With this Sunday of the Last Judgment, we arrive at the end of the world. As we stand before the Lord at his dread tribunal, we realize that we have no righteousness, no standing, no excuse. Thankfully, now that we have reached the end, the Lord, in his mercy, allows us to return to the beginning. Next Sunday we leave paradise with our forefather, Adam, so that we can begin to make our way back to paradise with the New Adam, Christ. All Lent long, we will accompany the Lord on his way to the Cross, and finally we will arrive at Golgotha, “the Place of the Skull, where paradise was,” and through the Cross, paradise will be opened again. Therefore, if we wish return to paradise and be found at the right hand at the time of the Lord’s Judgment, we devoutly sign ourselves with the sign of the Cross and seek to embrace, through asceticism and self-denial, the saving cross that the Lord has sent down for us in our own life.
Home / Work of the Church / Reflections in Christ / Metropolitan Tikhon /