Cheesefare Sunday -
The Sunday of the Dread Judgement, 1
TODAY is the Sunday of the Dread Judgement, and so it is natural
for us to speak of the Dread Judgement and the signs of the end of the
world. No one knows that day: only God knows it, but the signs of its
approach are given in the Gospels and the Revelation (Apocalypse) of St.
John the Theologian. For the most part, Revelation speaks symbolically
and cryptically of the events of the end of the world and of the Dread
Judgement, but the Holy Fathers have explained them, and there is the
pure authentic tradition of the Church that also tells us the signs of the
approach of the end of the world and the Dread Judgment. Before the end
of life on earth there will be confusion, wars, civil strife, hunger, and
earthquakes. People will suffer from fear; their hearts will fail from
awaiting disasters. There will be neither spiritual life nor the joy of being
alive, but a tortuous state of falling away from life. The falling away will
not be from spiritual life only, but also from faith. The Son of Man, when
He comes - will He find faith on the earth? People will become proud and
ungrateful, refuting the Law of God. Together with a falling away from
spiritual life there will also be a diminishing of moral life. Good will be
exhausted and evil will grow. It is about this time that the holy Apostle
John the Theologian speaks in his divinely-inspired work, the
Apocalypse. He himself says that he was “in the spirit” - meaning that
the Holy Spirit Itself was in him - when the fate of the Church and the
world was revealed to him in various symbols. That is why this is a
Divine Revelation. He presents the fate of the Church in the image of a
woman who hides in the wilderness during these times. She is not obvious
in life. This is happening now (1956) in Russia.
In worldly life, those forces preparing for the appearance of the
Antichrist will be of primary significance. The Antichrist will be a man,
not the devil incarnate. “Anti” is a word meaning “old,” or “instead of,”
or “against.” That man will want to exist instead of Christ, to take His
place and to have that which is Christ’s. He will want to have the same
kind of influence and power over the entire world. Indeed, he will obtain
that power before he perishes and the entire world perishes. He will have
a helper, a magus, who will do his will through the power of false miracles,
and kill those that do not recognise the power of the Antichrist.
Before the destruction of the Antichrist, two righteous men will appear to
condemn him. The magus will kill them, and for three days their bodies
will lie unburied, and the Antichrist and his servants will rejoice to the
utmost. Then suddenly these righteous men will be resurrected, and the
entire army of the Antichrist will suddenly fall down dead, killed by the
force of the Holy Spirit.
But what is known about the person of the Antichrist? His exact
origin is unknown. His father is completely unknown and his mother a
vile, false virgin. He will be a Jew from the tribe of Dan. The indication
of this is that Jacob, when dying, prophesied about the future heirs of his
children, and concerning Dan, he said that among his heirs “shall be a serpent
by the way, an adder in the path that biteth the horses’ heels so that
his rider shall fall backwards.” This symbolizes that the Antichrist shall
act through cleverness and evil. In Revelation, St John the Theologian
speaks of the salvation of the sons of Israel, saying that before the end of
the world many Jews will be converted to Christ, but in the list of tribes
that are saved, there is no mention of the tribe of Dan. The Antichrist will
be very clever and gifted, with a certain ability to deal with people. He
will be charming and gentle. The appearance of the Antichrist is already
being prepared before his coming: “The mystery doth already work ....”
