Last Judgment Sunday (Matthew 25:31-46)

St. Augustin describes how generous our Lord is in offering us eternal rewards in exchange for giving Him comparatively insignificant acts of kindness in the people of the poor, sick, and imprisoned.

He says, “And what have I received, and what do I repay? 'I was an hungred,' He says, 'and you gave Me meat;' and the rest. I received earth, I will give heaven; I received temporal things, I will restore eternal; I received bread, I will give life. Yea, we may even say thus, I have received bread, I will give Bread; I have received drink, I will give Drink; I have received houseroom, I will give a House; I was visited in sickness, I will give Health; I was visited in prison, I will give Liberty. The bread which you gave to My poor is consumed; the Bread which I will give both recruits the failing and does not fail. May He then give us Bread, He who is the living Bread which came down from heaven. When He shall give Bread, He will give Himself. For what did you intend when you lent on usury? To give money, and to receive money; but to give a smaller sum, and to receive a larger. I, says God, will give you an exchange for the better for all that you have given Me. For if you were to give a pound of silver, and to receive a pound of gold, with how great joy would you be possessed? Examine and question avarice. I have given a pound of silver; I receive a pound of gold! What proportion is there between silver and gold! Much more then, what proportion is there between earth and heaven! And your silver and gold you were to leave here below; whereas you will not abide yourself for ever here. And I will give you something else, and I will give you something more, and I will give you something better; I will give you even that which will last forever. So then, Brethren, be our avarice restrained, that another, which is holy, may be enkindled. Evil altogether is her counsel, who hinders you from doing good. You are willing to serve an evil mistress, not owning a Good Lord. And sometimes two mistresses occupy the heart, and tear the slave asunder who deserves to be in slavery to such a double yoke. Yes, sometimes two opposing mistresses have possession of a man, avarice and luxuriousness. Avarice says, ‘Keep;’ luxuriousness, says, ‘Spend.’ Under two mistresses bidding and exacting diverse things what can you do?”

He then warns about how these two sins hinder us from trusting in our Lord and receiving heavenly rewards for earthly deposits.

Avarice tells us to “keep for yourself, consult for the future.” When we look at examples of people that have tried to preserve their wealth until a good old age or as a possession to pass on to their children, we see how most times things do not go as planned due to unexpected misfortunes or ungrateful children that are not benefited from such inheritances.

Our Lord wisely offers the same counsel as Avarice that we should “keep for ourselves and consult for our future.” We must keep for ourselves treasures in Heaven and consult for our future by preparing for eternity by being worthy of entering into the Kingdom of Heaven.

Luxuriousness tells us, “Do well to thine own soul, spend as freely as you can.” Our Lord shared the accounts of the rich man that spurned the beggar Lazarus and the rich man that wanted to build larger barns to show us the results of those that chose to only do well to their own souls. Both men had terrible ends in torments, both men having had their rewards in their earthly lives.

Our Lord once again uses the same words, but with different meaning saying, “Do well to thine own soul, spend as freely as you can” We do so by almsgiving, knowing that our reward will be in the Heavens that will last for eternity.

We are blessed to live in a time after our Lord’s Resurrection and after so many Saints of the Church to have been instructed and given Grace to do God’s will.

Unfortunately, our Lord has prophesied that even with these great advantages, evil will one day reach a height that people will worship and obey the Antichrist. This will bring about the second coming of Christ when He will come with great power to “cut off the incurable from the healthy like rotting limbs and deliver them into the fire, but His own He will rescue from the spiteful abuse of evil men and from contact with them, and will make them heirs of the kingdom of Heaven.” (Gregory Palamas)

So let us not be afraid to give of ourselves in fear of becoming poor, for we will hear Christ say to us, “Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom.” Rather let us be afraid of not showing love to God by our lack of compassion and hear the dreadful sentence of condemnation.

If we focus on what rich blessings our patient, loving Lord gives us in exchange for such small temporary acts of love, we will be strengthened and inspired to “attain this by the grace and love for mankind of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom, together with the Father and the Holy Spirit, be honor and glory unto the ages of ages. Amen.” (Gregory Palamas)

Zacchaeus Sunday (Luke 19:1-10)

And Jesus entered and passed through Jericho. And, behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus, which was the chief among the publicans, and he was rich. And he sought to see Jesus who he was; and could not for the press, because he was little of stature. And he ran before, and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see him: for he was to pass that way. And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up, and saw him, and said unto him, Zacchaeus, make haste, and come down; for today I must abide at thy house. And he made haste, and came down, and received him joyfully. And when they saw it, they all murmured, saying, that he was gone to be guest with a man that is a sinner. And Zacchaeus stood, and said unto the Lord: Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor; and if I have taken anything from any man by false accusation, I restore him fourfold. And Jesus said unto him, this day is salvation come to this house, forsomuch as he also is a son of Abraham. For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.

Last week we read of the healing of the blind man Bartimaeus, where our Lord rewarded the persistence of the blind man who continued to cry out to Jesus for mercy as the crowds tried to silence him. We can personally apply the events to ourselves as we too are blind spiritually, and when our Lord passes us by in His loving grace that He bestows on each person in His own way, desiring that all be saved, our remembrances of past wickedness try to silence our cry for our Lord to visit and heal us. If we persist in prayer God will call us unto Himself and heal us.

Today we read of the account of Zacchaeus and learn another way in which we all suffer spiritually but are able to be healed by our all-mighty God. We see that Zacchaeus was chief among the tax-collectors, of whom we know were of the most greedy and cold-hearted people of the day, making their fortune on taxing the poor unfairly.

We do likewise spiritually, using others primarily for selfish reasons and always looking for our own comfort with little regard for others. We share in the sins of our forefathers who greedily desired to be like God, ungrateful for all the gifts of God. We sell our birthright of being made in the image and likeness of God by not fearing God and his commandments, but rather committing gross sin for our own fleshly benefit. Our God-given conscience informs us that we are truly chief among sinners, as we admit in our prayers that we recite before partaking of the precious Body and Blood of our Lord.

But as our Lord wanted to demonstrate that no one is beyond forgiveness, and rescued Zacchaeus from the hold of Satan, we can have hope that our sins are not beyond forgiveness and that our Lord is willing to abide in us even though we have defiled ourselves and are not worthy for Him to enter into the temple of our bodies.

As our Lord was passing through Jericho, Zacchaeus, having heard of the miracles that Christ had performed, desired to see Him, indicating Zacchaeus’ unhappiness with the lifestyle of chief tax-collector. Using the gifts of conscience and the Mosaic Law, Zacchaeus was able to begin the process of repentance and climb up off of the earth and begin to ascend toward holier things, realizing that earthly and fleshly passions and sins were not allowing him to see our Lord.

Our Lord has lovingly given us all what is necessary to begin the journey toward salvation, but as is being taught in this account, it is Christ who comes to us to save us, as we are not capable of ascending into Heaven ourselves, even if we have begun to leave the cares of the world and climbed up toward a holier way of life.

Our Lord then tells Zacchaeus to quickly come down from the tree so that He could visit Zacchaeus in his home. The Gospel that our Lord taught and that the Church continues to teach is the Cross of Jesus Christ. The Word of God came down from Heaven and took the form of a slave by becoming the God-Man. Fulfilling all that God commanded of man and conquering death in Himself by voluntarily dying on the Cross and rising on the third day because death had no right to claim Him, for He had no sin. He then offered to us all a sharing in His victory, by Baptism into His death so that we could also share in His Resurrection. But just as He perfectly modeled humility and love for God and man, we are commanded to be perfect as well, which for us means dying to the old man and renewing our mind. Only then can we share in our Lord’s death, which perfectly modeled all the virtues of holiness.

So, as we begin our journey toward holiness by climbing the spiritual sycamore tree, our Lord meets us and offers us to descend into the earth with Him, calling us to humble ourselves and to die to our old way of life, by being baptized. Our Lord then longs to enter into our homes and dine with us. He offers us His Body and Blood in the Holy Mystery of the Eucharist.

After our Lord visited Zacchaeus in his home, he was moved to perform works worthy of repentance. This close encounter with our Lord gave him the ability to perfectly sacrifice everything in imitation of our Lord who sacrificed everything for us. He gave half of his money to the poor and paid back those that he had cheated fourfold with the rest of his money, leaving practically nothing for himself.

We see though that everyone that witnessed this visitation of our Lord to Zacchaeus was scandalized that Jesus would enter into the home of such a great sinner. This is a warning to us all that we must first of all never forget that we are the chief of sinners ourselves and not to judge others as sinners unworthy of Christ’s visitation. Secondly, it can teach us that no sin is too great for our Lord to heal and therefore we must look at each person we encounter with the hope that they will rise above their sinfulness and allow the Lord to invite them to die with Him to rise with Him and to enter into their home and become a member of the Holy Body of Christ.

Our Lord speaks of the communion of the Saints by calling Zacchaeus a son of Abraham. Abraham left everything behind and journeyed through the wilderness when God called him to do so. He also was willing to offer his only beloved son as a sacrifice when God instructed him to do so. Similarly, when we sacrifice everything to God and follow his commands, we are united with Abraham and all the other Saints and Angels who also sacrificed everything for our Lord’s sake.

Our Lord clearly states that He has come to seek and to save those that are lost. Only those that listen to the gentle counsels of God and begin the journey to rediscover the image and likeness of God that we have buried under layers of earthliness, can say that they are lost in this world, and that their real home is in the Heavens. Those that love sin and darkness cannot be said to be lost, because they are at home in this fallen world.

As we draw close to the great fast, let us remember our baptismal promises and plan to enter into the fast with a renewed zeal like little Zacchaeus, running and climbing up the sycamore tree, knowing that our Lord will come and strengthen us to descend with Him and sacrifice ourselves even more. Then we will have a joyous Pascha and will feel closer to our Lord, to the Holy Theotokos, and all the Angels and Saints. Amen.