` But I will judge each of you according to your own ways. `
This is the worthiness of the moment. Did it find you in repentance? Did it find you in confession? Did it find you saying: `
` Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you.`[1]?
Did it find you shedding the tears of an authentic repentance and of self condemnation? In a moment God judges you as He promised:
The Lord is trustworthy in all he promises and faithful in all he does [2].
But if He finds you in the opposite – oh, man – then the eyes of your soul will be opened and you will see how much you damaged yourself. If God judges the man then the repentance is useless. When the feast ends, the countless words are useless as everything ended.
Oh, how great is this mystery. Oh, my God, my Sweet Jesus, open the eyes of my soul to see clearly this great mystery of my eternal salvation. To prepare victuals for myself being helped by your Grace so that at the end of my life I won`t be found without gain. As You see I don`t do anything at all, I only fill myself with all kinds of irrational passions.
Give me tears and true repentance before that last hour will come when I shall hear Your voice: `Prepare everything belongs to your house as you shall die and you won`t live anymore.
[1] Luke 15, 18.
[2] Psalms 144, 13.
Excerpt from Fatherly counsels– Archimandrite Ephrem Philotheos, Evanghelismos.
