Today is the Sunday of brightness that comes from the Divine Light of God. It is the light of His love, and it illuminates our way. The Holy Apostles saw it on Mount Tabor, and we see it in one another when God lives in our hearts. It is the light of a different world - uncreated, heavenly and salvific.
Yet sometimes, we prefer to remain in the darkness. Some may find it easier, less intimidating, or less painful. And then the enemy enters the scene to deceive us. He says to us: "Look at yourself! You have not done anything right or well. Why would God even look at you? So keep staying in the dark. His light is not for you!"
But let us not fall into this deception. God needs us. For us, He died on the Cross. For us, we are celebrating this liturgy is today. It is taking to a different dimension. It joins us in communion with our kin who have departed to eternity. The sins of the living and departed for whom we pray today are washed away in His cup. The liturgy gives us a foretaste of the life to come and calls us to follow His light.
Certainly, we cannot enter the life to come without preparation. There is no quick way to sever our links with things of the finite world. But we hear the call from heaven - "Lift up our hearts to the Lord! Lift up your hearts to His love!" It urges us to question ourselves, "Where is your heart now?" We know the honest answer: your heart is where your mind is. So let us keep up the hard work we have been doing so far throughout this Lenten season. Our every worship is a victory for Christ and a defeat for the enemy. Here at this church, we raise our prayers for the world and the salvation of all human beings. So let us not stop our prayer; let us continue our great struggle. "Seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well" (Matthew 06:33).
In our lives, we make choices, remembering about the Final Judgement. At the Final Judgement, we will know the whole truth about ourselves. But it is already opening to us as we speak. But beyond this truth, we never lose sight of God's love for us, the sinful people who choose to remain with God to the end, despite their infirmities.
And so I wish to all of you, my beloved, to have the power of judgement to defeat death. Death is the void of non-being with no Christ. We may die for Christ, having dedicated our lives to the service of others. Or we may choose to live our lives mindlessly and without meaning, and also die. But then we will not inherit eternity. We will have nothing but emptiness and the darkness of sin. That is not what we want; we want to be in His light.
