Sunday of The Last Judgement (Meatfare Sunday)
Categories: feast-days
Date: 22 February 2009 05:15:26
Not one mentioned in Revelation, but the Plague of Cold and Coughing seemed to be prevalent at Church today; Father was ill, as were many parishioners. I was feeling better, but am feeling very strange and not-with-it this afternoon. I may try and have a nap and see if that helps. There was joy and laughter though as well: I am not sure if I have said but my Godfather and his wife are expecting a child in 6 months, and Wissam was telling me all he has learnt about the development of the human in the womb: truly fascinating and marvellous.
I rcontinued my reading of Fr Alexander Schmemann's Great Lent when I got home [you can read some of the section on today's feast in this post], to hopefully help me better understand what this feast calls me to: love, and practical, caring, deep love, for all people God brings in to my life. The hymns of today I heard at Matins are exceptionally vivid in their descriptions, and in their warnings for us to heed the call of this Feast; here are a sample:
As I remember the terrible Day of Judgment, and Your dark, ineffable glory,
I tremble altogether and dread, O Lord, crying to You in fear,
O Christ God, deliver me, luckless man, from all punishments,
when You come to earth in glory to judge all creatures;
and make me worthy to sit at Your right hand, O Master.
Lo, the Day of the Almighty Lord comes,
who shall bear the fear of its presence?
For it is a day of wrath and a burning furnace,
on which the Judge sits for judgment,
to recompense each according to his works.
As I think of the hour of account, and the coming of the Lord,
Lover of mankind, I tremble altogether,
and therefore cry with grief, O my just Ruler, alone most merciful,
receive me repentant, by the intercessions of the Theotokos.
I was also particularly struck by this hymn today, which features regularly in the Matins cycle:
Most blessed are you, O Virgin Theotokos,
for through Him that was incarnate of You is Hades despoiled,
Adam is recalled from the dead, the curse is made void, Eve is set free,
death is slain, and we are endowed with life.
Wherefore, in hymns of praise, we cry aloud:
Blessed are You, O Christ our God, who is thus well pleased, glory to You.
The plundering of Hades, the resurrection to life of Adam and Eve, the nulling of the curse, and the death of death: wonderful and marvellous things indeed, so well do I sing, "Blessed are You, O Christ our God!"