Sermon on Sunday of Fearsome Judgment [2012]
My Beloved,
The embellishment of our lives is a social strategy, a mode to hide things that we do not like…but, in front of God, it is unsuccessful.
Because God does not judge us by appearances but by the reality of our lives.
And in today’s Gospel [Matthew 25, 31-46] we see this very clearly: blessed are those who have seen people deep and appreciated them (v. 34)…but those cursed are those who have not seen but themselves (v. 41).
The help given to others, with other words, is an expression of kindness…on when the selfishness is a true curse.
It is a damnation…a self-condemnation…
For that God will detect, at His judgment, the interior state, real of people and on this He will put it in evidence.
Thus, God’s judgment is not and will not be a unilateral decision, dictatorial of His. But He will reveal the true reality of humanity in entirety and of each one.
Then the books will reveal.
The books of consciousness will be open…and evident for all.
And then, the truly beautiful will be filled with the glory of God…but the ugly at heart…will be empty of God’s goodness, of communion.
And the truth of the world is overwhelming, because both beauty and ugliness of people will be overwhelming.
We will see then what consequences have our present actions. We will see how important it was our life for our eternity.
Because we build, now, our own Heaven or Hell (v. 46). Our future depends of the present, the quality of our present.
And therefore, in orthodox life, we do not encourage the appearance, the varnish, the inauthentic thing.
For that nothing false remains.
What remains is deeply rooted in the grace of God, namely in truth, in goodness, in beauty.
And the alms do not mean quantity…but, in the first row, attention.
A sincere attention to those who suffer, to the one who has not, to him who is in trouble.
And this attention is one that does not require decorations (v. 37-39), precisely because that fills making.
At the opposite pole, those who do nothing for others (v. 44-45) have maximum claim from God. They want to be seen, to be appreciated…against the fact that they have minimized on all.
But when you minimize, you minimize yourself.
For that, our quality by people we keep it by the sight and the understanding and the compassion for all humanity.
In consequence, the God’s judgment is the right judgment…because it is the revelation of what we carry in our hearts.
And if we do not want, now, to see our hearts…we will do it then, with certitude.
And for those who will never see their heart…the judgment is frightening.
Therefore, now, when we begin the fast by meat, we are called to examine our conscience…and to confess our sins.
For we must remove from us what thicken our soul for to wing us towards the glory of God.
God fills us with wisdom to see deeply our lives and of the world, so that we delight, in God, by peace and by understanding. Amen!