Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

Congratulations with the feast of the Resurrection of the Lord, the afterfeast of the Meeting of the Lord, as well as the third preparatory Sunday before Great Lent!

Today in the Gospel we heard words, familiar to all of us, about the dread Judgement. The main thought of our Saviour is that to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven, one must show some care for those in need. Apart from this main idea, Jesus Christ, through His very carefully chosen and accurate words, hints about much else. Today, let’s take note of one of these instances.

From time to time, one meets the idea that the Lord is a very stern God, that the Christian teaching, the Gospel teaching on the Last Judgement and the eternal suffering of the sinners is cruel, vicious, and unmerciful to the extreme. Today’s Gospel refutes this idea, for the Lord Jesus Christ called the righteous to inherit the Kingdom which was prepared for them, but the sinners He sends into the everlasting fire which was prepared not for them, but for the devil. Take note of the difference in the words. For the righteous is prepared a place of eternal blessedness, but for the sinners nothing is prepared. They are sent to hell, a place prepared in no way for men, but instead for the devil. According to the words of today’s Gospel parable, God created man, we could say every individual person, not for suffering and eternal torment, but to inherit a wonderful place in the Kingdom of Heaven, which has been prepared for him from the beginning of time. Only our personal choices, our freely made decisions to sin deprive us of our lawful inheritance.

Dear Brothers and Sisters, the coming Lenten season is not simply a period of time in which we renounce delicious food, but a time when we endeavour to live according to God’s law to the maximum. This means that we must not only abstain from overindulging in the good things of this earthly world, but also that we must strengthen our prayer, find time for deep repentance, to diligently prepare for Communion and receive the Holy Mysteries of Christ, and also, as we heard in today’s Gospel reading, to serve our neighbour. Let’s try to spend the time of Great Lent in such a way so as to worthily meet Pascha in April and, at the end of time, to inherit the Heavenly Kingdom!

priest Alexis