Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

Congratulations with the feast of the Resurrection of the Lord!

Today during the Divine Liturgy we heard the Gospel reading which tells of our Lord Jesus driving out a whole battalion of demons from a certain unfortunate man. We heard how these demons beseeched Christ to not send them into the abyss, that is hell, but to give them the opportunity to enter into a herd of swine and to remain here on earth among people. The request of the demons hints that their fate – eternity in hell – is not yet accomplished, and that they still have time to more or less freely influence people, to tempt them, to lead them astray from the path into the Kingdom of Heaven. People, of course, also have the opportunity to exercise their free will, to either strive towards God or, conversely, to tie themselves to that which leads them away from God. The fate of demons, although it has already been decided by themselves long ago when they separated themselves from God, will only be fulfilled at the end of the world at the Second Coming of our Saviour, when they will be condemned to an eternity in the darkness of hell. The same is true with us. Only at the Second Coming of the Lord Jesus Christ will the righteous truly and fully begin to live in blessedness, while on the other hand, sinners will only then come to know what a life without God is and what torments truly are.

Last week, we discussed what type of judgement will take place immediately after death and what it may be like. We have to remember that this is not the final judgement, but only a preliminary one, and that, as is the case with the demons, our eternal fate will be decided only after the Second Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and the Dread Judgement of all the human race. While Holy Scripture may not say very much about the judgement after our death, it has much to say about the Last Judgement. We could even say that the Dread Judgement is one of the main ideas or leitmotifs of the New Testament.

Why is the Dread Judgement, that is, a second judgement necessary, if after our death all our actions, all the sinful deeds of a person become obvious and the soul either rejoices, knowing that it justified, or is tormented, knowing that it can do nothing to change its past godless or sinful life? Probably many different answers could be found for this question, but today, let’s concentrate on only a couple of these reasons.

Perhaps the main reason for why we need a second judgement is because after our death, only our eternal soul stands before God and is judged, not the full-fledged person. The Dread Judgement will take place at the end of time when not only Christ will once again appear with His human body on the earth, but also all of the dead will likewise resurrect, that is, their souls will return into newly-composed bodies and will stand on earth to be judged before Christ. In the same way that a blind or deaf person cannot fully experience the beauty of God’s creation, a soul without a body cannot fully realize eternal joy. After death we will only have a foretaste of that condition in which we will find ourselves after our physical resurrection.

Another important reason for why there will be a Dread Judgement at the end of time is that our sins may be forgiven after our death, and therefore our eternal fate may not be completely decided immediately after our passing. Although a human soul is powerless to change its condition after death, living people who remain on earth can help the soul of a deceased person. We all know that prayer can truly help us and our friends. Probably each of us can recall at least one instance, if not many, when our prayer or the prayers of others, in the most literal way, have helped us or others solve a difficult or even impossible problem. If this is truly so, then of course we can consider the same concerning our deceased relatives and friends. Therefore, the sentence of the Dread Judgement may be different from the first judgement.

Today let’s pray to our Lord Jesus Christ that He cast out the legion of demons and passions that surround us and strive to pull us away from the path of truth.

priest Alexis

P. S.

Last week two dreadful 20th-century anniversaries were marked: on November 7th – the October revolution, and yesterday, November 11th – the end of the First World War. In Canada November 11th not only marks the end of the First World War, but is also a day of remembrance for all soldiers that lost their lives during all the armed conflicts of the 20th and 21st centuries, as well as a day to remember military veterans. The First World War, along with the Russian Revolution, changed the world in a fundamental way. The old world order was swept away for good and a new order was born. In the West as well as in Russia, many thought that this new order would bring people genuine happiness. The 20th century truly did bring mankind many wonderful things. People today are richer, healthier, live better and longer, as a rule are better educated, have more opportunities than people at the beginning of the 20th century, but these gains were not produced as a result of that new order which appeared in the West after 1918, nor as a result of communism in soviet Russia. On the contrary, many of the awful and tragic events of the past hundred years – the Second World War, the Cold War, Stalin’s repressions, nuclear weapons, the conflicts in the Holy Land, the war in the Balkans in the 90’s, the nineties in Russia, the war between Russian and Ukraine – have their beginnings in the First World War and the Russian Revolution.

It seems to me that believers cannot let these anniversaries pass by without paying them some attention. Probably everyone has a personal or family tragedy tied to the world events of the 20th century, and therefore we of course have to pray for the repose of the lost lives (last evening at the pannikhida we commemorated all the reposed orthodox soldiers, as well as those killed by the communists). At the same time, we can try as much as this is possible to evaluate the last one hundred years from a Christian perspective and try to find for ourselves some spiritual lessons. Let each of you individually try to do this. From my point of view, it seems that we can say the following with certainty: no ideologies, no political or nationalistic movements or ideas can possibly bring people earthly happiness. Today, once again, various ideological ideas and movements are becoming popular. Probably it is better to not immerse ourselves in them, but instead to seek joy in Christ.