This Sunday is an invocation of the dread Second Coming. Here we are not speaking of the last comingπαρουσία(Parousia), but rather the second, personal oneἔρχομαι(Erchomai) — the personal coming in which Christ comes to each one of us, and we do not know when the appointed time is, nor the place, and it is not necessarily after our falling asleep. So He says, for example, in the Book of Revelation: “Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the first works, or else I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent.” (Rev 2:5), and here there is no room to clarify the problematic in religious thought concerning the Second Coming, which we have misunderstood entirely.
In the third station, man invokes judgment as a true invocation, and not by way of an intellectual remembrance of what will happen, nor of dread. For after we made the decision in the previous station to recover our personal dignity as children of God and to make the Father our point of reference, we must take a step toward realizing our decision; and the first work we do is to judge ourselves. Saint Macarius the Great says: «Judge yourself, brother, before they judge you.» And whoever is able to enter into his depths in truth and begin this inward journey can thereafter traverse the whole world and rule over it.
The Fathers say that man must judge himself lest God judge him, that is, that he should anticipate the judgment and confess his sins, and that each of us should bear responsibility for them. What is striking in last Sunday’s Gospel with the prodigal son is that the father did not allow the son to finish the sentence he wanted to say: “Make me as one of your hired servants.” (Lk 15:19). Rather, the dialogue proceeded as follows: “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you, and am no longer worthy to be called your son. But the father said to his servants: Bring out…” (Lk 15:21). God wants nothing from us, but only the stance of bearing responsibility for our sins alone; He does not even want recompense for what we have committed, nor a ransom in return for our sins. He wants this deep, inward stance.
Whoever knew himself in the first station and then made his decision in the second, today takes an existential stance in which he bears responsibility for his sins. For it is not enough merely to make a decision, but we must also forget all the burden of the past, of the sins we committed, through our self-condemnation — that is, to confess and cast our past into oblivion. Condemnation means, on the one hand, that man bears responsibility for his sins and confesses, saying: these sins were because of me and not because of the neighbor. And consequently, this stance is what will prepare us for the coming station, that I be reconciled with myself and accept its errors and sins. And on the other hand, to condemn myself means to subject it to myself.
And then the second presence of Christ becomes a presence to glorify us, and we hear His voice:”Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.” (Mt 25:34). This second presence is a presence now and here, and it is a personal presence. I do not know when Jesus comes to me, but we can discern the sign of Jesus’ presence when we acquire peace and joy in a way that cannot be expressed; and these experiences man acquires through his journey with Jesus.
The second stance that man takes to express the sincerity of his stance is by changing his view toward the neighbor: every human being is Jesus Himself, and that I should direct an active love toward the neighbor, and begin from this moment to bear responsibility — not as a sinner who has sinned, but as a son of God. That each one of us should go out of himself and begin to look outside himself toward the neighbor and bear a responsibility toward the other, and become entirely like Jesus, who bore responsibility for our sins as though He Himself had committed them. This stance today takes us to be christified after we have become children of God; for the love that begins to well up in our depths toward God is embodied toward the neighbor, as Jesus said: “”Inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.” (Mt 25:40).
And this love is not the kissing of mustaches, nor handshakes, nor courtesies; rather, it is true work in society, each of us according to his capacity, as Father Schmemann says: “Each one of us is responsible for a small circle in the Kingdom of God.” And this love is not for an unknown person or a passing poor man, but for every person whom God places in my path. For the journey we will begin with Jesus is a journey among the faces of people, in our relationships with them, as the Apostle says: “If someone says, ‘I love God,’ and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen?” (1 Jn 4:20).
And from today onward we must not occupy ourselves much with wondering: have we changed? Have we become better? Have we become pleasing to Jesus? Man must strive with Jesus; for the striving toward love with Jesus changes us on the way to Him and makes us more mature and more in touch with His stature. And man discovers all the expressions of divine love in this journey with Jesus, which will be manifested with the other; and the first work will be forgiveness next Sunday.