This year’s 8,760 hours are rapidly coming to an end. During this time, were there any hours or days of fasting? There are certain days, such as Wednesdays and Fridays, and others that are even more significant, such as Holy Friday, that must be days of fasting for all of us. A politician dedicated 15 straight days for his campaign, and visited several towns. When he returned to his office, he pridefully announced: “I travelled for 15 days straight and toured 15 different towns. In every single one I was treated and fed as royalty; freshly slaughtered meat every single day...” And one of the villagers that heard him, a shepherd, asked him in a soft tone: “Your Excellency, how can there be no Wednesday and no Friday for 15 days straight? Was every day a Pascha?...” You see, my brethren, fasting is nowadays not even a “custom” among many of our faithful — there is no desire or will to fast even on Great Friday! Satan has got hold of the special eraser and wiped out fasting from the daily lives of Christians.
This year’s 8,760 hours are ending. Among these hours was time set aside for repentance and confession? These hours would have been the year’s most blessed ones, for that is the time that we placed the devil on the ground and stampeded him, while angels in Heaven are singing divine victory hymns. It was during those hours that we, the sinful ones, full of contrition and in utmost humility, knelt in front of our spiritual father and opened up our lips to whisper not words of criticism and condemnation but the ones that our Lord thrives to listen to: I sinned, my Lord, please, grant your mercy to me the wretched one... And all of us have so many sins to repent for and confess... So, I ask all of us, during this last year, did we manage to spend time with our confessor, to open our heart, to tearfully confess our sins and then say God be merciful to me, a sinner, and - Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom.? (Lk 18:13 & 23:42). Did we do this? If not, we better ask ourselves why not.
This year’s 8,760 hours are rapidly coming to an end. Is it possible that we might have also forgotten the other golden hours of the year that are coming to a close? Which hours are these, you ask? These are the hours of almsgiving and mercy towards our fellow man. Did you reach into your pocket and silently, secretly and with as little attention as possible place a few crumbs from your many blessings into the hands of a less fortunate man? Did you dedicate a few moments in prayer for a neighbour or a colleague who was in a moment of crisis? Did you spend a few dimes from your earthly blessings towards a Christian mission or cause? Never forget that the hands that spread goodness and alms are the hands of God, the hands of Christ!
This year’s 8,760 hours are rapidly coming to an end. During these hours were there any of the most significant and spiritually highest moments, the moments of receiving Holy Communion, our Lord’s holy Body and most precious Blood? These are indeed blessed moments; once we repent and confess our sins, once we are cleansed with tears of true repentance, once we embrace and make peace with our enemies, we approach the Royal Gate with the look of the thief on the cross and receive the Holy Mysteries: Take, eat; this is My body... Drink ye all of it; for this is My blood of the New Testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins (Mt 26:28). These are the moments that carry a unique and incomparable weight and significance; there is no price for them and they can neither be purchased nor sold. They are truly above all other hours of our life.
So now we all need to ask: Were there such hours for any of you my brethren, and most pointedly for me, the wretched one? I am greatly afraid that in reality we have no such hours. Our hours are almost exclusively hours of sin, the devil’s hours; they are everything and anything except one thing: hours of God. Let us not kid ourselves; we waste each year’s hours like all those who threw their gold coins into the river.
We truly are inexcusable. Our Holy Gospel says that, during the time of our Lord’s time on earth, the citizens of Jerusalem showed great interest in spiritual matters. When they heard that a preacher and confessor came to the area, St. John the Forerunner, they closed their shops, took their wives and children, walked for several miles past the Jordan river, and came to the desolate desert to listen to his sermons and confess their sins. And all of them were baptized of him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins (Mk 1:5). In comparison with the faithful of those days, most of the so-called Orthodox Christians today remain completely indifferent on such matters. The bells ring yet they stay away from Churches. In the not-too-distant past, when the faithful could find no confessor in their area, they would travel for days to go to the Holy Mountain to find a spiritual father & partake of the Holy Mystery of confession. In our days, this is an extremely rare occurrence for most of our neighbours & friends..
One year is comprised of 8,760 hours and each week has 168 hours. My fellow brethren, let us dedicate to God a couple of hours each week and make our way to our local Church so we can at least attend Liturgy. We anxiously throw away so many hours each week on worldly matters; is it not proper to devote at least a couple of hours for our God? We have completely forgotten Him and have literally pushed Him out of our lives. Putting it simply, we have forgotten Him. We are an adulterous generation, like trees that bear no fruit and are fit to be only fuel for fire. Our Lord represented this type of condition very accurately during His homily on the mountain: Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. (Mt 7:19).
What is it then that we should do, you ask. Why are you asking me or any of your clergy? The answers lie elsewhere, in black and white, as written by St. John the Baptist. What does he have to tell us? One simple word that is the one and only key: Repent! (Repent ye: for the kingdom of Heaven is at hand - Mt 3:2). In other words, change your mind, your behaviour, your life, your daily spiritual path; the road that our ultra-progressive society has carved for the citizens of our days leads the faithful to the deep, dreaded canyon of eternal damnation, Hell. That is the destination towards where most of us are marching; unless we choose here and now to change, re-programme our lives, use wisely every minute granted to us by our Lord. Let us stop wasting time now, let us stop throwing our gold coins senselessly into the river.
My dear brethren, if we could hear the repeated petitions of those judged to eternal damnation, those countless souls in Hades, do you know what we would hear them ask? To return to life for a little time, a few moments, a few seconds, so that they can emphatically pronounce: Father, I have sinned against heaven and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son, and: Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom (Lk 15:21 & 23:42). Let us therefore waste no more time. Let us all comprehend how much we have lost, the countless hours we have wasted. Let us repent, let us shed tears of contrition and kneel in the sight of a spiritual father, let us confess our sins. Starting with this 1st January, let us commit to making full use of our God-granted time, let us not waste a single one of next year’s precious hours. Let us promise God that this year, we will not grant or allow the devil to take possession of even a single hour. All of next year’s hours, all of next year’s days, all of next year’s weeks, and all the days of our lives will be spent near God, near His angels, near His Most Holy Mother, so that we can be worthy of the blessings of our Lord & Saviour Jesus Christ unto the ages of ages. Amen.
From the weekly bulletin “Kyriaki” (“Sunday”), January 1, 2005; translated from Greek by the staff of the Greek Orthodox Brotherhood of St. Poimen (slightly amended by “The Shepherd”), and taken from the “Orthodox Heritage” website
