Holy Metropolis of Kythera - Sunday's message (15-02-2026)

SUNDAY MESSAGE (audio message)
BY HIS EMINENCE THE METROPOLITAN
KYTHIRA & ANTIKYTHIRA SERAPHIM
SUNDAY OF THE APOCALYPSE
OR OF THE FUTURE JUDGMENT
(15-02-2026)

WRITTEN DIVINE PROCLAMATION

On the third Sunday of the Triduum the Holy Fathers instituted that we should remember the event of the Second Coming of the Lord and the Last Judgment. Because, with the themes of the two previous Sundays, where we heard the parables of the Publican and the Pharisee and the Prodigal Son, negligent people can fall back into God's charity and not cooperate for their salvation, the Church reminds us with today's Gospel reading that God is not only good and charitable, but He is also just.

At His first coming, Christ came to earth in silver and preached His Gospel. He gave us laws and commandments, promises and warnings, and showed unlimited love and compassion to all. He warned people of the coming Judgment and tried to save people with the horror of Hell and the promise of His Kingdom.

But there is not only this first presence of the Lord on earth; there is another. Jesus Christ is «the one and the one and the one to come» (Rev. 1, 4,8); that is, he is the one who comes again, to «render unto him according to his deed» (Matt. 16,27), as the supreme and righteous Judge that he is, and the man «to reap what he has sown» (Gal. 6:7).

The Lord Jesus Christ will come as a man in the flesh, therefore, in glory at His Second Coming on the clouds, accompanied by myriads of angels, and will sit on a throne to render righteous judgment to each one, as «Righteous Judge of the living and the dead» (2 Tim. 4:8; Acts 10:42). The Son will judge the world impartially, justly and finally. His righteous judgment is due to His omniscience, since He is the only One who knows everything perfectly, past, present and future, the visible and the hidden of everyone. Because of the likeness the Son knows what the Father and the Holy Spirit know.

But why will the Son judge the world and not the Father or the Holy Spirit? The answer will be given to us by Photios the Great, Patriarch of Constantinople. Although energy is common and unchangeable in the three hypostases of the Holy Trinity, such as power, goodness and will, in the Son the office of Judge appears separately - with the Father and the Holy Spirit cooperating, of course. The incarnate Son is the Judge for many reasons: First of all, because he, through his incarnate economy, became the cause of the regeneration and the reconstruction of the human race after the fall. Therefore, reasonably and justly, He who regenerates will also judge His creature. Secondly, because the Son as a man is the lawgiver of the New Testament also, he reasonably becomes the Judge of men to whom he has given the law. Thirdly, because, being born a man, He gained experience and knowledge of human nature. For this reason the Judge should also have the same form as they, so that they could see him, and the judgment should be made in the familiar words, which the Gospel of Judgment mentions, and the knowledge of the judgments should be made clear to the ears and the intellect (see PG 101, 929-932).

My dears, «the day of the coming of the Lord will come suddenly at an hour we do not expect, just as the thief comes by night.» (1 Thess. 5:2). That dreadful day of Judgment, «Every man shall bear the burden of his own sins. Do not be deceived. God is not deceived, nor is he deceived. For man shall reap what he has sown.» (Gal. 6:5). «Those who provoke the Lord with their sins and believe that judgment and punishment will not be passed on them are deceived’ (Job 12:6). »God will judge all the deeds of men without exception, however hidden and forgotten they may be, both good and bad« (Eccl. 12:14). Let us not be made to confess on that day, with the foolish and foolish enemies of the Lord, »therefore we have sinned in the way of truth.« (Wis. Col. 5:6).

Let us, therefore, repent for all that we have done. But repentance is not a simple remorse for certain actions, nor a passive acknowledgement of mistakes, much less a hypocritical recantation of offensive words or actions against others, but an acknowledgement of God's mercy that comes with painful effort and a radical change of heart. We have lost God and we seek him with mourning and tears of repentance. «Let us sincerely love our Lord and God and let us awaken and recover from the snare of the devil, by whom we have been captured as slaves to do his will.» (cf. 2 Tim. 2:26). Amen.

Hierodeacon Ierotheos Creticus Creticus