, evil deeds. They will all burn up on the Day of Judgment. Imagine what it would be like for someone who lived and worked their entire life, yet all their deeds remain completely useless. Their entire life has burned up, turned to dust.
The Lord says: “Behold, I come as a thief: blessed is he who watches and keeps his garments, lest he walk naked and they see his shame” (Rev. 16:15).
Another person may still have things to do, but they won't be valuable. Although their home is built of stones, it won't be sanctified by God's grace. Such a person will live in the Kingdom of Heaven, but in poverty. Another will live in a house of precious stones or silver and gold, having woven and collected the virtues of the Gospel during their lifetime.
We must be careful, as the Apostle Paul says, “lest even having been clothed we be found naked” (2 Cor. 5:3 ). We need to take care now about the clothing of our joy, our blessedness.
On the Day of Judgment, every person will be judged and repaid. For the righteous, this will be a great day of triumph and glorification, majesty and power. As it is said, God will come to appear and be glorified in the saints on that very day, to reveal His power and glory. All heaven and earth will be in great awe at the glory that God will reveal at the end of time.
The devil and his angels, and those who rejected Christ and fought against Him, will tremble as they gaze upon His glory and power. The glory of Almighty God will be revealed, destroying evil, crushing corruption, burning away death, transforming the entire world, changing everything, so that the corruptible, tottering Kingdom of earth will be replaced by the unshakable Kingdom of Heaven. On that day, the glory of God will be revealed, the joy of God in the righteous, but then, too, will the wrath and anger of God be revealed.
Too often lately, we've begun to repeat, following all sorts of Western teachers, that God is not angry, does not punish, and does not chastise anyone. But such words contradict the Holy Gospel, which clearly states that the day of the end is the day of vengeance. On that day, God will appear as an avenging God, who will avenge his enemies for their wickedness. Sinners are often depicted in icons of the Last Judgment as black as embers, and this is because their iniquities, burned away, have soiled them. Meanwhile, the righteous are depicted in all icons dressed in sparkling vestments and radiant.
As the Apostle Paul says: “For you are dead, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory” (Col. 3:3-4).
The life that entered us through baptism, through Communion, and the other mysteries, and which we utilized through virtues, will flare up and ignite, no longer burning us, but illuminating us. On this day, a great river of fire will flow before the Throne of God:
“And I saw a great white throne, and Him who sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away, and no place was found for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God. And books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. Then the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and Death and Hades delivered up the dead which were in them. And they were judged, every man according to their works. And Death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And whoever was not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire” (Rev. 20:11-15).
Sinners will receive retribution, and the righteous will live before God, rejoice forever, and dwell in eternal blessedness. Sorrow and iniquity will be removed from them; there will be no more sin, repentance, or correction. There will be the Kingdom of God for some, and eternal torment for others. This event of the Last Judgment awaits us all. We will all be participants in it, whether we choose to or not. But we must constantly ask ourselves whether we are preparing for the coming Day of Judgment. As John the Baptist said:
“The axe is already laid to the root of the trees: every tree which does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire” (Matthew 3:10; Luke 3:9).
Are we paying attention? Do we see the approaching axe? Do we discern the signs of the end times, which God is seeing ever more clearly? Do we pay attention to the fact that the Gospel and ancient prophecies are already being fulfilled? It has become possible to read the Gospel in front of the television while watching the news, and compare current world events with the predictions of the ancient prophets. We have seen the fall of the great towers, foretold in the Book of Isaiah:
“For the day of the Lord of hosts will come upon every proud and lofty man, and upon everyone lifted up; and they will be brought low, upon every cedar of Lebanon, that is high and lifted up, and upon every oak of Bashan, and upon every high mountain, and upon every hill that is lifted up, and upon every high tower, and upon every fenced wall” (Isaiah 2:12-15).
We now also see terrible national wars that have never happened before: “For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; and there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in divers places. All these are the beginning of sorrows” (Matthew 24:7-8).
While previously it was the armies of states that fought, since the 20th century it has been nation against nation. These wars have become known as world wars; they are unparalleled in both scale and the participants. Judgment Day is rapidly approaching. Each new year brings us one step closer to the Second Coming of Christ the Savior, who will come to take His own to Himself and repay sinners according to their deeds. If we forget this, we build our dwellings of straw, and when the great trial comes, we will find ourselves naked. When we are tempted to sin, we must consider how we will justify our sin before the Lord at the Judgment, and what the retribution for it will be. The remembrance of the Judgment is the great cure for all sins.
"It will be well with him who fears the Lord in his last days, and he will be blessed in the day of his death. The fear of the Lord is a gift from the Lord, and it sets him in the paths of love" (Sirach 2:13).
Let us remember this, let us look to Christ, who comes to judge us, and may He not condemn us when He comes, but justify us, glorify us, and lead us into His Kingdom. May God help us and teach us His great fear, which will then lead us to God's love!
God bless you!
Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.
