The Catalog of Good Deeds

Christ revealed to us that He will come at His Second Coming to judge the living and the dead. There is a well-known passage in Holy Scripture about the future Judgment, in which He will separate human beings, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, and after an exchange of words, the righteous will go "into eternal life" and the sinners "into everlasting punishment" (St. Matthew 25:46). In the Creed (Symbol of faith) we confess, "And He shall come again with glory to judge the living and the dead."

Before the Second Judgment the bodies of human beings will be resurrected. The first and second resurrections were mentioned earlier. The first resurrection is experienced through Baptism and Holy Communion, and the second resurrection is after Christ's Second Coming, so that the whole human being may live 'eternal well-being' or 'eternal distress.'

The iconography of the Second Coming of Christ shows what Paradise is and what Hell is.

"Please go and find the icon of the Second Coming, and you will see that around Christ are those who are in Paradise. They are in a golden light; the light surrounding them is golden. This same golden light, as it gets further away from Christ, begins to change color, and gradually, the further away it goes, it turns from gold to red; and in the red light are the damned. The saved see Christ in a golden color, and the damned also see Christ from a distance, but they see the Light of Christ as red, because for the former it is the glory of God and for the latter it is the eternal fire, outer darkness and 'the consuming fire.'"

From this point of view, therefore, we Orthodox Christians agree with the most liberal people in the world. No message can be more liberal than that of the Holy Fathers of the Church, who not only stress that, 'Son, we'll all go to the same place', as an old lady told me, but also emphasize that God loves everyone equally: the damned and the saved, the glorified and the saints, Angels and devils, good and bad, prostitutes and chaste...God loves all human beings equally, He loves everyone without distinction. From God's point of view, God saves everyone. He wants the salvation of all human beings, and he has preordained salvation for all.

How do we know this? Because even Hell is salvation (the human being is preserved) and Hell is a way of making perfect, but it is Hell and not Paradise. Because the one who is damned is incapable of progress, he is unable to accept progress towards perfection. Why? Because his conscience has been hardened, his heart has grown hard. He remains so egoistic and self-centered that his personality cannot develop from selfishness to unselfishness. Since he cannot develop anymore, he is perfected in his selfishness. Even Hell is evil for him. Although it is not punishment from God's point of view, it is punishment from the human point of view.

In other words, the man has remained uncured. Why? Because his heart needed to be cured, his heart or his nous (soul) was sick, and they did not receive treatment. But where does this treatment begin, how does it take place and how a human being secure it? In the Orthodox Christian experience, treatment begins here in this world."

In the Western (Roman Catholic and Protestant) tradition about Paradise and Hell, we see view that differ from the Orthodox Christian teaching.

"Augustine's teachings about absolute predestination Hell and Paradise were based on those perceptions that he had, his legalistic views about the Fall of man and sin, combined with his neoplatonic perception of Paradise. He introduced into Christianity the idea that Hell is the subterranean regions underneath the earth, where people go to be punished. Paradise is outer space.

In those days they believed that things that were immutable were beyond the heavenly bodies, where there is no movement and no development, and that here on earth is the place of testing. So if we are good boys and girls we shall go to Paradise above the stars and the sky; and if we are bad we shall go under the earth to be punished in the subterranean regions."

Paradise in the Western (Latin or Roman Catholic) tradition was connected with the soul's happiness and the satisfaction of its desires.

"In the Orthodox Christian Tradition there is nothing like this. Why? Because man's destiny is not happiness; it is not satisfaction of his desires. The Holy Fathers do not teach that God will become man's possession or that man can use God--let alone his fellow human being--for his own happiness.

The capitalistic foundations that exist within the philosophy of medieval feudalism originate from Augustine, but mainly from the ancient Greeks. The teaching about the pursuit of happiness (eudemonism) started from the ancient Greeks, from Plato and Aristotle, with some opposition from the Stoics and the Epicureans. In the Christian tradition of the West, however, Aristotle and Plato prevailed. These elements do not exist in patristic theology."

In our own Holy Tradition, the human being is eternally advancing to higher stages of perfection. For us history never stops There is the history of the saints and there is also the eternal history of man. The fact that Christ was Resurrected with His Body and that Christ is fully human until now and for ever and ever means that Christ, His Body and His human nature, is part of history. Has His Body not acted continually until this day? There has been a succession of actions; the energies of the Body of Christ have not ceased. So the Body of Christ is an inseparable part of history, which is a guarantee that history is eternal. History will not come to a halt; although a number of theologians who believe in Plato say nowadays that history will cease. No, history will not come to a halt. Why will history not cease? Because the Body with which Christ was resurrected will exist for ever, and we shall be resurrected with bodies. We shall not be merely souls in paradise. We shall be complete human beings.

Then Westerners speak about Paradise and Hell from the standpoint of justice. This is sociological interpretation of eternal life...

"...Holy Scripture uses the words 'light' and 'dark cloud' to describe the state of the just, and the words 'fire' and 'darkness' to describe the state of sinners. We know, however, that the light is different from the dark cloud that covers the light. And fire is the opposite of darkness, because fire chases away darkness and illuminates the surroundings.

This shows that there are not created words to express uncreated reality absolutely. The Eternal Divine Light and the Eternal Life are uncreated. They are the energy of God that is experienced by human beings as illuminating or burning energy, depending on their spiritual state.

"All human beings will see the glory of God, and from this point of view they have the same end. Everyone will certainly see the glory of God, the difference being that, whereas the saved will see the glory of God as sweetest light without evening, the damned will see the same glory of God as consuming fire, as fire that will burn them. It is a true and predictable fact that we shall all see the glory of God. Seeing God, that is to say, His glory and His Light, is something that will happen whether we want it or not. The experience of this Light, however, will be different for the two categories.

The work of the Church and the priests is not to help us to see this glory, because that will happen in any case. The work of the Church centers on how each one will see God. Not on whether he will see God. In other words, the task of the Church is to preach to people that the true God exists, that God is revealed either as light or as consuming fire, and that at the Second Coming of Christ all of us will see God. And it must prepare its members so that they see God not as fire but as light."

The Church does not send anyone to Paradise or to Hell, but it prepares the faithful for the vision of Christ in glory, which everyone will have. God loves the damned as much as the Saints. He wants all to be cured, but not all accept the cure that He offers.

Paradise and Hell do not exist from the point of view of God, but from the point of view of human beings. God will love everyone equally. He will send His grace to all, in the same way as He will send His grace to all, in the same way as He "makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust" (Saint Matthew 5:45). But everyone will not accept God's grace in the same way. Some will see God as Light and other as fire. The same will happen as with Holy Communion. For those who prepare themselves appropriately, Holy Communion is "for eternal life", but for those who have "not been purified, Holy Communion is for judgment and condemnation…"

"...When someone reaches the point of seeing the glory of God after having gone through purification of the heart and reaching illumination, this illuminated human being sees the glory of God as light. But when someone who has not reached this Light, he sees it as consuming fire. Instead of seeing God as Light, he sees God as consuming fire."

"We know that if an Orthodox Christian who does not prepare himself correctly and reaches the point that his heart is hardened, he will see God as a consuming fire."

"Contrary to Augustine's ideas about Paradise and Hell, according to the other Fathers of the Church in both East and West, Hell and Paradise are the same thing. There is no difference at all. When someone sees God's glory with unselfish love, he sees God as paradise, and this is paradise…"

"The uncreated glory, which Christ has by nature from the Father, is paradise for those who self-centered and selfish love has been cured and transformed into unselfish love. However, the same glory is uncreated eternal fire and hell for those who have chosen to remain uncured in their selfishness."

By Father John Romanides

Source: http://saintandrewgoc.org/home/2015/4/17/paradise-and-hell-according-to-the-orthodox-church

Archpriest Andrew Lemeshonok, the spiritual father of St. Elisabeth Convent, answers various questions of the parishioners.

Why did Jesus have to die in order to save man?

The hardest, most painful and responsible phenomenon in our life is death. The world wasn’t created for dying and for people to bury their dead (Cf. Matthew 8: 22), but for people and other living creatures to live and rejoice. When sin entered this world and the man became mortal, only God was able to correct that mistake and defeat death. The man could not do it because his nature was corrupted by sin. That was why God became incarnated as a man and died for all of us.

In fact, God cannot die. The person who obeys God and fulfils his will by enduring suffering till the end, will overcome death. That’s why the mystery of our salvation is fulfilled on the Cross. The Cross was the most terrible and deadly tool used for execution of criminals. So Jesus bore our transgressions and liberated us from the curse of sin. This is why we say, I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the LORD. (Ps. 118: 17).

What do you mean by saying that Jesus took our sins upon himself?

The Lord’s human nature was without sin. He died for us on the Cross. He knew that He had to offer a sacrifice. The prototypes of the sacrifice at the Calvary in the Old Testament Church were lambs and doves, killed on the altar. The Lord took the guilt of the entire humankind because He could do so as our Creator, and He had the right to do so. He nailed the sins of the entire world to the Cross.

Things like these sometimes happen in our everyday lives, too: if someone is guilty and the other person takes his guilt upon himself, then the guilty person is released and the other person is punished instead. We know that Nun Maria (Skobtsova) went to a gas chamber during the war instead of a woman who had children. She died for the woman and her kids to remain alive. We know such cases from history. However, only Jesus Christ—only God—could redeem everyone and allow to choose between life and death. That’s what He did by dying on the Cross.

How can a person who is unable to fully appreciate church worship and joy during his earthly life be able to appreciate it after he dies?

St Justin Martyr quoted God as saying, “In whatsoever things I shall take you, in these I shall judge you.” (Dialogue with Trypho, Chapter 47, cf. Matthew 24: 42). Right now, we see things as if through a dim glass. We can’t experience the depth and fullness of the spiritual realm but the small pieces that we can grasp really change our lives. Although we lose God’s grace time and time again, some grace is left inside our souls. It makes us hope that our souls, which have already tasted the grace and seen the love of God, will be able to contain everything the Lord has to reveal to them when they enter the eternal bliss.

There is a battle going on right now. Sin desensitises us and separates us from the most essential things. We keep losing that battle. We don’t know, we don’t see, we don’t hear… Notwithstanding this fact, if our souls move forward and do not want to stay in the darkness of sin; if we yearn for God, come to church and participate in worship; if we partake of the Blood and the Body of Christ — that’s when we may hope that we will ultimately be able to taste the delight of love, which the Lord has prepared for those who love him (See 1 Cor. 2: 9).

April 4, 2018

St. Elisabeth Convent

Each year we are invited once again to traverse the sacred days of the fast and come to that Week of all weeks - Holy Week. We are invited by the Church to take pause and reorient our crazy hectic schedule around "church time." Every year we are guided through this rich, profound and beautiful cycle of services where we participate in Christ's final days. If we pause enough we enter into the deep silence of the fear, isolation, sadness of the coming crucifixion of our Lord. Though the one Subject is Christ Himself, we come to find that it is us as well who become a vital component to these services. As we are remembering these events - Judas, the crowds, the Virgins awaiting the bridegroom, the harlot who anointed Christ's feet - we begin to see that we are just like these persons. We are the Virgins who are not ready for the bridegroom. We are Judas who so often are willing to sell Christ for the sake of our worldly gain, we are the disciples who deny our Lord, and we are the crowds who boldly proclaim "crucify him!" As a new mission we continue to take steps to fill out our liturgical cycle and this year we are adding the services for Monday through Thursday known as Bridegroom Matins.

The first three days of Holy Week are referred to as "the end". We have just laid our palm branches down into the silence of Christ's final days. Darkness and judgment are the theme for the first three days. This is centered around the the Gospel reading from Great and Holy Tuesday found in Matt. 24:36 - 26:2. This is the parable of the ten virgins. Here we are urged not to be like the five foolish virgins who were not prepared for the coming of the bridegroom. The troparion hymn sung on these three days:

Behold the bridegroom comes at midnight, and blessed is the servant whom he shall find watching; and again, unworthy is the servant whom He shall find heedless.

Beware, therefore, O my soul, do not be weighed down with sleep, lest you be given over to death, and lest you be shut out of the Kingdom.

But rouse yourself, crying: "Holy! Holy! Holy! art Thou, O our God. Through the Theotokos have mercy on us!"

Also another hymn:

Thy bridal chamber I see adorned, O my Savior, but I have no wedding garment that I may enter. O Giver of Light, enlighten the vesture of my soul, and save me.

As we enter into Holy Week we are overwhelmed with the sense that we have nothing to offer our Lord and that we have wasted our life and are asleep and that we have missed the coming of the bridegroom. It is only through the grace and mercy of our Lord's voluntary Passion that we are made worthy to enter. We hear this echoed on Monday evening:

How shall I, the unworthy one, appear in the splendor of Thy saints?

For if I dare enter Thy bridal chamber with them my garments will betray me: they are unfit for a wedding.

The angels will cast me out in chains.

Cleans the filth of my soul, O Lord, and save me in Thy love for mankind.

O Christ the Bridegroom, my soul has slumbered in laziness.

I have no lamp aflame with virtues.

Like the foolish virgins I wander aimlessly when it is time for work.

But do not close Thy compassionate heart to me, O Master.

Rouse me, shake off my heavy sleep.

Lead me with the wise virgins into the bridal chamber, that I may hear the pure voice of those that feast and cry unceasingly: O Lord, glory to Thee!

It is important to let the full weight of these services permeate us. Let the heavy truth of seeing ourselves as we truly are lead us to glorify Christ's passion and cause us to cry out as we will on Holy Friday, "show us also Thy Glorious resurrection!"

By Fr. Christopher Foley

A Prayer for Christ's Assistance and Thanks for His Mercies

St. Symeon the New Theologian:

But, O Lord, guide of those gone astray, the unerring path of those who come to You, turn us all around and place us before Your ladder, and direct our hands with Your own hand to take hold of it, and enable us to raise ourselves from the earth and to step onto the first rung, so that we may know that we have somehow, sometime, taken hold of something with our hands and have raised ourselves a little from the earth. For we are obliged to ascend, just a little, at first to You, in order that You, the good Master, may come down from so far away and unite Yourself to us. Show us, Master, the door at the forecourt of Your Kingdom, so that we may knock patiently at it until the gate should open to us by virtue of our voluntary death, and we enter within and knock one by one at the gates and open them. May You Yourself, hearing our groans and the beating of our breasts, hurry to come down from your high chambers, You the greatly compassionate and merciful God, that we may hear the sounds of Your all-immaculate feat and know that You are opening the innermost gates, closed to sinners, and drawing near us and saying: "Who is he who is knocking?" and that, answering with cries and tears, we may reply to You with trembling and joy: "We are, Master, we the unworthy, the wretched, Your cast-off and wicked servants, we who until now have been wandering astray among mountains and cliffs and ravines. We are those who have senselessly soiled Your holy Baptism, who denied our covenants with You. We are those who have fled away and even deserted voluntarily to Your enemy who plots against our souls. Now, though, having remembered You and Your love for mankind, we have run away from there and, weary with labor, have come to You in great fear and trembling.

Forgive and be not angry with us, Master, but with mercy and compassion for us wretched ones open to us, Lord, and do not call to mind our evils, neither bear rancour for our ingratitude, for we have stood long hours in knocking, nor misunderstand us, Your servants, lest, having been slighted, we turn backwards. We have grown weary beating on the doors to the forecourts of Your Kingdom. Open to us, You Who by nature love mankind, have compassion on us. For if only You open to us the door of Your mercy by a little, who will not shudder at seeing you? Who will not fall prostrate in fear and trembling and beseech Your mercy? Who, seeing You Who have ten thousand times ten thousand angels and a thousand thousand archangels and thrones and powers, abandoning the heights and coming down to us, and meeting and opening to us, and both welcoming us graciously and falling upon our necks and kissing us, who will not immediately wounded to the quick and undone as if he were dead? And his bones will be poured out on the earth like water, and he will weep day and night reckoning up the ocean of Your compassion and goodness, and reflecting the glory and splendor of Your countenance. Glory be to You, Who have arranged all things thus. Glory to You, Who have been well-pleased to be seen by and united with us. Glory to You, Who for the sake of Your great compassion are revealed and seen by us, You Who by nature are invisible even to the heavenly powers themselves. Glory to You, Whose mercy toward us is unspeakable, Who have deigned through repentance both to abide and to walk with us. Through the payers of our Holy Fathers, O Lord Jesus Christ our God, have mercy on us and save us. Amen.

Source: http://holycrossoca.org/newslet/0804.html

Poison of Rage

A gloomy neighbor visited an elder.

– I suffer from insomnia, – he complained. – That’s because the small birds out there keep chirping all night long!

– You’re the reason of your own suffering, – the elder replied. – You poison all your nights with rage towards the innocent little birds. Singing is their life! If you had chosen not to be mad at them but to enjoy listening to their songs, their chirping would become your best lullaby!

These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full (John 15:11)

The Nature of a Wolf

There was a forest where all animals were very afraid of the terrible wolf. They would run away as soon as they heard him coming.

The wolf gathered all the community of the forest one day.

– I don’t want our forest to be ruled by fear. Don’t look at me as if I were an insatiable beast and don’t run away from me. I won’t eat strong animals. I’ll be fine with sick and weak ones, – the wolf promised. – Bring them to me, and I won’t touch the rest!

The animals agreed. They brought weak and ill animals to the wolf but he ate the strong animals, too!

– Why do you eat the strong animals? You promised not to, didn’t you?

– Why are your “strong” animals weak, too? It’s none of my business, – the wolf retorted.

You mustn’t negotiate with the Satan. He will fool you anyway.

… the devil… was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it. (John 8:44)

The Soft Word of God and the Hard Heart

When some monks asked Abba Poemen about heart numbness, he gave them the following example:

– Water is soft but a rock is hard; however, if there is a water pipe above the rock, water drops leave a trail in the rock little by little. Similarly, God’s Word is soft, and our hearts are hard; however, if one hears the Word of God often, his heart opens up to accept the fear of God..

The Skete Paterikon

Can you see what an insane word does? I’ll not leave you without an example of a good word, either. A faint-hearted soldier was sent on a scouting mission during a war. Everyone knew that he was fearful and they laughed at him when they learned where the sergeant was sending him. There was only one soldier who didn’t laugh. He approached his comrade with words of support. The faint-hearted soldier said, “I’ll die, the enemy is near!” — “Don’t be afraid, brother, God is nearer,” the good soldier said in response. These words were like a large bell that tolled in the faint-hearted soldier’s soul. This bell kept ringing till the end of the war. In the end, the timid and fearful soldier returned home wearing many medals and military decorations for his courage. This is how just a single kind word made all the difference: “Don’t be afraid: God is nearer.”

Saint Nikolaj of Serbia. Missionary Letters. Letter 70, to a humble man who confessed that he had sinned in his words

The King and His Wise Advisor

There was a mighty king who had a wise advisor. He always took his advisor wherever he went.

One day, the king went hunting and had an awful misfortune: he lost one finger on his hand while shooting. He was furious.

– Sire, everything happens for a reason! – the advisor tried to calm the king down.

However, the king was even more furious upon hearing these words. He ordered to throw the advisor in jail and give him only water.

Some time later, the king decided to go hunting again. This time, he set forth to distant parts of the country where there were many wild animals, as rumors had it. Unluckily, there were violent savages in those lands, too. The savages attacked the king and his escort. They were pagans and practised bloody sacrifices.

The savages grabbed the king and dragged him to the chief priest. He was thrilled:

– Now we’ll appease gods at last!

When the priest laid the king on the sacrificial table and prepared to stab him with a knife, he suddenly noticed that there was one finger missing on the poor king’s hand. He was outraged.

– Gods deserve only the best! – he yelled at his fellow tribesmen. – You’ve brought that poor thing to me instead! Look, he has a finger missing!

They threw the king back to the wild forest. Hardly did he find his way back to his capital when he ran to the wise advisor.

– You were right! I lost one finger but I was left alive! – the king was saying and weeping. – You’ve had to go through so much pain, too. You’ve had to spend so much time in jail.

– Everything that happens is good, – the advisor responded. – If I hadn’t been in jail, I would definitely have gone hunting with you, with unpredictable results.

Sparrow

Two little sisters heard the biblical account about the expulsion of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden and told their father:

— Daddy, if Lena and I had been in the paradise, we would have never eaten the forbidden fruit because God had prohibited to touch it. Right, Dad?

— You’re right, — the father smiled and turned off the light in the daughters’ bedroom.

The father got up very early the following morning. He caught a sparrow in the backyard and put it into a pot. He woke the girls up and showed them the pot that he had put on the windowsill of an open kitchen window. The father said:

— Please don’t open the pot until I get back home from work. When I’m back, I’ll show you what’s inside. If you’re obedient, I’ll buy you a new toy.

The father left for work, and the children stayed home alone. They were doing their best to distract themselves from the little pot in the kitchen but they were so excited and curious that at the end, Masha, the older sister, persuaded Lena, the younger sister who was afraid that the father would be angry with them, to look into the pot.

— We’ll peek inside and close the cover, — she said. — Dad won’t even know.

As soon as Lena opened the pot, the sparrow flew out of the window. The girls were scared and shut the empty pot quickly.

When the father returned in the evening, he saw that the pot was empty and said:

— Well, my little Eves, you couldn’t help peeking inside the pot, could you? That was how Eve couldn’t help tasting the fruit of knowledge of good and evil.

— Dad, what was that tree like and why was it forbidden to eat its fruit? — Masha asked.

— It was just a regular tree with edible fruit but the first people broke the commandment of the Lord and chose evil over good because all evil starts with disobedience, while all good starts from obedience. God would have taught Adam and Eve a lot of good things, if they had been obedient. This sparrow was your tree of knowledge of good and evil today, and you didn’t obey me, either. You’ve failed the Adam and Eve’s temptation.

Priest and Schemamonk John from Greece told me a parable about a family who lived on a desert island in the middle of an ocean after having been shipwrecked. All family members ate roots and grass and lived in a cave. The children did not remember when and how they got to the island. They forgot their native land and did not know what bread, milk, or fruit was. One day, a boat with four natives landed at the island. The shipwrecked were very happy and decided to leave the island immediately. However, the boat was so small that it could not transport the entire family. That was why the father of the family left the island first. The mother and the children were crying as they bade farewell to their beloved father.

The father comforted his family by saying, “Don’t cry. Life’s better in our native country, and we’ll meet again soon.”

Soon, the boat returned and took the mother away. The children were crying again.

– Don’t cry, my children, – the mother said, – we’ll meet in the better land soon.

Finally, the boat came for the kids. When the last dwellers of the island found themselves in the boundless sea, they were scared of their dark-skinned helpers all the way. Imagine how happy they were when they met their parents on the shore!

“Dear children, – their father told them, – our relocation from the desert island to the fertile land has a profound meaning: we all have to face a passage from this world into the better world. Our earth is like an island. The country we’re in slightly resembles the Heaven. The tumultuous passage from the island to this land is like death. The boat is the coffin, which will be carried by four strong men in black clothes. When it is time for us to say goodbye to the earth, those who are pious, who love God and obey his will, will not be afraid of the passage: death for them is merely a journey into the better life.”

Hieromonk Eutychius (Dovganiuk)

Translated from: https://azbyka.ru/days

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