Audio
[This audio file has been edited since audio and written styles are not the same but very different ways of communication.]
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Today is the Sunday of the Last Judgement. The words which we have heard from our Saviour today are all about this Last Judgement. These days, it seems that people around the world are concerned about this subject, this future event. However, they are talking about it in terms which are dangerous. They are concerned about some small details concerning this final Judgement, instead of paying attention to its essence and to its meaning. People are looking forward to the punishment of the bad people while hoping that they are amongst the good people. They are hoping that they will get to see the bad people being punished. With this attitude, it seems that it never occurs to those who hold it that they might be sadists.
This is not at all what our Saviour has just said to us. His judgement is going to be based on the words that He gave to the Apostle Peter right after the Resurrection. Shortly after the Resurrection, we hear our Saviour ask the Apostle Peter : “‘Simon, son of Jonah, do you love Me?’” (John 21:15) Three times, He asks the apostle this question (see John 21:15-17). The word in Greek that the Saviour is using the first two times is the verb agapáo, which means the love that we give to God. It is the love that has no conditions. It is the love that is free, freely given, open.
The Apostle Peter answers that he loves the Saviour, but he answers with the verb philéo that means family, brotherly love, friendship, hospitable affection. This is not as strong as agapáo. It seems that the apostle (at that particular time) did not comprehend the subtle, but important difference between the two sorts of love. The third time, the Lord asks him : “‘Do you love Me?’” with the same verb that the Apostle is repeating in his responses : philéo. The apostle again replies with the same word. In all likelihood, by the end of his life, the apostle understood very well, and would be answering the Saviour with agapáo every time.
In the Judgement, the Saviour will be asking you and me the same question : “Do you love Me ?” The Saviour says that our answer is going to be measured by how we have behaved towards other people. We can say that we love the Lord, but we can mistreat people very much. We can say that we are Christians, but we can behave as if we were criminals. We can say that we believe in Christ, but we can behave in very dark and evil ways. Thus, our Saviour says that He is going to measure us by how we behave towards each other. He says that we must visit the sick ; we must clothe the naked ; we must feed the hungry, and things like this. We must be aware of each other, and the needs of each. We must be caring for each other. We must be supporting each other. We must be helping each other. This is the way that the Saviour wants us to be. He is very emphatic about it since He says that as much as we do things like these to the very least of His brothers (He considers all of us to be His brothers and sisters), we have done them to Him. This has always been the way characteristic of Orthodox Christians.
If this were not so, then why is it that in Russia and Ukraine after Perestroika, besides rebuilding the Temples, one of the first things that have been happening has been the building of orphanages for children who have no parents ? These Church-sponsored orphanages provide care for the children until they become adults (unlike the state, which throws them out on the streets when they become fifteen). Why is it that hospitals and hospital chaplaincies have been re-established right away ? Why is it that there have been prison chaplaincies established right away in these countries ? It is because people are living according to the Gospel, and they are taking the words of Jesus Christ seriously. In Russia and Ukraine, there are priests and their wives adopting large numbers of children in order to protect them. I know of one priest and his wife in the Orel area of a province near the Ural Mountains (where the old Metropolitan Leonty used to be the bishop) who had adopted 50 children. Then they had three of their own, and they continued to adopt children. It is several years since I have heard the latest number. Not only have they been adopting these children, but they have also been taking into their home older people (in wheelchairs, and so forth) who have no place to live. The last I heard they had 25 babushki and dedushki living with them, too. This family has become a village by itself. There is another priest in Ukraine, who is the head of a monastery, who (with his brotherhood) has adopted 250 children in order to protect them. These things are done by people who love Jesus Christ, and they understand these words of our Saviour that we have heard just now.
Hospitals began with Christians almost 2,000 years ago because people took the words of the Saviour seriously, and they began to care seriously for each other, and their needs. We are coming now to Great Lent, and it is important for us to remember that this call from the Saviour to care for the poor, for the needy, for the hungry, for the shut-ins, is our responsibility and not someone else’s. We have to say : “It is my responsibility to Jesus Christ to care for those who have no-one to care for them”. This is our way. It is the opposite of what people are generally being taught nowadays. Forgetting ourselves, and caring about others first is the way of the Saviour. We who live in Jesus Christ must practice this love. This love must be acted on. We must do the love of Jesus Christ.
In today’s Epistle reading, and in the Epistle reading for yesterday (see 1 Corinthians 10:23-28), the Apostle Paul reminds us of our responsibility to our brothers and sisters who have weaknesses. Some of our brothers and sisters do not understand that we, as Orthodox Christians, do have liberty, and it does not particularly matter to us if food somewhere has been offered to idols. This can happen here in this city, too, in some Asian restaurants or some other place where food is prepared by people who are not Christians. In my childhood, and also not very long ago, while sitting in a Chinese restaurant where there were some representations of gods sitting on a shelf, I have heard the question raised :” Should we be eating this food which has been offered to these idols ?” The answer is : “Yes, of course, because the blessing of God is much greater than any offering to idols”. That is what the Apostle Paul is telling us about. The Lord’s blessing is much greater than these offerings.
However, some people are afraid. The Apostle says that it is important for us not to be pointing the finger at someone’s weakness, but to be patient with that weakness in someone else, cover that weakness in someone else, and support that person to become stronger. Therefore, he says to us that if we know that it is perfectly all right to eat something, but we also know that our brother is afraid, then we ought not to eat it for our brother’s sake. Therefore, we limit ourselves and our freedom for the sake of the weakness of our brother, and in such a way we support our brother or sister to become stronger him- or herself.
The way of the Orthodox Christian is love that is practiced concretely. We cannot merely say that we love God – we must behave in a manner that shows that we do. We have to show this love. Otherwise people will lose Christ. We call ourselves Orthodox Christians. People in our country, in this city, who are looking for the truth, who are so disappointed with all sorts of empty promises, empty philosophies, and empty systems, are looking for the true meaning of life which we have in the love of Jesus Christ. However, if we, who call ourselves Christians, do not behave as Christians, people who are going to be measuring Jesus Christ by our behaviour, are going to be disappointed again.
It is important for you and for me to live our lives in Jesus Christ with as much truth as possible, exercising freedom in love as much as possible, caring for those in need as much as possible.
As we are beginning tomorrow to eat fewer things, and in one week’s time to enter Great Lent, let us be careful to enter this Great Lent not saying to ourselves : “Oh, I cannot eat meat. Oh, I cannot eat cheese”. This is the wrong spirit, because you will be tortured all during Great Lent. Let us enter Great Lent saying : “Lord, I am offering to You my not-eating these things because I love You, and because I want to participate in the diet of Adam and Eve before the fall. I want to offer to You my abstaining from these foods because I love you. Instead of eating meat, drinking milk, eating cheese, eggs, and nice things like that, with Your help I am going to do good things for people who need help. I am going to do more for other people around me”.
Let this be our offering to the Lord this coming Great Lent. Let us offer our love and our abstinence to Him because we love Him (not merely because the rules say that we have to do it this way). If we do this, the point of Great Lent will be achieved by Pascha : we will have become stronger Orthodox Christians, and we will be better able to serve Him during the coming year. We will be able to glorify our Saviour, Jesus Christ, more and more in every part of our lives, together with the unoriginate Father, and the all-holy, good, and life-giving Spirit, now, and ever, and unto the ages of ages.