THE LAST JUDGEMENT
Sermon by H.G Bishop Emilianos of Meloa, 19th February 2017
Today we heard in the Holy Gospel about the Last Judgment. I believe we all know what Holy Gospel talks about. It talks about the second coming of the Lord. Jesus will be in His Glorious Throne, and He will separate the righteous on His right hand from the unrighteous on His left hand.
He will tell the ones on His right hand that they will inherit the Kingdom of Eternal Life. Because when He was hungry, they gave Him food. When He was naked, they dressed Him. And when He was in the prison, they visited Him. Then the righteous will ask Him: “Lord, when did we see you in these situations and we helped you?” And Jesus will reply: “As long as you did so to one of my friends, you did this to Me”.
The same scenario will follow for the ones on His left Hand but, to these ones Jesus say that they did not give Him food when He was hungry, or dressed Him when He was naked, or visited Him when He was in prison. And they will wonder: “Lord, when did we see you suffering and did not help you?” He will reply: “He who did not do so to everyone else, it’s like he did not do this to Me.”
The first thing we realise is that neither of them knew that whatever action they did or did not do, (as in the case of the unrighteous), it was like doing so to the Lord. However, they acted will have effects in the next and Eternal life.
We see for the ones who did all the good things to their fellow people, that their actions were not just influencing themselves eternally. They were also influencing others currently as they were happening. At the same time those who were on His left Hand, the ones that did nothing, were as if they did something evil to their fellow people.
Even our smallest sins will have an impact beyond us. Let’s see an example. When Adam and Eve were in Paradise, their disobedience didn’t just affect themselves. Their exile from Paradise affected all the humankind and all of the nature. Afterwards, nature became wild. Animals became beasts, dangerous. But here we don’t just talk about the impact of our actions on the creation. We talk about the possibility of losing our own soul. Our actions travel beyond life.
Also, when we have a cancerous cell in our body, this will influence all the other cells around it and the cancer will spread. So not only will it die itself, but, all of the cells it has influenced will also become ill. When you have a holy man though, he will influence everyone around him and his prayers and his good example will make everyone a better person. Not only will he be saved, but also those that have been influenced by him. Our actions have effects not only on ourselves, but, to everything around us.
Afterwards, Jesus talks about the ones who are not saved and about the things they don’t do. If people are punished for not being merciful, for doing nothing, imagine what will happen to them if pretending they were helping, they were just serving themselves. Imagine what would happen if they were moved by their desire for power, or from money or lust, and instead of helping others they were just pretending they were while they were just serving themselves. Eventually our soul will be filled up to the bone with spiritual cancer and sooner or later we will die mortally, spiritually and eternally. Clearly, a sheep’s attitude can get us to Heaven but a goat’s attitude, an attitude of a bully can definitely drive us to condemnation.
If we do not understand how to help others, we are far from our salvation and foreign to God.
If we can help our fellow man, then even if we do not realise it, we will be close to God and working towards our salvation. Our salvation passes through our fellow man. If we mistreat him, in reality we ourselves will lose and we will be badly affected. God can see the deepest parts of our heart. We can’t pretend to be good. Pretending is exactly like cancer cells. They appear to be good, but they spread death around them and eventually they die themselves.
It’s amazing that if people by doing nothing they will be punished. But what will happen to people who are bullies, what will happen to people who hurt others, or what will happen to people who take things from others. Just consider all these things. Because all of us are not perfect and if you don’t fix these “details” -and they are not “details”, we will end up being at the Final Judgement wondering why we are judged exactly as the ones on Jesus’ left Hand.
He will tell the ones on His right hand that they will inherit the Kingdom of Eternal Life. Because when He was hungry, they gave Him food. When He was naked, they dressed Him. And when He was in the prison, they visited Him. Then the righteous will ask Him: “Lord, when did we see you in these situations and we helped you?” And Jesus will reply: “As long as you did so to one of my friends, you did this to Me”.
The same scenario will follow for the ones on His left Hand but, to these ones Jesus say that they did not give Him food when He was hungry, or dressed Him when He was naked, or visited Him when He was in prison. And they will wonder: “Lord, when did we see you suffering and did not help you?” He will reply: “He who did not do so to everyone else, it’s like he did not do this to Me.”
The first thing we realise is that neither of them knew that whatever action they did or did not do, (as in the case of the unrighteous), it was like doing so to the Lord. However, they acted will have effects in the next and Eternal life.
We see for the ones who did all the good things to their fellow people, that their actions were not just influencing themselves eternally. They were also influencing others currently as they were happening. At the same time those who were on His left Hand, the ones that did nothing, were as if they did something evil to their fellow people.
Even our smallest sins will have an impact beyond us. Let’s see an example. When Adam and Eve were in Paradise, their disobedience didn’t just affect themselves. Their exile from Paradise affected all the humankind and all of the nature. Afterwards, nature became wild. Animals became beasts, dangerous. But here we don’t just talk about the impact of our actions on the creation. We talk about the possibility of losing our own soul. Our actions travel beyond life.
Also, when we have a cancerous cell in our body, this will influence all the other cells around it and the cancer will spread. So not only will it die itself, but, all of the cells it has influenced will also become ill. When you have a holy man though, he will influence everyone around him and his prayers and his good example will make everyone a better person. Not only will he be saved, but also those that have been influenced by him. Our actions have effects not only on ourselves, but, to everything around us.
Afterwards, Jesus talks about the ones who are not saved and about the things they don’t do. If people are punished for not being merciful, for doing nothing, imagine what will happen to them if pretending they were helping, they were just serving themselves. Imagine what would happen if they were moved by their desire for power, or from money or lust, and instead of helping others they were just pretending they were while they were just serving themselves. Eventually our soul will be filled up to the bone with spiritual cancer and sooner or later we will die mortally, spiritually and eternally. Clearly, a sheep’s attitude can get us to Heaven but a goat’s attitude, an attitude of a bully can definitely drive us to condemnation.
If we do not understand how to help others, we are far from our salvation and foreign to God.
If we can help our fellow man, then even if we do not realise it, we will be close to God and working towards our salvation. Our salvation passes through our fellow man. If we mistreat him, in reality we ourselves will lose and we will be badly affected. God can see the deepest parts of our heart. We can’t pretend to be good. Pretending is exactly like cancer cells. They appear to be good, but they spread death around them and eventually they die themselves.
It’s amazing that if people by doing nothing they will be punished. But what will happen to people who are bullies, what will happen to people who hurt others, or what will happen to people who take things from others. Just consider all these things. Because all of us are not perfect and if you don’t fix these “details” -and they are not “details”, we will end up being at the Final Judgement wondering why we are judged exactly as the ones on Jesus’ left Hand.