‘Behold, the Bridegroom comes at Midnight!’ The Bridegroom is the LORD Jesus Christ. His Bride is the Church. When you were baptized into Christ, you became a member of His Bride. And, the LORD cherishes you as His own body (Eph 5.28-29).

And, Midnight is the Last Day of the world when the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat. [2Pe 3.10]. It is the Day of judgment and the perdition of ungodly men. [2Pe 3.7]

But the Last Day began – it ‘dawned’ (epefwsken) – when they placed the LORD’s body in the tomb (Lk 23.54). So, we are even now in the Last Day. As we read in Hebrews: ‘As long as it is called "Today" – before the Midnight Hour of the final Judgment comes – ‘let none of you be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin’ [Heb 3.13], lest you be destroyed by the all-consuming Fire of God’s Light that is terrible to sinners and to the devil and to all his hosts and all his pride!

‘And blessed is the servant whom He shall find watching.’ This is the faithful Christian, fighting daily to live in the oath of his baptism: to put to death his friendship with the world (Jm 4.4) and to unite himself, heart, soul, strength and mind, in love to the Heavenly Bridegroom, to Christ. The watchful servant lives in this world as a sojourner and a stranger because his citizenship is the Heavenly City of the New Heavens and the New Earth that will come with the Bridegroom at Midnight. The watchful servant is the Christian who strives to judge not according to appearances but according to true judgment so as not to be among those who refuse to love the truth because they love the lie, and who will be condemned because they chose to believe what is false, and to find their pleasure in unrighteousness [2 Th 2.10-12].

The servant whom the LORD finds watching, like the wise virgins, is the Christian who keeps his vigil lamp filled with oil. The vigil lamp is our heart. The oil is the love of God in the Holy Spirit we have received in the sacramental mysteries of the Church. We keep our vigil lamp filled with oil by remaining faithful to the Heavenly Bridegroom, redeeming the time of our days on this earth that are evil (Eph 5.16) by guarding ourselves, our thoughts and all our senses from the enticement of the passions lest we be ensnared by the spirit of delusion who works in the sons of disobedience (Eph 2.2).

‘And again, unworthy is the servant whom He shall find heedless.’ The heedless servant would be the Christian who is heedless of his sins. Instead of acknowledging them in compunction of soul, he chooses to ignore them. He is indifferent to the guilt and shame that seep into his soul like a noxious vapor because of them. If he comes to the sacrament of confession at all, he draws near the LORD with his lips while in his heart, he is far from the LORD [Isa 29.13]. Like a foolish virgin, he does not keep his vigil lamp filled with oil because he lives in friendship with the world, and so he lives his life as an enemy of God [James 4.4].

‘Beware, O my soul, lest you be weighed down by sleep, and lest you be given over to death and are shut out of the Kingdom.’

Love impels us to seek a beloved to cleave to. We can give our love either to the Heavenly Bridegroom, the Only Lover of Mankind, or to the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life. Our capacity to love is the talent God has given to us, it is the great mystery He has made us stewards of, it is the ‘water’ He desired from Photini, and that He desires from us. If we give our love to the Heavenly Bridegroom, we are faithful servants. If we give it to the passions – the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life – we are adulterers and fornicators and idolaters. And when Midnight comes, we will receive the lover we lived for in the daytime of our life (Eze 16.15ff): either the Only Lover of Mankind, or the foul spirit working in the sons of disobedience. And we will enter either with the Heavenly Bridegroom into His Heavenly Kingdom, or with the dark lord who is a liar and a murderer from the beginning into the ‘dust of death’ and into hell, where the worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched (Mk 9.44-48).

‘Therefore, O my soul, rouse yourself crying, Holy, Holy, Holy art Thou, O LORD! Through the Theotokos, have mercy on us!’ Hear what the Church is saying! We are free either to remain asleep in our love for the world, or to rouse ourselves and to cry out from our heart, ‘LORD have mercy on me, a sinner! Through the Theotokos, have mercy on me!’ For, ‘even in the depth of wickedness and the bondage of sin,’ writes St Macarius (Hom 15.36), ‘a man is at liberty to turn to what is good.’

‘Thy bridal chamber I see adorned, O Savior. And I have no wedding garment that I may enter. O Giver of Light, enlighten the vesture of my soul!’

You were created in the image and likeness of God. The Robe of Light, the wedding garment of Christ, your baptismal garment, fits you perfectly! The Bridegroom wants to clothe you with it; but He will not force you to put it on because He is love, and you, created in His image, are love, and love cannot be forced. You must want to put it on freely, of your own choice, out of love for the Bridegroom.

If we want to be clothed with the wedding garment of the Heavenly Bridegroom, we must act on it. We must repent, we must ‘convert,’ we must change our ways. And we can begin to act on it by coming to the services of Holy Week as much as we possibly can, and entering watchfully, mindfully, into the prayers of the Church.

We can begin by resolving to live this week in the world of the Church, the Bride of Christ, and not in the world that is passing away. For the worship of the Church embodies and makes incarnate in us Her love for Her Bridegroom. Let the Church, the Bride of Christ, therefore, embrace you and draw you close to Her Bridegroom. Let Her begin to restore you to your original beauty, so that when the Bridegroom comes at Midnight, even on your own Last Day, the day of your funeral, you may hear Him say as to the wise thief on the Cross: ‘Today, you will be with me in Paradise.’ Enter into the joy of your LORD!’ Amen!