A HOLY BEGINNING
God’s providence has again granted us to enter into the preaddressing week of this year’s Holy and Great Lent, Meatfare Sunday today, that takes its name from an invitation, our Church’s invitation to stop eating meat today and to joyfully slowly slowly undertake the ascesis of fasting.
In today’s Divine Liturgy, we heard the reading of the gospel passage that refers to the final judgment. The sacred Evangelist, in a sparse and moving divinely inspired manner, presents the dialogue between Christ and His disciples to us, when they asked Him concerning the judgement of all generations of people. The foundational and basic criterion to express and render this judgement is the commandment of love, and how much man offered this practice to his fellow man, as an image of God in the world. Christ, very many times, in His journey to human things, and furthermore, to that rich youth, had proclaimed the “you shall love the Lord your God…and your neighbor as yourself”, underlining that, in these two commandments, the entire meaning of the preaching of the Prophets and the Mosaic Law is summarized.
Gospel Reading : Matthew 25:31-46.
The Lord said, "When the Son of man comes in his glory and all the holy angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate them one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, and he will place the sheep at his right hand, but the goats at the left. Then the king will say to those at his right hand, 'Come, O 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 welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.' Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?' And the King will answer them, 'Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me.' Then he will say to those at his left hand, '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 welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.' Then they also will answer, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to you?' Then he will answer them, 'Truly, I say to you, as you did it not to one of the least of these, you did it not to me.' And they will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.
The offering of love
We ascertain that Christ is not awaiting or claiming anything for Himself. Offering food to the hungry person, water to the thirsty person, clothing to the naked person, visiting the hospitalized and imprisoned person, is simply and seriously presented, as criteria for our entrance into the kingdom of God The deduced conclusion is that the existence of love, of this true and integral love, is the entrance ticket to open the gate of Paradise, Of course, many times we ponder and wonder concerning the matter of our salvation. We weigh it down with thoughts, we make it complex and many[1]faceted, we make it unknown and, therefore, we avoid discussing it. At other times, we try to approach the message of today’s gospel narration, we consider that our recommended by Christ offering to our fellow man is only material, and not having an abundance of material goods, we face it, as if it does not concern us. This is a mistake and deception.
The many forms of offering
First, when Christ is speaking about the offering of material goods, He is awaiting it from our deprivation and not from our abundance. Second, and more importantly, our brother’s need, and furthermore, in today’s world, very often is not a material need, but of another type. The smile to that suffering person, the journey to him who is fighting with his loneliness, a little time to him whom the world considers unworthy of attention, a visit to him who -even with his own responsibility – has been forgotten by relatives and friends, all these can be shown to be, of equal value, or even greater than a big material offering to some homeless or hungry person. The person who always hears in him the commandment of love ringing, knows well both where, and how to impart it. To the alcoholic, for example, to the drug addict no one shows love, giving a little money, helping him to fulfill the demanded amount to buy what he longs for -probably this is easier, in any case. Writing off, however, his personal problem “having denied oneself”, undoubtedly, he shows the love concerning which Christ is speaking, when he dares, kicking “the fear out“ – the characteristic of genuine love – to sit next to him on the little bench, and to voluntarily want a bit himself also to live, cast aside”, listening to this troubled person’s personal story.
May our abstinence from meat, and later on also, from other edible goods, in combination with the sacred services and personal prayer, make our brother’s whatsoever need, more imprinted in our thought.
Archim. A. A
Lord’s voice FONI KYRIOU 2-27-22
