The Shepherd, February 2006
Cheesefare Sunday -
The Sunday of the Dread Judgement, 3
The holy Apostle Peter says that the first world was created out of
water and perished by water (2 Ptr 3:5-6). “Out of water” is also a symbol
of the chaos of the physical mass, and “perished by water” a symbol
of the Flood. “But the heaven and earth which are now … are kept in
store, reserved unto fire … the earth … and all the works that are therein
shall melt with fervent heat” (2 Ptr 3:12). This contemporary world will
perish in an instant. Instantly everything will change. And the sign of the
Son of God will appear - the sign of the Cross. The entire world, having
willingly submitted to Antichrist, will “weep and wail.” Everything is
finished. Antichrist is killed. This is the end of his kingdom and his
struggle with Christ. This is the end, and one must give an account of
one’s entire life, an account before the true God. Then from out of the
hills of Palestine the Ark of the Covenant will appear; the Prophet
Jeremias hid the Ark and the Holy Fire in a deep well. When water was
taken from that well, the water burned, but the Ark itself was not found.
Looking at life now, those who have eyes to see, see that everything
foretold about the end of the world is being fulfiled. Who then is
this person, Antichrist? Saint John the Theologian symbolically calls him
666, but all attempts to explain this have been in vain. The life of the contemporary
world gives us a rather clear understanding of the possibility of
the consumption of the world by fire, of all the elements melting with fervent
heat. We understand this from the splitting of the atom. The end of
the world does not mean its destruction, but its transformation.
Everything will change suddenly in the twinkling of an eye. The dead
will be resurrected in new bodies - their own, but renewed ones - as the
Saviour arose in His body; it bore the marks of His wounds from the nails
and spear, but it had new characteristics and in this sense was a new body.
It is unclear whether these will be entirely new bodies, or the ones with
which man was created. And the Lord will appear in glory upon the
clouds.
How will we see? With spiritual sight. Even now, righteous people
see at death that which other people around them do not see. The
trumpets will sound in souls and consciences. Everything will become
clear in the human conscience. The Prophet Daniel, speaking of the
Dread Judgment, tells of the Ancient of Days upon His throne, and before
Him a river of fire. Fire is a purifying element. Fire burns sin; sin also
is burned up by sorrow. If sin has become part of a man, it burns the man
himself. Then fire will flare up inside man. Seeing the Cross, some will
rejoice and others will fall into despair, confusion, horror. Thus people
will be separated instantly. In the Gospel narrative, some stand on the
right hand, others on the left hand of the Judge -- they are separated by
their inner consciousness. The very state of a person’s soul casts him to
one or the other side, to the right or to the left. However much more consciously
and diligently a person strove toward God in his life, so much the
greater his joy when he hears the words: “Come, ye blessed.” And on the
other hand, the same words will kindle a fire of horror and suffering in
those that did not desire Him, or avoided or fought or mocked Him in
their lives. The Dread Judgement knows no witness or court records.
Everything is inscribed in the souls of men, and these inscriptions, these
“books,” will be opened. Everything will become clear to all and to oneself;
the state of a person’s soul sends him to the right or the left. Some
will go to the place of rejoicing, others to the place of horror. When the
books have been opened it will become clear to all that the root of all
transgressions is in a man’s soul. Consider a drunkard or a fornicator:
when the body dies, some think the sin, too, has died. No -- the inclination
to sin was in the soul, and to the soul the sin was sweet. And if the
soul has not repented of this sin, has not freed itself of it, it will come to
the Dread Judgement with the same desire for the sweetness of sin and
“never sate this desire.” There will be the suffering of hatred and wrath
in this soul. This is the state of hell. “The fiery Gehenna” - this is the
inner fire, the fire of weakness and anger, and here will be the wailing and
the gnashing of teeth, of powerless wrath.
From the Sermons of Saint John of Shanghai the Wonderworker
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