The Second Coming of Christ (source)
Note: I post this beautiful and moving amateur translation of a homily by St. Luke of Simferopol, for several reasons. First, that we might all come to our senses and repent while the Lord still calls us, especially during this "acceptable time" that is Great Lent. Second, that we might honor a great hierarch, confessor and wonderworker of Christ, whose Holy Relics where uncovered on March 17th. And finally, that we might also seek his intercessions to heal the pains, violence and divisions of the people of Ukraine. May St. Luke protect and defend those in all kinds of dangers, and may he grant all of us healing of our bodily or spiritual illnesses.
For
three months [February 1946], the Nuremberg trials have been going on, the terrible
trial in which are being prosecuted crimes which the world has never
seen, and rightly they should fear, for they know that what remains
for them is to be condemned to death. Their final verdict is demanded
by the conscience of all the people, of all mankind, for the world
was struck by their abominable crimes! Never before were we
astonished by such crimes, which cannot be related by the human mind.
They have destroyed tens of millons of people—a countless
multitude—besides those who were killed on the front. In the
military base of Osventsim alone, 5,121,000 people were killed. The whole
world is full of resentment, and awaits the hour when the judge will
condemn them for their crimes... The conscience of men demands that
they be condemned to death, the conscience of men demands that these
terrible crimes not remain unpunished.
But
what shall we say of the righteousness of God? How does God meet this
evil? And though this evil is so fearful and great, it is, however,
one tear before the ocean of evil which the eye of God beholds, and
which the All-wise mind of the Lord knows, for countless rivers of
evil are drowning the human race from the beginning to the end. Since
the world was created, before the eyes of God, countless crimes have
been committed, and along with blasphemies and unseemly words. But
human virtue also continues in this faithless and sinful world,
trampled upon and cast out.
Do
you know how often criminals triumph and are full of joy, while at
the same instant, good and pure men are destroyed? And always, in
every age, the conscience of men is troubled by this occurrence, and
all the people ask: “Until when, O Lord? When will righteousness
triumph?” Because the heart of man does not accept injustice, it
does not suffer for evil to go unpunished, and for virtue to not be
honored. Is it possible for the whole world to be so senseless, so
unbearably unjust, that evil might triumph till the end? This is
impossible and will never occur, for above the world is the Just God,
Who much more than us knows how much evil there is in the heart of
men. God, however, is forbearing. God forbears and endures the
disrespect of men for thousands of years now. He endures, for He
awaits to gather, in a world full of disrespect and evil, the
greatly-precious fruits of reverence and goodness. Because for the
reason of these fruits alone did the love of God create the whole
world, that the heart of the faithful might shine, and be purified by
the light of Christ, that they might shine with the love of Christ,
that the righteousness of God might be revealed.
Do
you know that, as there are evil-doers, there is a countless
multitude of good and pure people, a great army of the Saints of God? They are worth the world, that among the hundreds of thousands of
evil men, might shine the tens of millions of sons of God, sons of
grace. Because of this the Lord endures. He endures that the sheaves
of the garden of Christ might be numbered. When, however, the time
comes, when the sheaves shall be numbered, then will begin the time
of harvest. Then the Lord will send His angels to gather the sheaves,
and the chaff they will cast into eternal fire. Then will come the
hour of the Terrible Judgment of God, just and much more terrible
than that which is occurring now for the men of Nuremberg.
This
judgment will be noted for the number of the indictees, for with the
sound of the trumpet of the Archangel, with which the Second Coming
of our Lord Jesus Christ will be proclaimed, all the dead will arise
to stand before the Awesome Judgment Seat of God, inevitable
judgment, a judgment which St. John the Theologian heard of, when he
received the Revelation regarding what will occur at the end of the
world. He saw at the Throne of God the Martyrs, who were martyred for
the name of Christ. These cried towards God: “Until when, O
Master...will you not judge and avenge our blood?” (Revelation
6:10).
Now,
tens of millions of men were killed by these crimes, not realizing
that they would be thrown alive into ovens, men who were killed in
aerial bombings, women, old people and children who were stabbed, all
cry towards God: “Until when, O Lord, will you avenge our blood?
How long will You be patient?” This terrible voice of men cries out
so loudly towards God, for it appears, the hour of the Awesome
Judgment is approaching.
The
Lord told His Disciples that no one knows when the end of the world
will come, only the Father knows. At the same time, however, the Lord
showed the signs which will bear witness that the Awesome Judgment is
approaching. He said that: “nation will rise against nation...and
there will be wars and rumors of wars, and earthquakes in places. All
of these are the beginning of tribulations.” (Matthew 23: 78). He
said that “there will be then great tribulation, such as has never
occurred from the beginning of the world." (Matthew 24: 21). “And if
those days were not cut short, no flesh would be saved. Therefore for
the sake of the elect those days will be cut short.” (Matthew 24:
22). Then, at the awesome day of Judgment, the terrible day of the
Second Coming of Christ, the Judge of the whole world, “the sun
will be darkened, and the moon will not give its rays, and the stars
will fall from heaven and the powers of heaven will be shaken. Then will appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven, and then all the
people of the earth will weep, and behold the Son of Man coming on
the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory, and He will send
His angels with trumpet and great voice, and gather His elect from
the four winds from the corners of heaven. Now learn this lesson from
the fig tree: As soon as its twigs get tender and its leaves come
out, you know that summer is near.” (Matthew 24: 29-32)
From
this word of Christ, from this foretelling of what will occur at the
Awesome Judgment, we can know with some certainty that this time is
not far off. Likely mankind will be forced to experience a third world
war, which likely will be the final one, and more terrible than all
the previous wars!
We
all waited longingly, hoping that, after the victory against the criminal
fascists, that there would be total peace and harmony between those
peoples who, with their combined efforts, prevented the terrible slavery which was prepared for the whole world by the brutality of the
fascists. This is what we were waiting for. But the more time passes,
the more it is confirmed to us that peace and harmony does not exist,
for in different countries and more commonly the enemy of our
righteous people rises. The horizon is terribly obscured by the black
clouds and the specter of the atomic bomb, which endangers the whole
world.
Our
Lord Jesus Christ said: “when the Son of Man comes, will He find
faith on earth? (Luke 18:8). Do you know how today, in all the
countries and in all the people, how much faithlessness is
strengthened and increased? Few remaining are those whom the Lord
calls His little flock. Terrible is the time in which we life,
terrible is the day of the coming Judgment, which we heard of in
today's Gospel reading. I will not relate it again, for you heard all the basics. You heard why sinners will be condemned, whom the
Lord further calls condemned ones. And you heard how the righteous
will shine in the Kingdom of the Heavenly Father. Why? Only for love,
for the work of almsgiving, for love is the essence of the law of
Christ. Those whose hearts are full of love, those whose love is
revealed in works of almsgiving towards his neighbor, they are those
who have received the light of the Gospel within them. For them is
prepared the Kingdom of the Heavens. They will hear from the Lord in
the Awesome Judgment: “Come, O blessed of my Father, inherit the
kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.”
(Matthew 25: 34).
And
they will enter the New Jerusalem, that Jerusalem which St. John the
Theologian saw descending from heaven, and will enter into eternal
life and blessedness. And those whom the Lord called condemned, will
go into eternal fire, which was prepared for the devil and his
servants.
There
are many men who do not accept the Awesome Judgment. They say: is it
right for the man who did sins in this short life, afterwards to be
tortured eternally? This question is posed by all those who do not
accept the Gospel of Christ. What shall we respond to this? Will we
say that there is likely some part of truth to this thought? Of
course not.
To
whom is prepared eternal life? For the spirit of man, for that spirit
which man received from God Himself, when He created Adam. Then God
breathed into the body a living soul. All of us bear this spirit.
Truly, it is this spirit which differentiates us from the dumb
animals, which never were granted the higher gifts of the Divine
Spirit. What happens therefore, during the life of man? There is a ceaseless, daily molding of our spirit. All our works, our senses,
our words and thoughts leave an indelible seal on our souls, and mold
it. Our spirit grows, changes, and is molded during the course of our
life, affected by our deeds, senses and our thoughts. Within the
spirit of man occurs something similar to that which occurs with a
grape, which beneath the rays of the sun and with the morning dew,
grows furthermore and is molded by life-giving power, which God
granted to His living creations, and which shine with His beauty. He
granted life to foster and receive the gifts of the sun and
creation. And when it is grown, its death approaches. It is cut and
thrown into a vat, trampled upon, and the grape gives up its blood, its juice, which then becomes wine. Though the grape was beautiful, though
it is honored more than other things we gather, then through the wine
which occurs through this grape, its life continues. Its peels rot
like our body rots, and the wine is kept in barrels for many years.
And the more time passes, the more precious the wine becomes. This,
therefore, is the life of the grape, which resembles our earthly
life, and the life of wine, which resembles the eternal and undying
life of our spirit, when we will be freed from the bonds of this
body, which after death occurs, dissolves like the peels of the
grape.
Do
you know that there are some kinds of grapes that are not good? There
is, in other words, a sour grape and its juice does not make good wine.
This wine becomes sour, and with the passing of time, it becomes even
worse.
The
same occurs with men. There are men who in their spirit, during the
course of their life, is ceaselessly completed that which is good and
true. Their good works make an indelible seal upon their human
spirit, while their spirit becomes more and more perfect, pure and
holy. This is the spirit of the righteous, those for whom the Kingdom
of the Heavens has been prepared. There are those men, however, whose
life is full of crimes and unspeakable sins. Their spirits they daily
harm with poisons. And thus, without end, the spirit of these men is
conformed according to evil.
Our
spirit, however, is immortal. Our spirit will live forever, and
therefore, the direction which we make in this life—either towards
good or towards evil--will remain the stable direction. The spirit of
the righteous men who loved Christ, who loved the true good, will be
ceaselessly perfected, approaching the perfection of God in
continuous communion with Him in the land of Paradise. However, the
spirit of sinners, which during the course of their life was drowned
utterly and furthermore in evil, is condemned to continue into this
eternal choice towards evil, is condemned to have continuous
communion with satan himself, and in its incomparable evil, will
approach him even more. This is the eternal torture of sinners. They
will sense, in other words, how God has left them, how they are
condemned, and they will choke among their evil and hate against God
and goodness.
Is
God “responsible” for this? Did He condemn them to eternal
torture? They themselves unfortunately condemned themselves, as they
chose the way of evil alone. He left them free to ever follow this
road.
Through the prayers of our Holy Fathers, Lord Jesus Christ our God, have mercy on us and save us! Amen!
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