The Great Lent is often called a “spiritual spring,” reflecting the changes that take place in nature during this period of time, and awakening our souls from a sinful sleep to revive and blossom under the shining rays of Christ’s glorious Resurrection. Since the Great Lent is the most important time of the entire church year, preparing the faithful for the joyous “feast of feasts and triumph of triumphs,” the Church prepares us for this lent gradually, and leads us through this lent gradually and purposefully, in order that we may gain maximum benefit from it for the salvation of our souls. Thus, having taught us, in the preceding two Sundays, the humility of the publican and the repentance of the prodigal son, on this Sunday the Church leads us to the third step of preparation for the Great Lent - and that is the fear of God.

And so before us unfolds the awesome image of the Last Judgment. First of all, we are amazed by the boundless sea of people. And we must be keenly aware that we, too, are among them. We try to find ourselves there, we try to determine our own place in accordance with our spiritual condition. In our mind’s eye we see people whose faces express terrible sadness, despair over their lost lives. There are other faces, full of rage, hate, envy, insatiable desires. Life is over, but something gnaws at them and will continue gnawing for eternity…

But now we look higher up, nearer to the Righteous Judge, and here we see other faces: they are quiet, peaceful, joyous, happy… A huge cross shines over the Seat of Judgment, and on that Throne sits the Lord Jesus Christ Himself - the Saviour of the world, surrounded by St. John the Baptist, the Apostles, the saints. They are all praying and rejoicing. There is only joyous celebration here.

And yet, this exultation is disturbed by a single cry. On Christ’s shoulder weeps the Mother of God, as She continues to plead for the redemption of sinners, for the salvation of the hopeless. She alone has been granted the power to entreat God’s mercy until the very end.

Thus, dear brethren, wherever we may feel ourselves standing at the Last Judgment, let us not despair! We are not yet lost! We still have the Mother of God, the Mother of all mankind, She is praying for us, and even the Almighty God can scarcely refuse Her. We must only have firm faith, repentance and the fear of God.

Especially in our times, dear brethren, we must have this fear of God. For us the image of the Last Judgment is not some kind of allegory or something in the distant future. On the contrary! For us, the last Christians, the second coming of Christ and the Last Judgment are a quite possible reality.

In our times, the concept of “a world lying in iniquity” has become virtual reality. Evil has spread into all spheres of human life. On a par with the destruction of nature and the destruction of the God-created beauty and harmony of our physical world, we see the total destruction of moral values, destruction of all the manifestations of beauty produced by the human soul. In the arts, in music, in literature, in human philosophy, in man’s exterior appearance - everywhere we see ugliness and distortion.

Moreover, just as the physical world now harbors a multitude of microbes and viruses that are mercilessly destroying human health, so our spiritual world is filled with the terrible viruses of apostasy and the sins of sodomy, which are destroying the souls of men, especially our youth.

Humanity now finds itself in a state worse than Sodom and Gomorrah, worse than the pagan world of antiquity, perhaps even worse that the antediluvian world. And if the Lord is refraining yet from destroying our world, it is only because there are still those who can be saved, and the Lord wishes “all of us to be saved and enter into the wisdom of truth.”

But judgment is close at hand… And the image of the Last Judgment, though it stuns us, does not lead us into despair. We can still attain humility, we can still repent, we can still feel the fear of God. It is for this purpose that we are being given this precious time of the Great Lent. And we still have a last resort - the intercession of the Mother of God.

Let us hurry to make use of all these means, dear brethren, so that we, too, may be placed on the right side of the King and hear His words: “Come, the blessed ones of My Father, inherit the Kingdom…” Amen.

The church begins the preparatory period which constitutes the threshold of the Great Lent with the “Sunday of Zaccheus” - the Sunday on which we hear the Gospel reading about a publican named Zaccheus.

There is a certain characteristic which runs like a golden thread through the entire festive cycle from the Nativity to the Baptism of our Lord, and which connects it with the Gospel reading about Zaccheus and with the Great Lent. This characteristic is the virtue of humility.

Just consider, dear brethren, how the momentous event of God’s coming down to earth and becoming incarnate - occurred with the greatest modesty. There were no pomp and circumstance, no fanfare, only the angels sang the glory and the majesty of the One Who was born in a humble cave, and this singing was heard only by humble shepherds.

Afterwards, the early years of our Saviour’s life also passed in anonymity. And then came the moment when He appeared publicly to begin His service to mankind. This momentous event, too, took place without pomp or circumstance, without fanfare: the Lord quietly came to the river Jordan, in order to be baptized by John just like all the other repentant sinners. And it was only John the Baptist, and the others who were there, - who had repented and were cleansed, - who saw the majesty of this moment in the first open appearance on earth of the Holy Trinity: God the Father speaking from heaven, God the Son being baptized in Jordan, and God the Holy Spirit descending as a dove and bearing witness to God’s imminent reconciliation with mankind.

It is this virtue of humility, which the Lord Jesus Christ Himself teaches us by the example of His entire life on earth, which the Church offers to us - in the Gospel reading about Zaccheus - as the beginning and the foundation of our purification, our spiritual regeneration, our unification with Christ.

In terms of human judgment, Zaccheus was a great sinner. First of all, in his capacity as head of the publicans, i.e. tax collectors, he was a thief and extortionist. By keeping back part of the money which he collected, he robbed both the people and the government, became rich at the expense of his neighbors, and cast widows and orphans into poverty. Moreover, by working for the occupying Roman forces, he was a traitor to his own people and showed himself as being unscrupulous. However, from the description of his meeting with the Saviour we see that Zaccheus was not a hopeless sinner, because he was not filled with that certain pride which would have forever barred him from salvation.

The Gospel tells us of how the Lord passed through Jericho, where this Zaccheus lived. Zaccheus, who had obviously heard of this new and extraordinary Teacher, showed a lively interest in Him. Zaccheus did not haughtily remain at home, disdaining to run after the crowd, nor did he try to push his way forward or demand to be let through before everyone else. He humbly waited to see Christ along the way, and he showed his ardent desire to see the Lord by climbing up into a sycamore tree, because he was short in stature.

Consider this moment, dear brethren: Zaccheus ardently desires to see the Lord, humbly waits to see Him and then overcomes all barriers to his desire: by climbing up into a tree he overcomes the physical impediment of his stature, and also overcomes the psychological impediment of his important position, the possibility of being mocked and ridiculed by others, etc.

And what do we see? What does humility lead to, even of such a great sinner as Zaccheus? “Zaccheus!” - the Lord says to him, - “make haste and come down, for today I must abide at thy house.” With these words the Lord says to Zaccheus: I must abide with you, because you have opened up your heart to Me, you have come to meet Me; I must abide at your house, that is, in your heart, because your humility has merited My grace; I must abide with you, because you have now become totally transformed spiritually, and I must strengthen this within you; I must abide within your heart, because it is now ready to accept Me.

Thus we see how humility brought Zaccheus to his meeting with the Saviour; how humility attracted God’s grace to him; how humility transformed his entire being, made him cry out: “Lord! half of my goods I will give to the poor, and if I have taken anything from any man falsely, I will restore it fourfold.”

Such is the effect of humility, dear brethren! Let us follow the example of Zaccheus’ humility, let us burn with his ardor to see Christ, let us overcome all impediments to meeting with Christ, in order for the Lord to say to us: today I must abide at thy house, the house of thy heart. Amen.

With God’s help we have now reached the beginning of Great Lent, dear brethren. Whenever we embark upon something in our lives, we first prepare a plan of action, a program of what we must do and in what order. But in this case we do not need to do anything. Today’s Gospel presents us with such a program. The preceding three Sundays the Church simply instructed us, but now it requires us to take action. If we listen attentively to today’s Gospel reading, we will see how simple and easily accessible are the guidelines which the Church presents to us.

“For if you forgive men their trespasses, your Heavenly Father will also forgive you; but if you forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.” Thus, what is the purpose of the Great Lent? The purpose is to gain our Heavenly Father’s forgiveness of our trespasses. And how do we attain such a goal? By forgiving others their trespasses. Let us begin with that, for that is the first step.

Secondly: “Moreover, when you fast, be not like the hypocrites, of a sad countenance; for they disfigure their faces, so that they may appear fasting before people. But you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, in order to appear fasting not before men, but before your Father…” And so, dear brethren, let us not be hypocritical. Let us fast not for the sake of showing off before other people, but for the sake of pleasing God. Let us fast not sadly, but with spiritual joy.

And thirdly: “Do not amass treasures upon earth… but amass treasures in heaven…” This point of our Lenten program defines our entire course of action, guides our entire life. Let us make use of the time of the Great Lent, in order to distract ourselves not only from earthly concerns, but primarily from earthly desires, from the desire for and the acquisition of earthly material goods. Let us rather concern ourselves with the spiritual, with the acquisition of spiritual treasures: love, charity, repentance, cleansing of the soul, communion with God.

And lastly: “Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” Such is the aim of our life: for our heart to be in God, to be filled with God, for God to be our treasure! And this last is so important, that it is an incentive for us to work harder, to keep stricter fast, to stay in church longer, to pray more at home. For only then, having God in our purified and enlightened hearts, will we be able to cry out joyously: