Today marks an unusual intersection of one of the 12 major feasts of the Church year, the Meeting of the Lord, with the Sunday of the Last Judgment, also known as Meatfare, in the immediate lead-up to Great Lent. In the Gospel we heard of how our Lord and God as a baby was brought to the Temple in accordance with Old Testament Law, and recognized by the Righteous Simeon and the Prophetess Anna while in the hands of the Most Holy Theotokos as the Righteous Joseph looked on. Simeon said, “’Lord, now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace, according to Thy word; for mine eyes have seen Thy salvation, which Thou hast prepared before the face of all people, a light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of Thy people Israel.’ And Joseph and His mother marvelled at those things which were spoken of Him. And Symeon blessed them and said unto Mary His mother, ‘Behold, this Child is set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel, and for a sign which shall be spoken against (yea, a sword shall pierce through thy own soul also), that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.’”

We also heard in the other Gospel reading today of the Final Judgment, when our Lord will ask who has helped the stranger, the hungry, the poor in need of clothing, the prisoner. Who helps them helps Me, our Lord tells us. And Meatfare reminds us to be less carnivorous during Lent, less brutal toward other creatures including one another. The Gospel readings and today’s overlapping feasts in the Church remind us of the unity of sinful human nature, and how it can be restored and healed and saved in our Lord. We should be sober and repentant and attend to this healing during Great Lent.  St. Theophan the Recluse writes of the Last Judgment that, 

“…this is what the holy Church wants now to impress in our hearts. Let us accept with feeling the desolation of the situation of the sinner on the last day, the desolation in which the Judgment, condemnation, and decision of that time will place him. Let us accept it and take care to avoid it. No one can escape the Judgment. Everything will be as it is written. “Heaven and earth shall pass away” but the word of God concerning this and the Judgment “shall not pass away” (Matt 24:35). Are we our own enemies? No. So let us hasten to avoid the calamity, anguish, and despair with which the Last Day threatens us. How do we avoid it? Either by righteousness or by justification through mercy. If you do not have the righteousness, by which you could stand with those on the right hand of the Judge, then be zealous to justify yourself before God in advance, washed by tears of repentance and purified by ascetic struggles of self-rejection, and you will be accepted into their number by justifying grace, if not by righteousness. Behold, the acceptable time has already begun (2 Cor 6:2). The eve of the fast already approaches. The reduction in the satisfaction of the needs of the flesh is now instituted to give more scope to the actions of the spirit. Prepare yourselves! And flee as much as it is possible according to your conditional relationships and the weakness of you character, that which has spoiled the coming week, the evil customs of the world; so that we are sufficiently prepared to enter the field of fasting and preparation for holy communion, to be purified, to establish ourselves in purity, and to confirm for ourselves the possibility to appear purified before the terrible throne of God the Judge of all. Amen.” (From Now is the Accepted Time.)

There also is an American secular holiday tomorrow, adjoining in the world our feasts and making it a long weekend for many in the world, whose history goes largely unnoticed today because it relates to an old sense of virtue. It is called Presidents’ Day, originally George Washington’s Birthday. In light of today’s Meeting of the Lord Feast, and Sunday of the Last Judgment, thd diminished secular holiday reminds us of how insufficient are all worldly cares. No matter how great a leader may be in worldly terms, no matter what powerful position and inspirational model someone can provide, it is nothing in the face of mortality and the vastness of God’s creation and His power, and fades over time. The old law was fulfilled by Jesus Christ even as a baby. Legalism and mechanics of government and economics, even when promoted through a leader like a George Washington, are no match for the ravages of time or the power of the Holy Spirit given to us by our Lord in the Church.

President Washington was a Freemason and a vestryman in a Protestant denomination and a slaveowner, but he was renowned for his character, and his expression of biblical virtues such as courage, self-control, and prudence was seen as a necessity for self-government in the new country of America. First in war, first in peace, first in the hearts of his countrymen, he was called.  Yet even the imperfect but renowned character virtues of a Washington, at their deepest level gifts from God in human nature, cannot in any legalistic framework save souls or nations. They may act as signs or encouraging reminders, alongside their imperfections. But the sustaining Spirit of real virtue comes through the Orthodox Church, in which uncreated energies of God support virtue as grace. That message of the Feast of the Meeting of the Lord has endured for two millennia, longer than any nation now on earth.

Saint Innocent of Kherson writes of how the Righteous Simeon in the account of the Meeting of the Lord is a model of virtue for us as Orthodox Christians for all time, of whom we are reminded today as we approach Great Lent. For while Simeon long before according to Church Tradition had doubted the Virgin birth when translating a prophecy of it from Isaiah, and was told he would not repose until he saw the prophecy fulfilled, he had learned patience and faith

St. Innocent wrote: “All the virtues were gathered together in St. Simeon: Love for neighbor nourished love for God and the fear of God in him; fear and love strengthened his faith in the Redeemer; his faith attracted the Holy Spirit; the Spirit accounted him worthy of revelation and gave him the chance to behold the Savior; beholding the Savior banished the fear of death – and St. Simeon departed in peace to where others can’t even look without trembling! Thus, here is the holy mystery of St. Simeon! This is how he came to such a precious opportunity – to die in peace! Whoever desires a death like his, let him walk his path: Be righteous and pious, believe in the Redeemer, try to become the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit – and you will be vouchsafed to behold your Savior!” (cited by Fr. Stephen Kaznicka)

Today Orthodoxy is increasing in the U.S. Some of us were at a conference this fall on Orthodoxy missionary work in America that bore the name of Philip Ludwell III, the first American Orthodox Christian, who was a cousin of First Lady Martha Washington and who moved in George Washington’s circles. Taking the long view, without the Orthodox mission to America, personified in Ludwell’s history, our country over time must devolve into just another declined power like many.

That would be like, at the Meeting of the Lord, focusing on the disappearing Old Testament laws being followed, rather than the baby Who is honored. Even at Church, it would be like following outward niceties of Orthodoxy, including practices of Great Lent, without giving to those in need from the heart, as our Lord says we must do, for Him to know us.

Brothers and sisters, let us not become just cogs in the wheels of what the Orthodox writer Paul Kingsnorth calls the global Machine of worldliness. Let us not in today’s world hurry to help with building some new tech Tower of Babel, whether it be via AI or other means, while trying to be good technocrats, or even superficial Orthodox Christians but not in the heart.

Let it not be so. Let this weekend’s conjunction of calendar dates from different dimensions remind us of the need for us to seek good strength and virtue from God in the Church for our missionary work, to help those in need, who are made according to the image of Christ, keeping the Last Judgment in mind. 

The Church is not legalistic or reducible to technology, however advanced. She is the Body of Christ. He fulfilled the law when He deigned to be borne in the arms of Simeon for our salvation in the Temple as a baby. Simeon’s prophecy applied not only to the early Church but in our day; “This Child is set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel and for a sign which shall be spoken against… that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.” Remember that Israel today is the Orthodox Church. Let us reveal our hearts by repentance, remembering the Final Judgment as we near Great Lent, and the danger of falling without seeking God’s mercy and His strength to grow our righteousness.

Following Simeon’s prophecy, with the Theotokos as intercessor, let us unworthily ask that a sword pierce through our own soul also, so that our hearts be opened and emptied in her Son, and that in Christ, in His Church, we may love our neighbors more than ourselves.That, by God’s grace. will save us at the Final Judgment. Glory to God for all things!

The Reading from the Holy Gospel according to Matthew,

§106 [25:31-46]

The Lord said: ‘When the Son of Man shall come in His glory and all the holy angels with Him, then shall He sit upon the throne of His glory. And before Him shall be gathered all nations, and He shall separate them one from another as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats. And He shall set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left. Then shall the King say unto them on His right hand, ‘Come, ye blessed of My Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I hungered, and ye gave Me meat; I was thirsty, and ye gave Me drink; I was a stranger, and ye took Me in; naked, and ye clothed Me; I was sick, and ye visited Me; I was in prison, and ye came unto Me.’ Then shall the righteous answer Him, saying, ‘Lord, when saw we Thee hungering and fed Thee, or thirsty and gave Thee drink? When saw we Thee a stranger and took Thee in, or naked and clothed Thee? Or when saw we Thee sick, or in prison, and came unto Thee?’ And the King shall answer and say unto them, ‘Verily I say unto you, inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these My brethren, ye have done it unto Me.’ ‘Then shall He say also unto them on the left hand, ‘Depart from Me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I hungered, and ye gave Me no meat; I was thirsty, and ye gave Me no drink; I was a stranger, and ye took Me not in; naked, and ye clothed Me not; sick and in prison, and ye visited Me not.’ Then shall they also answer Him, saying, ‘Lord, when saw we Thee hungering or athirst or a stranger, or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister unto Thee?’ Then shall He answer them, saying, ‘Verily I say unto you, inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to Me.’ And these shall go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into life eternal.’

Holy Gospel according to Luke, 

§7 [2:22-40]

At that time, the parents of the child Jesus brought him to Jerusalem, to present Him to the Lord (as it is written in the law of the Lord: ‘Every male that openeth the womb shall be called holy to the Lord’), and to offer a sacrifice according to that which is said in the law of the Lord: ‘A pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons.’ And behold, there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Symeon, and the same man was just and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel; and the Holy Ghost was upon him. And it was revealed unto him by the Holy Ghost that he should not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Christ. And he came by the Spirit into the temple; and when the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for Him after the custom of the law, then he took Him up in his arms, and blessed God and said, ‘Lord, now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace, according to Thy word; for mine eyes have seen Thy salvation, which Thou hast prepared before the face of all people, a light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of Thy people Israel.’ And Joseph and His mother marvelled at those things which were spoken of Him. And Symeon blessed them and said unto Mary His mother, ‘Behold, this Child is set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel, and for a sign which shall be spoken against (yea, a sword shall pierce through thy own soul also), that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.’ And there was one Anna, a prophetess, the daughter of Phanuel of the tribe of Asher. She was of great age and had lived with a husband seven years from her virginity, and she was a widow of about fourscore and four years. She departed not from the temple, but served God with fastings and prayers night and day. And she, coming in that instant, gave thanks likewise unto the Lord, and spoke of Him to all those who looked for redemption in Jerusalem. And when they had performed all things according to the law of the Lord, they returned into Galilee to their own city, Nazareth. And the Child grew and waxed strong in spirit, filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was upon Him.