An Instruction for Meatfare Sunday: On the Second Coming of Christ

“The Son of man shall come in his glory” (Mt. 25:31).

Beloved brethren! Recently we have contemplated our Lord Jesus Christ born in a cave, wrapped in swaddling clothes, laid in a manger, taking upon Himself along with manhood all the weaknesses of human nature, except sin; recently we have contemplated Him, pursued by Herod, fleeing from the sword of murderers into Egypt, returning to Judaea, not daring to remain there, taking up residence in Nazareth, a poor and insignificant city of ignoble Galilee, receiving baptism along with those who needed baptism, preaching repentance and the coming of the kingdom of heaven. We have contemplated this recently and are preparing for a new contemplation, for a new, most striking vision. To become, as much as human capacity allows, worthy of this vision, we intend to occupy ourselves with the preliminary purification of our spiritual eyes—of mind and heart—by the labour of fasting. We intend to refine through the labour of fasting even the very flesh of our body, so that this veil, with which our spiritual nature is covered, will not be excessively thick and impenetrable, will not prevent us from gazing with proper purity, faith, and compunction upon our Saviour crucified for us, who broke down on the cross the barrier between us and God (Eph. 2:14). And still another awesome vision awaits us, an event most dreadful: the second coming to earth of our Lord Jesus Christ. The first coming we can contemplate in pious remembrance; the second coming is presented to our imagination by the Word of God in the most vivid and powerful colours. This painting can salutarily shake our souls with the fear of God, awaken us from the deep negligence regarding our eternal lot, as from an impenetrable sleep into which our fleshly life has lulled us. “The Son of man shall come in his glory”.

The first coming of our Lord to the earth and His sojourn upon it were filled with profound and constant humility. All that is esteemed and highly valued by the world was disregarded by the Lord. He did not see fit to appear in the splendour and thunder of earthly glory; He did not see fit to appear surrounded by pomp and magnificence; He did not see fit to appear amidst the noise of feasts and celebrations. He came to the earth as to a country to which the transgressors of God’s commandment were exiled; He dwelt and worked upon it as in a land of sorrows, into which were thrust from the high paradise those who had transgressed God’s commandment in paradise; He dwelt and worked upon it as the Redeemer of the lost, making Himself a participant in all the misfortunes which have befallen sinful humanity. And He was as if one of the poor, trampled by men. And He was a stranger, having nowhere to lay His head. And He was persecuted, covered with disgrace; and He constantly repaid evil with good: “For the Son of man came not to destroy the souls of men, but to save them” (Lk. 9:56). And He ended His earthly wandering with a painful and shameful death, the death of condemned criminals, the death of slaves, for whom not even the form of death was a common right with the citizens of the world. Such was the first coming to earth of the Son of God. There will be in due time also His second coming to us: “The Son of man shall come”, who is at the same time the Son of God, “in his glory”. His first coming was the coming of the Redeemer, who submitted to all human weaknesses, taking them upon Himself to destroy them by Himself; His second coming will be the coming of the Judge to receive an account from humanity of humanity’s conduct regarding the divine redemption granted to it by God. “The Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him… and before him shall be gathered all the nations” (Mt. 25:31-32), so as to present to Him their deeds for judgment and receive from Him rewards or punishment according to their deeds.

When we receive news of the impending arrival of some earthly ruler and judge, we take all measures to put our affairs in proper order and earn his approbation: how much more ought the judgment of Christ to concern us, at which the eternal lot of each of us will be decided. The Judge—He is dreadful, dreadful beyond expression. He is dreadful in His greatness, dreadful in His almightiness, dreadful because He looks into the depths of the human spirit, and no secret human thought, no subtle sensation is hidden from Him. Justifications have no place at His judgment: “no one living shall be justified” before Him—not only the one slain by sin, but “every one living” a life of righteousness (Ps. 142:2). “You art justified”, cries the Prophet, inspired from on high, as he runs to meet the coming Judge, “when you judgest” (Ps. 50:6). Trembling will seize all men when they stand before the face of the Judge, trembling will seize not only sinners but also the righteous. The sinners will tremble from despair, from expectation of the torments awaiting them, from that extraordinary fear which will be produced in them by the upheaval that will then change the universe. They will cry out to the mountains and rocks: “Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?” (Rev. 6:16-17) They will tremble and cry out in praise, though too late. When the Creator covered His unapproachable and unbearable glory with a veil of humility: then only could the creature freely possess its thoughts and feelings, freely pronounce its word and freely govern its actions. But when the Creator appears in His glory—the freedom of the creature will fail before the greatness of His glory, just as this freedom, under certain special circumstances, while remaining our possession, is as if destroyed by the violence of circumstances. Even the most hardened enemies of the Lord, even the very Sanhedrin which crucified Him and swore in hatred against Him, will cry out in greeting to the Judge in praise, which the Lord Himself foretold to them: “You shall see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven” (Mt. 26:64). “I say to you, You shall not see me henceforth, till you shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord” (Mt. 23:39). The righteous will tremble at the immeasurable glory of the Judge who has appeared; they will look upon their righteousnesses, and these righteousnesses will appear to them in the light of the Supreme Righteousness as the tattered rags of the poor: in their righteousnesses they will not find a guarantee of their pardon—they will await pardon from the sole infinite mercy of God. Even the very Angels of God will be confused and filled with fear at the God who has revealed Himself in His greatness (Lk. 21:27), Who “has given all judgment to the Son: That all men should honour the Son, even as they honour the Father” (Jn. 5:22-23). Lifeless material nature will not endure the gaze of the Son of God: the heaven shall be rolled together as a scroll, and every mountain and every island shall be moved out of their places (Rev. 6:14).

At the judgment of Christ, mercy will be required as justification, as the active expression of love, and mercy alone will deserve pardon, as the experiential proof of love. “I desire mercy, and not sacrifice” (Mt. 9:13), the coming dreadful and impartial Judge proclaimed. Mercy will provide justification for those who have loved it, and will condemn those who have rejected it. It will stand before the Lord with boldness and will bring before Him all its charges. It will bring those who performed it materially, who fed the hungry brethren, received strangers in their homes, clothed the naked, visited the sick and those imprisoned. Mercy will bring before Christ those who performed it in secret in their souls and showed compassion to their neighbour, guarding against condemning their neighbour in his stumbling, forgiving him offenses and injuries, repaying him for curses with blessing and for wickedness with kindness. Mercy will bring before Christ the shepherds of the Church, who provided their brethren with incorruptible food—the Word of God, who clothed those made naked by sin in the robes of virtues, provided spiritual healing to souls sick with disease, and patiently visited with their teachings those imprisoned in the dungeons of unbelief or dark error. Mercy will bring before Christ the humble monks, who acquired the mysterious and essential knowledge of Christ dwelling within themselves, thirsted with blessed evangelical hunger for righteousness, strove to clothe themselves in holiness and sanctity, cleansed themselves from the most refined ailments of humanity—the passions of worldly attachments, and thereby achieved evangelical freedom. Mercy will bring before Christ even those who were able to show mercy only to themselves, by visiting themselves in self-examination and freeing themselves from poverty, from sickness, from the prison of sin through repentance. Repentance is impossible for a hardened heart: the heart must first be softened, filled with compassion and mercy for its sorrowful sinful condition. When the heart is embraced and filled with mercy: then only does it become capable of repentance; then only, abandoning the condemnation of neighbours, can it turn to self-examination, and, having salutarily condemned itself, apply to its wounds the healing of repentance. Christ redeemed all men and each man by Himself. The man who shows himself capable of mercy only toward himself and performs this mercy, nourishing his hungry soul with the Word of God, refreshing it with the sensations flowing from the Holy Spirit, withdrawing it from the destructive wandering among various forms of sin, leading it into the house of piety and virtue, clothing it in good works, healing its past transgressions through confession of them and by the opposite activities, leading himself from the prison of carnal thinking into the understanding and state that are spiritual—such a one will be recognized as having done all this to the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. Mercy will bring all its workers before Christ and will obtain for them from Christ pardon and eternal blessedness. “Come, you blessed of my Father”, He will say to them, “inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: For I was an hungred, and you gave me meat: I was thirsty, and you gave me drink: I was a stranger, and you took me in: Naked, and you clothed me: I was sick, and you visited me: I was in prison, and you came to me. Verily I say to you, Inasmuch as you have done it to one of the least of these my brethren, you have done it to me.” (Mt. 25:34-36, 40).

Unknown are the day and hour in which the Son of God will end the life of the world by His coming to judgment; unknown are the day and hour in which, by the command of the Son of God, the earthly life of each of us will end, and we shall be called to separation from the body, to giving an account for our earthly life, to that particular judgment, before the universal judgment, which awaits man after his death. Beloved brethren! Let us watch and prepare for the dreadful judgment that awaits us at the threshold of eternity for the irreversible decision of our lot forever. Let us prepare by equipping ourselves with all virtues, especially with mercy, which contains and is crowned by all virtues, since love—the moving cause of mercy—is the bond of Christian perfection (Col. 3:14). Mercy makes men who are filled with it god-like (Mt. 5:44, 48; Lk. 6:32, 36). “Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy. For judgment is without mercy to him that has shewed no mercy” (Mt. 5:7 and Jas. 2:13). Amen.