The Last Judgement, Jean Cousin the Younger 1585, Musée du Louvre, Paris, France.

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You will be hated by all because of my name, but not a hair on your head will be destroyed.    Luke 21:17-18

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Have you heard of Pyotr Kuznetsov? This gentleman is the leader of the True Russian Orthodox Church. There are no reliable membership figures for this church. It is not a part of the Russian Orthodox Church. Anyway, he predicted the end of the world would come in May, 2025. Because of that, 35 members of his church hid themselves in a cave 400 miles southeast of Moscow last November waiting for the day. He promised them that on that day, they would be the ones to decide who would get into heaven and who would end up in hell. When the event did not happen, many of his followers refused to come out of the cave, and threatened to blow themselves up if the authorities tried to get them out. There is also the danger that water from melting snow will result in the cave collapsing. Their leader, who had been held in a psychiatric hospital, was allowed to try and convince the remainers to come out. This was partially successful, but the majority remained inside. The authorities seem to have left it up to them to decide what to do. And none of this would not have happened if they had simply read – and believed – Jesus’ words in today’s gospel: “See that you not be deceived, for many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am he,’ and ‘The time has come.‘ Do not follow them!” And note this, there seems to have been over 20 predictions of the end of the world since the year 2000. It seems there is something irresistible in predicting this Last Day despite Jesus’ prohibition on trying to do so. And note also that those “in the know” are always counted with the righteous, the saved, a judgement, you would think, is reserved for God alone…..

Today’s gospel does exactly that. It is typical at this time of the church’s year as it comes to an end that the readings begin to talk of the end time, but absolutely do not even suggest when that might be because nobody knows! But, that being the case, we are all still cautioned that we should at least be ready for that moment. And today’s gospel seems to be an inauguration of such thinking. Things will become harsh, wicked and intolerable, Jesus says, and many will be persecuted because of his name, but he promises “not a hair on your head will be destroyed”, a strange thing to say of those martyrs who will be tortured, maimed and executed in the most brutal ways possible. But having lived through such degrading and humiliating punishment, a pure and glorified, undamaged soul will be welcomed into heaven. And then there is this fact: over 14,000 named individuals have been declared martyrs for the Faith over the centuries up to today. One of the latest martyrs, St. Edith Stein, canonized in 1998, died in the Nazi death camp of Auschwitz in 1942. Even more recently canonized martyrs (October 2025) were St. Peter To Rot, the first saint from Papua-New Guinea who died at the hands of the occupying Japanese troops in 1945, and St. Ignatius Maloyan who died in the persecution of the Christian Armenian people during the First World War in the Ottoman Empire. And there is, of course, St. Carlo Acutis, who died age 15 of leukemia but lived a life, extremely short as it was, of dedication to God. And even though he did not die a martyr, he died in the faith and love of God even though his life was cut horribly short due to leukemia. Who knows who is dying today for the faith with so many wars and so much hatred in so many places? Our saints displayed so great patience, tolerance and even love for their persecutors that they can stand beside the Lord as faithful followers to the end. Most of us, of course, will never face such hatred, so we can only guess how we would react, but we can hope that it would be worthy of a disciple of Jesus. But we can pray for those who are faced with impossible situations wherever in the world. Christians have been confronted with hatred for centuries, and one wonders why, as we pray for everyone, wish everyone good health and happiness and trust they will be happy and perhaps open to seeing the good in us Christians and wondering on what it is based. 

And also remember that each one of us will have to face a more intimate judgement when we are called from this vale of tears. There might not be trumpets braying or cymbals crashing, but we will certainly know that the time of reckoning for us, individually and alone, has come. We will stand before God and made to answer for our actions throughout our life. And today, unlike then, we can do something about those times when we failed the Lord, failed ourselves and ended up in a mess. Now is the precious time when we can make amends, show our true Christian identity and act accordingly. As the year ends, perhaps now is the time to make resolutions and strengthen our identity as a child of God and our vocation as Christ to the world. 

The Last Judgement, Michelangelo 1541, Sistine Chapel, Vatican City State.

(Note, by tradition, the bottom right hand corner of most depictions of the Last Judgement shows those who have not been faithful being thrown into Hell)

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