Tag: heaven

Do I qualify for the Kingdom of Heaven?

Do I qualify for the Kingdom of Heaven?

Adapted from a sermon by Fr Antonios Kaldas

If we look at Tuesday Morning of Pascha, the last Gospel introduces the theme of two different kinds of people who relate to God. We hear Jesus talking about the end of the world and He asks, “Who will be on my left and who will be on my right.”

The criteria Jesus gave for who will be on His left and who will be on His right says, “I was hungry, and you fed Me, I was sick, and you visited me, I was naked, and you clothed Me” (Matthew 25:36).

The gospel tells us it’s hard to judge who will be where. When we look at those who Jesus speaks to at the end of the world, do you think it would be easy to tell who fed the hungry, who visited the sick and who clothed the naked and who didn’t? When you look around yourself and look at other people in your day to day life, do you know who feeds the hungry? Do you know who has visited the sick? Do you know who has clothed the naked? Chances are, those that do, aren’t walking around boasting about it. We simply, do not know.

The Gospels of Wednesday help us to try and understand how a person qualifies to be at the right hand of Jesus. Not so that we can look at the people around us and say, “you’re going to heaven,” it is so we can look at ourselves and determine if we qualify for the Kingdom of Heaven. The first hour of the Gospels is about the marriage banquet, here there are two types of people, those are invited to the wedding feast and refuse and those who rejoice to attend the wedding feast of Christ.

The second Gospel was the coming of Christ, here we see two types of people again. Two men in the field, one to be taken and one to be left. “Watch their fall because you do not know what hour the Lord is coming” – which one of them qualifies for heaven?

The third Gospel speaks of the two groups of virgins. The five foolish virgins on the left – they weren’t ready and the five wise virgins – they were ready. The fourth Gospel then talks about the hypocrisy of the scribes and pharisees.

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you build the tombs of the prophets and decorate the monuments of the righteous, 30 saying, ‘If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.’ 31 Thus you witness against yourselves.” (Matthew 23:29-31)

These are the people who think they’re going to heaven.

I give God my 5 minutes of prayer, I pay my tithes. What do I have in my life that is important enough for me to rush my prayer? What is more important than giving God my attention when I speak to him? Our prayers tell us something about our relationship with God, our prayers in itself give us a glimpse of which group we fall into.

There are people who believe that God created us to love Him and there are people that believe we create God to love us. The first group says, I exist for God. God is the one who made me, without God I would not exist, He wants me to experience the Joy of love. Therefore, all I do is for God and anybody else. Then there is the other group where, they make up a god in their image and their likeness. He is a god that is kind and merciful and doesn’t mind the sins I am committing. They never feel they have any problems. The problem is, they haven’t met the real God.

We have to be awfully careful to not create our ‘fantasy’ god. The god who will give me everything I want. A god who must make my life very successful. We can’t lead our real God into what we want Him to do.

In the famous words of C.S Lewis, “He is not a tame lion.” We must not think he will come and lick our hands; He has a mind of His own. We are His servants, that is why we say “thy will be done” when we pray Our Father. There are no footnotes at the bottom of Our Father saying, “but let my will be Your will. Please Lord want what I want. Please Lord give me what I want.”

We must deal with the real God, not this fantasy god.

Judas, created a fantasy god. He created a fantasy Jesus. Judas didn’t like it when he had to face the real Jesus, the real Jesus, didn’t approve of his greediness. Ask yourself this question, “Are my thoughts, my motivations, my actions, my words motivated by care for myself or are they motivated by genuine and sincere care for God and my neighbour?”

In recent times, the Church has been tainted with Western ideas. We think of our relationship with God ultimately as standing before a judge. A judge in a “legal” sense where He has a law, He has witnesses of what we’ve done. If we’ve broken the law, we take our punishment. If we haven’t, we will meet Him in heaven.

The Orthodox view has a different emphasis. Those who are going to go to Heaven are those who live in Heaven on earth. It’s not going to be a matter of getting there and having your accounts checked. If we start to live in Heaven on earth, when we get to meet Jesus and ask “Lord, can I please go to heaven,” His answer will be “No, because you’re already in heaven”.

What does it mean to live in Heaven on earth? It is to live united with God while we’re here on earth. Heaven is not defined by a location or characteristic, it is defined by the presence of God.

We can create our own hell on earth by turning away from God. By turning into ourselves and not to God, we turn away from Our God who is everywhere. God has said to us, your soul and your heart is free, God does not force Himself upon us or into our heart. This is why in oneself; we can turn away from God. We become selfish and self-centred. The person who lives in hell on earth, goes up and stands in front of Christ and says “no, I don’t want to be with you. I prefer myself.” And Christ would say “okay, I won’t force you.”

So, as it turns out, it is not God who decides where we go. We choose ourselves. This is the free choice God has given to every one of us. The choices we make in our lives, makes us who we are in the end.

Let us ask ourselves:

Who am I? What kind of person am I? Who is the real person I am that nobody sees? Have I met with the real God, or am I dealing with my fantasy god?

“Then the King will say to those on His right hand, ‘Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world”

Matthew 25:34

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Best Friends Forever

Best Friends Forever

By Demiana Salib

“Come on, Abanoub, it’s time to go.” I watch this priest finish tying up his shoes and walk out of the church of the Holy Sepulchre… alone. Was he talking to Abanoub, as in THE Saint Abanoub? Was I looking into things too much because I was expecting to see miracles being in Jerusalem? Very likely. But how cool would it be? Chilling in Jerusalem, the holiest of lands, with Saint Abanoub as your guide?

This isn’t as far-fetched as it sounds, but it does take effort. We read about the blessed friendships that existed between Tamav Ereeny and Abu Sefain or Pope Kyrillos VI and St Mina. The ones that seemed destined for sainthood even while still on earth.  

But what about us? Why would a saint want to be friends with me? I have nothing to offer a great saint. Our typically friendships are based on a healthy give/take balance. With the saints, there is nothing I feel that I can give to them. Despite this, there is something about our human states, that makes the saints want to befriend us, similar to a mentor or older sibling.

Throughout the history of time, we see the heavenly guiding those on earth. When Isaiah stood in the presence of God, he was immediately drawn to repentance. Not because of his sins, but because of whose presence he was in. It was at this moment that the Holy Spirit implored him to uncover his sinfulness before the Almighty. He says;

“Woe is me, for I am undone! Because I am a man of unclean lips, And I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips;

For my eyes have seen the King, The Lord of hosts.”

The awareness of his sinful state did not draw him to despair but to joy at the grace and mercy that comes to the repentant. He goes on to say;

Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a live coal which he had taken with the tongs from the altar. And he touched my mouth with it, and said:

“Behold, this has touched your lips;

Your iniquity is taken away,

And your sin purged.”

Through repentance, the heavenly hosts came to him to lift him up from his sin. For in any trials or tribulations that are given over to God, the heavenly come to the aid of us all. Prayer is not a quick fix to all our problems, but when praying with a repentant and contrite heart, we are elevated about all worldly concerns. The heavenly look upon this state with joy at the return of another one of Christ’s beloved children. When in communion with the heavenly, things are put into perspective; we look to the eternal and not the temporal. Isaiah was therefore, made clean and in turn, a vessel for God’s light to the nations. He goes on to say;

 Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying:

“Whom shall I send,

And who will go for Us?”

Then I said, “Here am I! Send me.”

For Isaiah, the strength that was given through the Seraphim that touched his lips gave him assurance he needed to commence his quest. The spiritual path is not one that we could ever do alone. We were meant to be in communion with those around us, especially the heavenly.

Father Lazarus El Antony says,

“Your prayers, your calling on the name of God, of Jesus, of St Mary, of St Anthony, of any saint, the saint which is closest to you – they will help you. The holy ones will help you. 

We are not alone, this is not an empty place. How can I live here by myself on my own power? I cannot. Before I became a monk I was used to a sedentary life: I was a lecturer in university, I was never going outside of my car and my office and my house and here I am living in the mountain – how can this be? Not by my power, but by the help of the witnesses who are around me, the holy ones who help me to support me…these falls remind me, that I am in the hands of the holy ones. 

And I advise all Christian youth, to put their lives in the hands of the holy ones who are around them; to hold them up, to support them.” 

The best thing about friendship with the saints is that they choose you. They want to know you. They see something in you. The saints see your struggle, they understand and they want nothing more than to bring you back to Christ in repentance. A great way to figure out who your saint is, is to start reading some of their stories. Read the Synaxarium, find your saint!

There is a humility in pursuing a friendship with someone on a higher spiritual level, similar to our own spiritual guides. While humility is a complex thing, the saints would keep us grounded. They give something to strive for every day. For every time you think you did okay, the saints did better. For every time you didn’t do well, they were born the same and they had the same struggles. They overcame so that they could guide us to the means of repentance. In a world full of doubt and uncertainty, a friendship with the saints can relieve the associated anxiety. Your only quest now is to choose from the multitude of amazing saints…

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