Word XXI. On the End of the World and the Dread Judgment of God

The ministry of Father John of Kronstadt.

Having celebrated the Divine Liturgy in the Ioannovsky women’s monastery, the deeply honored pastor, Father Archpriest John Ilyich Sergiev (of Kronstadt), offered the worshippers a discourse on the Gospel reading of the day (Lk 9:23-27).

If anyone wishes to come after Me, says the Lord, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me (v. 23). For whoever wants to save his soul (that is, the soul of the old man) shall lose it; and whoever loses his soul (that is, this corruptible life, full of passions) for My sake, he shall find it (v. 24). For what profit is it to a man, if he gains the whole world (or, say, conquers it, like Alexander of Macedon or Napoleon), and loses his own soul, forfeits himself (v. 25). For whoever is ashamed of Me and of My words, of him the Son of Man will be ashamed, when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy Angels (v. 26). I tell you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the Kingdom of God (v. 27).

The Gospel reading of today’s Liturgy depicts the qualities of a true follower of Christ.

Whoever wishes to come after Me, let him deny himself — that is, deny his own passions: self-love, cunning, pride, condemnation, envy, fornication, intemperance, drunkenness, love of gain, ambition, hypocrisy, hardness of heart. To deny everything earthly, unclean, and sinful, to break free from worldly attachments, is no easy task; but all the greater will be the heavenly reward, the eternal, eternal reward, of eternal glory, of the kingdom of peace, of spiritual riches, of the vision of the eternal beauty of God.

Whoever follows Christ will inherit eternal heavenly blessedness and will be found worthy to see the ineffable beauty of God, of which even all the Angels of God cannot have their fill.

To deny oneself is not easy for the fleshly, worldly man; he will not readily resolve upon it, but will sooner resolve to follow his own flesh and blood, to drink the cup of earthly pleasure to the very end.

And the Lord gives warning beforehand: if you wish to be saved, if you wish to be blessed in heaven with all the saints, do not live according to your own will and the promptings of your own passions; renounce your sinful and unsteady will, and submit in all things to the will of God, ever holy and good. Then you will be wholly united to Christ, for it is not possible for Christ, the source of goodness, to be joined with a man who is evil, ill-disposed, unrighteous, a respecter of persons; what fellowship has light with darkness, or Christ with Satan (2Cor 6:14-15)? None whatever.

Therefore Christ the Savior declares in advance that whoever thinks to save his soul by avoiding self-denial will lose it. Of what soul is this said? Of that soul which counts itself blessed, flatters itself, coddles, pampers, and indulges itself, amuses itself with games, luxury, riches, pleasures of every kind. What does it mean here to save one’s soul? It means not to touch the soul’s passions, to leave them in peace, to let them live and grow strong. And everything a man devises for pleasure, for merriment and luxury in this life, all of this serves for his ruin: his soul dies from riches and luxury, which draw it to self-indulgence, to vainglory, to pride, to love of honor, because in it faith, grace, and everything that makes up true life grow scarce. On the contrary, he will save, will preserve his soul for eternity, who wars against the passions and the other inclinations, and dies for the sake of righteousness. Such, for example, are the martyrs, who, for Christ, for the keeping of faith in Him and love for Him, lost their life for this earth and gained it for the other life: they received eternal rewards from the Lord God.

Here, by the losing of the soul is meant the destruction of the passions and the mortification within oneself of sin and of all sinful lusts. It is hard to root them out—they have sent deep roots into us: it is hard for the drunkard to part with drunkenness, for the proud man with ambition, for the lustful with fornication, for the money-lover with money; yet part with them one must, or else it is impossible to become a true follower of Christ—a follower not merely in word and in name, but in very deed. The Lord strengthens His speech and says that there is no profit at all for a man even in possessing the whole world, if he loses his own soul: with all the riches of the whole world he will not redeem his soul from eternal ruin. What glory was there once in Alexander of Macedon, in Napoleon, and others, and it has all vanished like smoke, all passed like a dream, because their souls perished—one in drunkenness, another through blinded pride, in the rejection of God.

Whoever is ashamed of Me and of My words, says the Lord, of him the Son of Man will be ashamed, when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy Angels (v. 26).

What a fearsome retribution awaits those who are ashamed of Christ for their false, criminal shame! What awaits, in the time to come, those who by lip, by deed, and by their whole life renounce Him unto perdition? Christ the Savior will Himself renounce them before the holy Angels and before the very face of His heavenly Father, when He appears as Judge of the world with power and great glory, to render to every man according to his works. To this same shame will be subjected all apostates from the true faith and from the Orthodox Church, who allow themselves to mock everything that the Holy Gospel tells us, everything that is sealed and confirmed by the death of the Son of God upon the cross.

I tell you that there are some standing here in whose lifetime the Kingdom of God will come among men, and who will see the second and dread coming of Christ. Here is meant the holy Apostle John the Theologian, who was in a wondrous manner translated and lives to this day, both on earth and in heaven; this is his reward for his love and devotion to Christ, and for the torments he endured for Christ’s sake.

So then, for all followers of Christ self-denial is necessary: to deny one’s own «I»—one’s own passions: envy, cunning, pride, quarrels, condemnation, intemperance, drunkenness, extortion, negligence, sloth, disobedience; these must be rooted out of one’s heart, and especially by you, dear sisters, who have taken up the cross and followed Christ. Take to heart, for your edification, the Gospel reading of today’s Liturgy. Bear your cross with patience, deny yourselves, give yourselves over to Christ, be Christ’s own, be wise in Christ, know that the soul is the most precious treasure, and treasure this treasure: do not be carried away by earthly goods, believing in the reward in heaven. Amen.