Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory forever!

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Brethren, it is the Sunday of Meatfare, the Sunday of the “Last Judgment,” notably, not “the most recent judgment,” not “the latest judgment,” but the “Last Judgment,” the judgment in which the deeds of all men and women, believers and unbelievers, righteous and unrighteous, will be laid bare, with final effect. In the words of one sticheron at Great Vespers: “Oh, what a dreadful sight.” Indeed, it is a dread sight; a terrible and awesome sight, a sight to put “the fear of God” in you. This is good. We need to be afraid. We need to be terrified, not of our sins which plague us—these can be forgiven; not of one another’s judgments—these are often misinformed and callous. No, we must be terrified of the one who alone is awesome and mighty and terrible in his countenance and in his judgments: the Lord, Jesus Christ.

Our Lord, he calls us “friend,” yes; he calls us “disciple” and “child,” yes, but he is God, and we are men. Can we stand in fear of a friend, a teacher, a parent? Surely, if there is a relationship of respect and admiration present. A parent can be terrible and kind all at once. A teacher can be severe and exacting, and sympathetic and gentle all at once. Many today, brethren, non-believers and believers too, have lost this sense of the fear of God. God is the “grandfather in the sky.” God is whatever amalgamation of my own personal sensibilities and proclivities I want him to be. This is the god of the modern age. And this is the false god of all ages past and all pseudo-religion: God as grandfather, vending machine, locker room pal. But this is not the God of the Scriptures.

The God of the Bible—the God whom we worship—says the Prophet Moses, is called “God of gods, and Lord of lords, a great God, a mighty and terrible [God]” (Deut 10:17), and the Prophet Isaiah writes, “He will repay fury to his adversaries, and recompence to his enemies” (Isa 59:18). And the Apostle adds, “[Truly], it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God” (Heb 10:31).

We can scarcely comprehend, brethren (indeed, we do not comprehend at all), the holiness of God, the completely otherworldly, ineffable might, power, knowledge, and wisdom of God. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways” (Isa 55:9), he says. We are lightbulbs and Christ is the light and warmth of a hundred suns. We are droplets of water, and Christ is the sum of the oceans of ten-thousand worlds. We are particles of dust, blown about by the slightest breeze, and Christ is the swirling, spinning, infinitely kinetic mass of a million galaxies. We jump back in fear, or jerk in shock, when a dog barks, when a spider falls from the ceiling into our laps. And what is God to us? “As for man, his days are like grass—he blooms like a flower of the field; when the wind passes over it, it vanishes, and its place remembers it no more” (Ps 103:15), but “the Word of the Lord endures forever” (1 Pet 1:25). If there is any who is able to render just judgment, it is our God, who sees all and knows all, the Almighty and Eternal Creator of heaven and earth.

In today’s Gospel reading, brethren, we are given insight into that final Judgement Day, when Christ will “separate us…, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats” (Matt 25:32). We are given a blueprint of sorts for how we might be accounted among the righteous:

“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.’ … ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did this to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me’” (Matt 25:33-36, 40).

“Be righteous, and be accounted righteous!” “Do good and be accounted… good!” Is this what Christ is saying? Yes, if we were able to be righteous apart from Christ, but we know that this cannot be the case, for,

“There is none righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one” (Rom 3:10-12, Ps 14, 1-3).

And in the same Epistle, the Apostle clarifies this point, when he writes,

“If Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. For what does Scripture say? ‘Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness.’ Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due. And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness, just as David also speaks of the blessing of the one to whom God counts righteousness apart from works: ‘Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, and whose sins are covered; blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin’” (Rom 4:2-8).

Oh my, brethren, we have wandered deep into soteriological territory. But it is appropriate, yes, on this Sunday of the Last Judgement. We will be judged, but on what basis? Christ has judged the world in his crucifixion and resurrection. Christ judges each of us as we come to him in Holy Baptism—“You are baptized, you are illumined; you are anointed; you are hallowed; you are washed clean, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit”—and when we receive from the priest the Eucharistic Mystery—“Th[is] servant of God partakes… unto the remission of sins and life everlasting.” And Christ will judge all men when he sits on his dread throne in glory. On what account will we be judged?

As Orthodox Christians, we offer a different soteriological perspective than our Catholic and Protestant brethren. We believe that our salvation and our personal transfiguration into the image and likeness of Christ is a cosmological and trans-temporal event. “We have been saved; we are being saved; we will be saved through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.” God cannot count us righteous on the basis of our merits when we are received into the Body of Christ, when we are sealed with the gift of the Holy Spirit of God. We are baptized into Christ, and this is what saves us! But what does the Apostle say in his Epistle to the Ephesians, on this very topic?

“For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them” (Eph 2:8-10, italics mine).

We have been saved, brethren, for good works. We have been baptized, and filled with the grace of the Holy Spirit, for perfection in holiness through repentance, discipline (askesis, in our tradition), and good works.

The sheepfold referenced in Matt. 25, today’s reading, is just that: a sheepfold, with Christ as her Shepherd. It is the Church. It is us, some who look and “baaa!” very much like sheep, but… in our actions, and in our treatment of one another—icons of Christ—act very much like goats. And the Master cannot be fooled; he will not be mocked.

It is, therefore, imperative for us, brethren, especially during this holy season of Lent, to run to Christ and to his Church and to her holy Mysteries for edification in grace, that we might be renewed in spirit, and enabled to do those good works befitting of our high calling. We must run to Christ and plead before him to forgive us, and to establish us in faith, confirmed by the good works of our hands. Lastly, brethren, we must never forget that the great and terrible One who “comes to Judge the living and the dead” is also the meek and humble servant—the Incarnate God (‘Īmmanu-Ēl)—who came “not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Matt 20:28). The King of Heaven who “repays fury to his adversaries” is the same God who “knows our frame; [who] remembers that we are dust” (Ps 103:14), who “looks upon [us] with compassion” (Matt 9:36) and “desires all men to be saved” (1 Tim 2:4).

It is the Sunday of the Last Judgement of the year 2024, and we do not know for certain when the Day of the Lord, when the true Day of the Last Judgment may be. So, let us not tarry, dawdle, loaf about. Let us not prolong our un-repentance, our un-righteousness, but in the words of our blessed father, Seraphim Rose of Platina,

“It is later than you think! Hasten, therefore, to do the work of God.”

Through the prayers of our holy fathers, O Lord, Jesus Christ, our God, have mercy on us and save us. Amen.

Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory forever!