Brothers and sisters in Christ--
Today is the Sunday of Meatfare,
otherwise known as the Sunday of the Last Judgment. According to the Tradition of the Church,
this is last day before Holy Pascha, when Christians are able to eat meat. Today, the Gospel reading is taken from the
Gospel According to St. Matthew. In this
reading, we have the description of the Last Judgment, and this description,
especially the separation of the sheep and the goats, gives to us the
opportunity to consider our own mortality and the inevitable judgment we must
face, when Christ will reward or punish us according to our deeds. We human beings will actually have to stand
before two judgments. First, we will
each have what is called a “particular judgment” immediately, or soon, after
our death, when Christ will judge our souls.
Then, a second time, we will stand before the tribunal of Christ, the
entire human race together, in the general judgment, after we have risen from
the dead in our bodies. We need to begin
preparing for these inevitable judgments without delay. We heard in the Gospel that Christ will judge
us according to our deeds, and thus, we should be especially careful how we
behave towards one another.
The Sunday of the Last Judgment is an
opportunity for us also to remember all the dead, who have died with the
blessing and friendship of Christ and the Church. Yesterday, we celebrated the first All-Souls
Saturday. During the Great Fast, we will
have an additional three All-Souls Saturdays, and then we will have the last
one on the day before the Feast of Pentecost.
On these days, we especially pray for all the faithful departed. In addition to these celebrations during the
Great Fast, and the Saturday before Pentecost, we also have the custom of
remembering the departed on the days of their deaths, and also on the third,
ninth and fortieth days after their deaths.
This custom requires some explanation, because these dates have very
deep significance.
In the first place, we remember the
departed on the third day, because, according to St. Ephrem the Syrian, the
soul remains near the body during this period.
It is traumatized, and does not understand what has happened to it. Its new state has placed it in shock.
Then, about the third day, the soul begins
to understand that it has suffered death.
The soul withdraws to a place that is near the body, and mourns over the
body until about the ninth day. Finally, about that ninth day, the soul’s angel
guardian is able to convince the soul that it needs to leave. We, the living, pray on the ninth day in
order to help the soul in this process.
Then, from the ninth to the fortieth day,
the angel guardian leads the soul over the earth to the all the various places
in which it made the great moral decisions of its life. In each place, the angel guardian questions
the soul concerning these decisions, asking the soul especially if it regrets
the bad decisions. This process and
journey comprises forty days, according to St. Ephrem. We, the living, pray for the soul on the
fortieth day, because it then goes before the Judgment Seat of Christ, and
Christ judges the soul according to its works.
If it is good and disowned and regretted all of the evil that it did,
then it will go to everlasting life in the presence of God, but if it is evil,
and it did not disown nor regret its sins, then it goes to everlasting
punishment in the Lake of Fire.
After the fortieth day, we continue to pray
for the souls of the departed, because we do not know whether Christ our God
decided that that soul was in need of further purification.
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