The Sunday of the Last Judgment

 at the Diocesan Cathedral in Saint-Hubert/Montreal

On the third Sunday of the Triodion, His Grace Bishop Ioan Casian was present among the faithful at St. Great Martyr George and Sts. Martyrs Epictetus and Astion Cathedral in Saint-Hubert.

Concelebrating with him were Father Mircea Panciuk, Protopresbyter Emeritus, Father Adrian Manea, and Deacons Valentin Boțu and Marius Constantin Popa.

The sermon was delivered by Deacon Marius Constantin Popa, who spoke about the meaning of the Sunday of the Last Judgment.

At the conclusion of the Divine Liturgy, the hierarch emphasized several key points, highlighting in Gospel’s reading the connection between the good deed done for one’s neighbor and Christ present in each person.

“The Sunday of the Last Judgment draws our attention to the importance of good deeds done for our neighbor. The teaching of the Church tells us that each of us is created in the image of God and is on the journey toward likeness with Him. Every good deed done for our neighbor is a good deed done for Christ. By visiting the one in prison or the one who is sick, by feeding the hungry or giving drink to the thirsty, by welcoming the stranger, each of these deeds done for our neighbor is a deed done for Christ.

We today do not have the physical possibility of caring for Christ, for He lived during the time of the Holy Apostles. But we can do so spiritually and concretely, because Christ dwells in every person born on this earth. In the Church, through Baptism, the possibility is restored to begin again the journey of growth in God, to grow personally from the image to the likeness of Him. The entire order of the Church - prayers, prostrations, reading of Holy Scripture and the writings of the saints, fasting, asceticism, almsgiving - are spiritual means that prepare us, insofar as we follow them, to grow and attain likeness with God.

Every good deed you do for those in need is support for the one who is on the path toward attaining likeness with God.”

The hierarch went on to point out the signs of Christ’s working presence in the lives of the saints and encouraged those present to follow the blessed order of the Triodion period and Great Lent.

“We see this image of God reflected in the lives and experiences of the saints. We have the example of the light that surrounded St. Seraphim of Sarov or of St. Symeon the New Theologian, who in the middle of the night contemplated the immaterial light that penetrated all things. In the case of the two saints, we speak not of an experience of physical light but of spiritual light. It surpasses day and night, time and space. It is an immaterial light.

The manifestation of the presence of God’s grace at work in the saints, in certain virtues such as kindness and love, is not visible to the one dominated by the spirit of pride. He is overcome by spiritual blindness, even though he sees with his physical eyes.

Let us take into consideration the period of the Triodion and Great Lent with all its appointed practices, so that it may have the special and necessary spiritual impact on our lives for which it was established.”

At the end, those present received the final blessing.