An awkward astonishment arises in the mind... hearing the Judge himself foretell in the Gospel passage of His Second Coming, that in the Judgment... the 'ultimate criterion' of salvation or perdition of each judged person will be: the mercy [ 1 ] shown in a philanthropic manner or the ruthlessness [ 2 ] shown in an inhuman manner... to every forced creature who found himself before him!
The 3rd Sunday of the Triodion is dedicated by the Mother Church to the 'Second Coming' of Christ on earth (as Judge, this time!) and to the future Judgment of people, from the creation of the world to the end of world history. The Gospel reference to the Judgment… reminds us of a forgotten truth: that God is not only a merciful Father… as He showed in the Gospel passage of the 2nd Sunday (of the Prodigal Son), but He is also a righteous Judge…! He Himself, prophetically unfolds and 'paints' graphically with every detail the 'event' of His Judgment! Because, the 'Second Coming' is an Eschatological certainty… of the Orthodox Church. A teleological expectation… which is confessed as a dogmatic truth in the Creed: “…and He will come again to judge the living and the dead”!
Using - just for show - the verse of a popular song, which 'evaluates' admiringly (but frivolously and verbally) the 'value' of salvation... I will agree with the popular interpreter, that "the salvation of the soul is a great thing" but it is, in addition, incomparably greater... than what is implied in popular culture! The said (incalculable) importance of spiritual salvation is also concluded from the suggestive Gospel saying: "What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world... and loses his own soul?!" (Matt. 16:26) As difficult as it is to eternally save our soul in the Kingdom of Light... it is just as easy to lose it in the kingdom of Darkness... if we do not manage its unique and unrepeatable 'investment' value 'as the apple of our eye'!
Spiritual salvation or loss… is the result of hidden ‘processes’ that occur in the souls of people. The clever tools of salvation are many, but 2 of them (humble repentance and compassionate mercy…) become the main reasons, thanks to which God grants us eternal life! The wicked tools of loss are also many, but 2 of them (proud impenitence and inhuman ruthlessness…) are the main causes, for which the soul is sentenced to eternal death! A strong interaction between repentance and mercy, makes a repentant soul… ‘incapable’ of changing into merciless! Just as a compassionate soul… is impossible to remain unrepentant! A similar interaction between impenitence and ruthlessness… makes an unrepentant soul incapable of being merciful! Just as a ruthless soul is incapable of repenting…!
“Judgement will be without mercy to those who have shown no mercy…” (James 2:13)
INTERPRETATION: God's Judgment at His Second Coming, as Judge of the deeds of humanity throughout the ages, will be without mercy... for anyone who did not show others the slightest mercy!
The coming Judgment of God… the most terrible ‘event’ (occurring) of all human and universal history, is ‘planned’ “from the foundation of the world” (Matt. 25:34) and, therefore, is inevitable. It is a consequence of God’s Justice. The coming end of the history of this perishable and incurably corrupted by sins visible world will be sealed by the untimely Judgment of the Just Judge God! This is a necessary condition… for the entry of repentant [ 3 ] people into the New Creation of the Kingdom of God. As godlike beings (created in the image of God), humans have been invited to enter the Kingdom of Light. However, as self-willed beings, we are potential candidates for the kingdom of darkness, if we neglect repentance and mercy!
We live in an Apocalyptic world… where Moral Values are brutally abused and systematically degraded. In fact, the first of them: Love-Truth-Justice… have ceased to serve, openly, what they profess…! They now refer to the opposites of their ‘professions’, so that ‘love’ refers to murderous hatreds, ‘truth’ to wretched lies, and ‘justice’ to outrageous injustices! And the collapse of all Moral Values, which has impoverished human life with the deadly epidemic of sin… needs only one ‘medicine’: the Second Coming of Christ, as Judge! To stop further decay… to sanitize infected humanity… and to stop being epidemiologically infected, “Lest evil become immortal…”!
The cries of abused and starving children… everywhere in the world, the tears of the wronged and persecuted innocents… throughout the globe, the cries of the humble and despised… of the whole earth, the desperate appeals of universal poverty and misery… “cry out to God” heartbreakingly! They ask for ‘holy vengeance’, calling on Him to hasten His promised Second Coming to earth, to judge the world! To vindicate the wronged and condemn the unjust. To crown the athletes of Patience and reward the workers of Virtue! To glorify the humble and despised, and humiliate the arrogant and proud. To compensate the injured and imprison the abusers. To condemn Satan and his gang, imprisoning them in the most 'high security' prison: hell...!
The 'abyss' that intervenes between created man and the Uncreated God, between the infinitesimally small creature... and the infinitely great Creator, is chaotic... and is naturally unbridgeable. There is only one 'path' that can 'bridge' this distance, between earth and Heaven... so that the 'intermediates' - Creator and creation - can approach each other... to meet and unite! And this 'path' of mutual approach between God and man is called "Repentance"! The most important of the "works of repentance" is our compassionate disposition towards our beleaguered, poor and needy fellow human beings! That is why our Lord brought down the bar of Judgment on these two - repentance and mercy - because "he wants all men to be saved" (1 Tim. 2:4)!
The “path of Repentance” is a “1000 steps” path that separates us from God. Our own ‘step’ (1/1000) towards Him is not sufficient to lead us before Him. God’s ‘steps’ (999/1000) towards us are also necessary, to ‘merge’ somehow… somewhere… sometime. Beyond that, Repentance is necessary - as a tool of salvation - because it activates the ‘mechanism’ of Mercy… both ways, from… and towards us! From us towards our brothers, and from God towards us. A reciprocal effect of mercy…! If we have mercy on our brothers… we will have mercy from our Heavenly Father [ 4 ] and if we forgive those who have harmed us… we will be forgiven by God! But if we do not have compassion for others, and do not 'give' them mercifully and forgivingly... then neither will we receive from God the Gift of His merciful forgiveness.
The Just Judge God and our Philanthropist Lord, 'lowered the bar' vertically... in terms of the moral evaluation of people, during His future Second Coming on earth. The reason for this condescension is His mercy... so that as many people as possible may be included in His Heavenly Kingdom! Because, by revealing that He will judge the world with the 'ultimate criterion' of mercy or ruthlessness towards the oppressed and the needy... He reveals His Divine will to save as many people as they choose to follow Him! Consequently, the 'lowest criterion' (the grading 'basis'...) of the future Judgment of God will be mercy or ruthlessness in human deeds. Our merciful or merciless attitude towards others is what will ultimately determine what 'inheritance' awaits us to inherit...!
Our Lord Jesus Christ, through the Gospel, announces the 'ultimate criterion' of our spiritual evaluation (our mercy or ruthlessness towards the needy…), which He will observe in His Universal Judgment. Essentially, He bypasses - without canceling - all the other Virtues and all the Passions, which He should naturally investigate in human souls. This extreme condescension of His… aims at nullifying any excuse that we could invoke as a convenient alibi for our combative inaction and moral turpitude. It is as if God were asking: "Well… you were unable to fight against sin…! You were unable… to even feel/show a little mercy… to your needy brothers…?"!
The universal (innate) Law of goodness and mercy… instilled within us by the All-Good God, leaves us no room for indifference and inertia, in the face of the surrounding human pain and the misery that prevails…! Disease, poverty, nakedness, hunger, thirst, loneliness, abandonment, despair, prison… cry out to God and all of us! They are situations of suffering that are easily detectable… so that they cannot remain hidden, and we cannot claim that we did not see them, did not notice them and did not know them! If, therefore, we record within ourselves a 'necrosis' of ruthlessness, indifference and inertia in the face of fellow human suffering... perhaps it means that we have selfishly and self-centeredly 'confirmed' our personal eudaimonistic self-sufficiency... risking falling into the Judgment of the eleventh Judge!
Let us hasten to have mercy... in order to be merciful!
Let us hasten to forgive... so that we may be forgiven!
"Maran Atha"! The Lord is near... He is coming 'as soon as I say'...
Come, Lord! The Christmas worshippers are waiting for You nostalgically and joyfully…
The Christ-killers and Christ-fighters await you fearfully and fearfully...
REFERENCES-FOOTNOTES
[ 1 ] “Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you! 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; naked… and you clothed Me; sick… and you visited Me; in prison… and you came to Me. Inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to Me…”! (Matt. 25, 34-40)
INTERPRETATION: Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you! For I was hungry… and you gave Me food! I was thirsty… and you gave Me drink! I was a stranger… and you welcomed Me into your home! I was naked… and you clothed Me! I was sick… and you visited Me! I was in prison… and you came to comfort Me! For, since you did it to one of the least of these My brothers and fellow human beings… it is as if you did it to Me myself!…
[ 2 ] “Depart from Me, you cursed, 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 no drink; I was a stranger and you did not take Me in; naked… and you did not clothe Me; sick and in prison… and you did not visit Me…! Inasmuch as you did not do it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did not do it to Me…”! (Matt. 25:41-45)
INTERPRETATION: Depart from Me, you cursed, into the eternal fire… prepared, not for you… but for the proud devil and his gang, and you followed him willingly! For I was hungry… and you did NOT give me bread to eat! I was thirsty… and you did NOT offer me water to drink! I was a stranger and a homeless person… and you did NOT take me in! I was naked… and you did NOT clothe me! I was sick… and you did NOT care for me! I was in prison… and you did NOT visit me to comfort me! And since you did NOT do it to one of the least of these my brothers and fellow human beings… it is as if you did NOT do it to me myself!…
[ 3 ] The theological clarity of the Holy Fathers and Mothers of the Orthodox East teaches us about two 'categories' of people who will inhabit - after the coming World Judgment - the eternal kingdoms of Light and Darkness, respectively. These two human 'categories' are not the 'saints' and the 'sinners' - as we have become accustomed to hearing and reproducing - but: the REPENTANT MERCIFUL... and the IMPENANT MERCILESS...! And the former will inherit the blessed unending Kingdom of Light, and the latter will inherit the cursed kingdom of eternal Darkness...
[ 4 ] “If you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses!” (Matt. 6:14-15)
INTERPRETATION: If you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses!
