Sunday of The Last Judgement (Meatfare Sunday)
Categories: feast-days
Date: 20 February 2009 01:32:45
Kontakion:
When You, O God, shall come to earth with glory,
All things shall tremble
And the river of fire shall flow before Your judgment seat;
The books shall be opened and the hidden things disclosed!
Then deliver me from the unquenchable fire,
And make me worthy to stand at Your right hand, righteous Judge!
This Sunday is the Sunday of the Last Judgement in the Eastern Orthodox Calendar, the penultimate Sunday before the beginning of Great Lent. It is also referred to as Meatfare Sunday as it is the last day before Pascha [Easter] for eating meat.
As may be guessed, the Gospel reading at the Divine Liturgy on the Sunday of the Last Judgement is Matthew 25:31-46, the Parable of the Sheep and the Goats. A timely reminder to us all that while "trusting in Christ's love and mercy, we must not forget His righteous judgment when He comes again in glory. If our hearts remain hardened and unrepentant, we should not expect the Lord to overlook our transgressions simply because He is a good and loving God. Although He does not desire the death of a sinner, He also expects us to turn from our wickedness and live (Ezek. 33:11)." [from The Orthodox Church of America's Feast Day reading]
As I think I do every Great Lent, I point you towards the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America's superb Great Lent site, which contains information of the pre-Lenten and Lenten Sundays, as well as descriptions on the icons of the Feasts, hymns, readings, articles and much more. Thanks be to God for the dedicated work of all of those who have put this wonderful resource together. From the page for this Sunday's Feast, there is further description of the purpose of this Sunday and the call to love all; a hard call, to be sure, but one we are called to perform; and the reminder that each day, each hour even, I pass judgement on myself when I harden my heart:
This Sunday sets before us the eschatological dimension of Lent: the Great Fast is a preparation for the Second Coming of the Savior, for the eternal Passover in the Age to Come, a theme that is also the focus of the first three days of Holy Week. But the judgment is not only in the future. Here and now, each day and each hour, in hardening our hearts toward others and in failing to respond to the opportunities we are given of helping them, we are already passing judgment on ourselves.
Another theme of this Sunday is that of love. When Christ comes to judge us, what will be the criterion of His judgment? The parable of the Last Judgment answers: love—not a mere humanitarian concern for abstract justice and the anonymous “poor,” but concrete and personal love for the human person—the specific persons that we encounter each day in our lives.
Christian love is the “possible impossibility” to see Christ in another person, whoever he or she is, and whom God, in His eternal and mysterious plan, has decided to introduce into my life, be it only for a few moments, not as an occasion for a “good deed” or an exercise in philanthropy, but as the beginning of an eternal companionship in God Himself.
The parable of the Last Judgment is about Christian love. Not all of us are called to work for “humanity,” yet each one of us has received the gift and the grace of Christ’s love. We know that all persons ultimately need this personal love—the recognition in them of their unique soul in which the beauty of the whole creation is reflected in a unique way. We also know that people are in prison and are sick and thirsty and hungry because that personal love has been denied them. And, finally, we know that however narrow and limited the framework of our personal existence, each one of us has been made responsible for a tiny part of the Kingdom of God, made responsible by that very gift of Christ’s love. Thus, on whether or not we have accepted this responsibility, on whether we have loved or refused to love, shall we be judged.
May God help me "to see Christ in another person ... as the beginning of an eternal companionship in God Himself."