Friday, September 6 (August 24), 2024
2Cor. 4:13-18; Mt. 24:27-33,42-51

“Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come” [Mt. 24:42].  Had we all remembered this, there would have been no sinners in this world at all.   But we forget it, although everyone knows that to be true.  Even the saints had problems keeping that mind at any time and had to rely on special reminders: someone kept a coffin in his monastic cell, someone else compelled his friends to ask him about the approaching death, yet another had a painting of the Last Judgment, and so forth.

As long as we are not in direct contact with death, our soul is willing to forget about it.  This is understandable; but how can we forget about what follows the death, about the judgment which decides our fate forever?  How can we possibly be so careless?  We are simply fooling ourselves, that we have plenty of time, and somehow, perhaps it will work out to the better…  What a miserable folly!

If we entertain such silly thoughts, if we are careless about our future, do we have even a remote chance to have the Judgment “work out” in our favor?  Of course not! Let us rather take an example from a student at the end of the semester: no matter what he is doing, the finals are constantly in his mind, and because of that he would not waste a minute, working on his tests as hard as possible.  That’s just the right mindset for anyone!

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