Sunday of the Last Judgment (Meat Fare)

February 15, 2015

Apostle Onesimos of the Seventy; Venerable Eusubios of Syria; Martyr of Gaza; Venerable Dalmatos of Siberia

Hymns of the Day

Resurrectional Troparion– Tone 3

Let the heavens rejoice and the earth be glad, for the Lord hath done a mighty act with His own arm. He hath trampled down death by death, and became the first-born from the dead. He hath delivered us from the depths of Hades, granting the world the Great Mercy.

Troparion of St Joseph–  Tone 2

Proclaim, O Joseph to David, the ancestor of God, the amazing wonder, for by the angel they were revealed unto thee. For thou hast seen a Virgin great with child, and thou gave glory with the shepherds and didst worship with the Magi. Wherefore, plead with Christ God to save our souls.

Kontakion for Sunday of the Last Judgement– Tone 1

When Thou comest, O God, to earth with glory, and all creatures tremble before Thee, and the river of fire floweth before the Altar, and the books are opened and sins revealed, deliver me then from that unquenchable fire, and make me worthy to stand at Thy right hand, O righteous Judge.

Koinonikon (Communion Hymn)

Praise the Lord from the heavens, praise Him in the highest. Alleluia.

Epistle – Corinthians 8:8-9:2

Brethren, food will not commend us to God. We are no worse off if we do not eat, and no better off if we do. Only take care, lest this liberty of yours somehow become a stumbling block to the weak. For if any one sees you—a man of knowledge—at table in an idol’s temple, might he not be encouraged, if his conscience is weak, to eat food offered to idols? And so by your knowledge this weak man is destroyed, the brother for whom Christ died. Thus, sinning against your brethren and wounding their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ. Therefore, if food is a cause of my brother’s falling, I will never eat meat, lest I cause my brother to fall. Am I not free? Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord? Are not you my workmanship in the Lord? If to others I am not an apostle, at least I am to you; for you are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord.

Gospel – Luke 15:11-32

The Lord said, “When the Son of man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then He will sit on His glorious throne. Before Him will be gathered all the nations, and He will separate them one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, and He will place the sheep at His right hand, but the goats at the left. Then the King will say to those at His right hand, ‘Come, O blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry and you gave Me food, I was thirsty and you gave Me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed Me, I was naked and you clothed Me, I was sick and you visited Me, I was in prison and you came to Me.’ Then the righteous will answer Him, ‘Lord, when did we see Thee hungry and feed Thee, or thirsty and give Thee drink? And when did we see Thee a stranger and welcome Thee, or naked and clothe Thee? And when did we see Thee sick or in prison and visit Thee?’ And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.’ Then He will say to those at his left hand, ‘Depart from Me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels; for I was hungry and you gave Me no food, I was thirsty and you gave Me no drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome Me, naked and you did not clothe Me, sick and in prison and you did not visit Me.’ Then they also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see Thee hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to Thee?’ Then He will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it not to one of the least of these, you did it not to Me.’ And they will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”

Leo the Great, Pope of Rome – February 18^th

Leo was born in AD 400 in Tuscany, Italy. He was well-educated, but yearned for the spiritual life. He became a deacon and occupied a important position with St Cyril of Alexandria. He became an archdeacon under Pope Sixtus III, after whose death Leo was unanimously elected Bishop of Rome.

These were difficult times for the Church, when heretics assaulted Orthodoxy with their false teachings. Leo combined pastoral attentiveness with uncompromising firmness in the confession of the Faith. He was in particular one of the basic defenders of Orthodoxy against the heresies of Eutyches and Dioscorus of Alexandria, who taught that there was only one nature in the Lord Jesus Christ. He was also a defender against the heresy of Nestorius.  He actively promoted the convening of the Fourth Ecumenical Council, at Chalcedon in 451, to condemn the heresy of the Monophysites.

At the Council of Chalcedon, at which 630 bishops were present, a letter of Leo to the deceased St Flavian, Patriarch of Constantinople (447-449), was read. Flavian had suffered for Orthodoxy under the Robber Council of Ephesus in the year 449. In the letter of Leo, the Orthodox teaching about the two natures of Christ, divine and human, was set forth. All the bishops present at the Council were in agreement with this teaching, and so the heretics Eutyches and Dioscorus were excommunicated from the Church.

In 452, by the persuasive power of his words, he stopped Attila the Hun from pillaging Italy. Again in the year 455, when the Henzerich, the leader of the Germanic tribe of Vandals, turned towards Rome, Leo persuaded him not to pillage the city, burn buildings, nor spill blood.

Leo died in the year 461. His literary and theological legacy is comprised of 96 sermons and 143 letters, of which the best known is his Epistle to St Flavian.

[OrthodoxWiki]

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