316. Holy Tuesday Morning: Divine Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts

Gospel Reading at Presanctified Liturgy: Matthew 24:36-51; 25:1-46; 26:1-2

1 The parable of the wise and foolish bridesmaids. Jewish weddings took place in the evening. Young bridesmaids with lamps went to the bridegroom’s house and escorted him to the ceremony. It must have been lovely. But this night the bridegroom is is late in arriving. Some bridesmaids are prepared. Some are not, and they go out for more oil. While they are gone, at midnight he arrives, and when they finally get to the ceremony, it’s too late. The wedding is already going on, and they have missed it. “I don’t know you”, the bridegroom  says – an expression which meant “Go away”.

Kievan Chant (Archangel Voices)

Behold, the Bridegroom comes at midnight, And blessed is that servant whom He shall find awake, But 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 up 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.

Jesus Christ is the divine Bridegroom, who will soon come to be married to His Church, united with His people in love forever. When will that time come? either the End of the Age or the end of our time on earth? Will be ready? Then there will be no more time for us to choose. We will have chosen. The moral: Always be prepared.

Icons with permission of Saint Isaac’s Skete, skete.com

2 Then the parable of the talents. Talents were money: I read in the Orthodox Study Bible that a gold talent was worth about $6 million, a silver talent about $400,000. The point is that God has given each of us a fortune in gifts, capabilities, resources of many kinds in varying amounts. He wants His own back with interest, expects each of us to develop what He gave us. So are we growing in the Faith? in the gifts of the Spirit: love, patience, joy, gentleness, kindness, peace, self control? Are you developing whatever talents God has given you – music or teaching or sympathetic listening or management, or service to the poor or mathematics or chanting…..a multitude of possibilities. Or are you like the last man in the parable, just holding your own? Or, God forbid, are you wasting what He gave you? What? you think God gave us gifts so we can just sit on them? If we do not produce, we will be cast into the outer darkness, away from the Light, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth at what we could have had and now will never have, because time is over now. The moral: Use it or lose it.

3 Finally, the famous parable of the sheep and the goats.

We heard this also on the Second Sunday before Lent. The Church must think it especially important for us to hear.

Take note: this is the judgment of “the nations”, including the Gentiles, the nonbelievers.

The question that comes up so frequently among Christians: Can nonbelievers be saved? Jesus’ answer is No, but Yes.

No, because He said “I am the way, and the truth, and the life: No one comes to the Father except by Me.” John 14:8  There can be no salvation outside Christ, for only in God is salvation, and Christ is God. Salvation means to be united with Christ our God.

But Yes, because at the End there will no longer be any unbelievers! All will see Christ for who He is. So Yes, those who once were nonbelievers will then believe, and can enter the Kingdom. Jesus Christ said so. However nobody will slide in just because they believed. I visited a man in the county jail once, who had done many bad things, including running off with an underage girl from our parish. It didn’t bother him a bit, because “I believe in Jesus Christ, so I’m saved.” Wrong! There will be requirements of behavior for all of us.

ConnectUS

The standard of judgment will be this: Did we show love, mercy, compassion for the least of His brethren? To all who did, Christ will say, “Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the creation of the world.” It will turn out that many had been serving Christ, even though they did not yet know it. This is not ours to judge, but God’s alone. We must never put a limit on the mystery of how God works on earth – to His love, His mercy.

But if any (even if they went by the name of Christian) ignored the needs of people, or far worse if they mistreated them, caused them pain and suffering and hunger and thirst and homelessness, it will be: “Depart from me, you evildoers, into the fire prepared for the devil and his angels.”

Here is the key: Correct doctrine is essential, but correct Christian doctrine says that love is even more important than doctrine. “The greatest of these is love.”

You and I, mortals that we are, are forbidden to judge persons. Only God can do that. However, we must judge actions. Otherwise every child-abuser and murderer would go free. And every war criminal.

 Ukraine (Saudi Gazette, April 18, 2022)

But take care: The war in Ukraine is something you and I can’t do much about. However, how many other needy people, Christ’s brothers and sisters, are here in the United States? in our cities? on our borders? or next door to us? or in our churches? – remembering that there are not only physical needs but spiritual needs as well, people who are lonely, people who need Jesus Christ and His love, and our love.

God’s judgment will apply not only to those who are causing suffering in Ukraine, but to those who are ignoring suffering elsewhere.

Ethiopian, 18th century

Jesus finished His teachings. He said to His disciples: Now be ready. “I have told you. After two days is the Passover, and the Son of Man will be delivered up to be crucified.”

Next Post will arrive this afternoon for Tuesday night Bridegroom Matins.