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(Sretensky Monastery choir sings Ps 33/34): I will bless the Lord at every time...
Hi. I'm sister Vassa, and I'm having my coffee here
in Vienna, in Australia, before going to work today.
...Yes, of course I meant
Austria, and not Australia. - Just checking to see if you people
are paying attention. Besides, I'm some sort of sick of saying the same thing all the
time.
The weather here in Vienna is in that transition period,
you know, between winter and spring. So it seems to be
constantly raining. In fact, even
on sunny days, all of a sudden it rains. Very strange.
Have you seen that?
When it rains on a sunny day?
This week in the Byzantine liturgical calendar,
we have reached the final week before the beginning of Lent,
- that long fasting period before the most important of all feasts -
Easter or Pascha, the resurrection of Christ from the dead.
This Sunday, one week before the beginning of Lent, is called
Meatfare, because we eat meat for the last time before
Easter, while dairy products and fish are still allowed
this final pre-Lenten week, called Cheesefare Week
or "Maslenitsa" in Russian. In the Latin West there is a similar tradition of
saying goodbye to meat,
a festive time immediately before Lent called
"Carnival," often derived from the words "carne" and "vale,"
meaning in Late Latin "farewell to meat."
At this time people dress up in colorful costumes,
signifying that they are changing themselves and their usual daily life,
and stepping into a new way of life, of fasting
during Lent. In both the eastern and western traditions,
we are in any event in a time of transition,
gradually directing our thoughts and hearts toward the special time
leading up to Easter. This Sunday in the Byzantine tradition
we also contemplate a less popular topic,
and that is, the Last Judgment. The prayers
in this book, called "Triodion," which I showed you last week,
and which we now sing in church, all talk about the Last
Judgment, when Christ will come in glory, and judge
each of us for the good and the bad we did in this life.
Now, this topic is probably the least popular part of Christian teaching,
if all the parts of Christian teaching were for some reason entered in a
popularity contest. But I will suggest to you today,
if you stay with me to the very end of this video,
that actually the whole topic, which
just seems scary at first, is quite liberating
and inspiring. So, please wait for the inspiring part,
which will only become clear to you
at the end.
This is how Christ Himself describes Judgment Day
in the Gospel of Matthew (Mt 25: 21-36): "When the Son of Man
comes in his glory, and all angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of
his glory.
All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate people
one from another, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.
And he will put the sheep at his right hand and the goats
at the left. Then the king will say to those at his right hand:
'Come, you that are blessed by 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 something to drink,
I was a stranger, and you welcomed me. I was naked, and you gave me clothing,
I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison
and you visited me. Then the righteous will answer him:
'Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you
food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink?
And when was it that we saw you a stranger, and welcomed you,
or naked and gave you clothing, and when was it that we saw you sick or in prison
and visited you?' And the king will answer them:
'Truly I tell you: just as you did it to one of the least of these
who are members of my family, you did it to me.'
Then he will say to those his left hand:
'You that our accursed, depart from me into the
eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels,
for I was hungry, and you gave me no food, I was thirsty, and you gave me
nothing to drink,
I was a stranger, and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not
give me clothing,
sick and in prison and you did not visit me."
And then these people will similarly ask Him - When did we see you in this state?
And He will say, When you didn't do this for the least of
My family, you didn't do it for Me. And finally,
Jesus ends this description by saying (Mt 25:36): "And these
will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous
into eternal life." Now, note
two obvious elements of this judgment or trial described by Christ:
First, that Christ, the King, is
the judge. And 2.) that what interests Him
is how we treated one another, particularly in times of need.
Today I'll reflect on the first of
these, - on the fact that judgment belongs to God.
The hymns and parers of the Triodion on this Sunday of the Last Judgment
constantly talk about the fear of God's judgment.
In the hymn called the "kontakion," we sing,
for example: "When you come, O God, upon the earth with glory,
the whole world will tremble..." We are called, in fact,
to fear God's judgment, and this might seem
a very unattractive proposition for us, because
fear is not a very popular emotion. Many of us say,
God is love! Why should I fear His judgment? We tend to resist
this notion. Ironically, however, we readily embrace
another kind of fear, - the fear of the judgment or opinions
of other people. We allow ourselves to be motivated by this fear
in both small and big things. Some of us make
career choices just to please or impress someone else.
Some of us are perpetually dieting to look thin enough
in front of perfect strangers at the beach. If we still go to school,
perhaps we hang out with the popular kids, even if we don't like them,
or they're not even nice to us, - just so everyone thinks
we're cool... From a very early age, in fact, we seem almost
instinctively to fear judgment. The thing is,
fear of judgment is instilled in all of us,
and is a good thing, when channeled properly. You can call it
an "inner voice," or your conscience. It is a powerful,
God-given virtue. Modern-day science considers fear
in general an evolved emotion, because it
protects us from harm, and motivates us to do better.
God's voice inside us, judging our actions,
does not seek to hurt or degrade us, as the opinions of other people
often do. Because only He is the perfect,
righteous Judge. His righteous voice seeks to guide us to grow
in His image and likeness. Listening to this
inner voice, to God's judgment, and yes - a healthy fear of disobeying it,
actually liberates us from the misguided and crippling fear
of human opinion. Because fear, - like any virtue -
can be distorted, or channeled in the wrong direction,
at which point it turns into a vice, - and a very damaging one at that.
We can misdirect our God-given capacity to fear
to the point that human opinions drown out God's voice in us.
We could also drown out God's voice with our own
judgments. We can misdirect this limited capacity we have to
form judgments,
when we pass judgment on one another's lives, or
on one another's moral standing.
And yes, this includes our anonymous opinions on blogs,
and online, which we will have to
account for. Being judgmental or self-righteous,
like the Pharisee we talked about last week, we commit
the ultimate sin of pride; playing God,
to Whom alone belongs judgment. It is so important to avoid this sin
of self-righteous pride, of judging others,
that not only all that these pre-Lenten Sundays
are actually about humility and avoiding this sin,
but Jesus even promises to let us off the hook
for any other sin, if only we don't judge others:
"Do not judge," He says, "and you will not be judged.
Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned."
In the inimitable words of C.S. Lewis,
"That is why a cold, self-righteous *** who goes regularly to church
may be far nearer to hell than a ***.
But of course it is better to be neither."
This is in this wonderful little book, "Mere Christianity,"
by C. S. Lewis. This is good reading for Lent,
by the way, if you haven't read it yet: "Mere Christianity" by C.S. Lewis.
I highly recommend it. So, let's let God
be the judge. Because His judgment
liberates us from the burdens and fear of our own.
That's it's for today, ladies and gentlemen!
Thank you.