Sunday of All Saints

(Matthew 10:32-33, 37-38, 19:27-30)

            Last Sunday we celebrated the great feast of Holy Pentecost – when the promised Comforter, the Spirit of Truth descended upon the disciples of the Lord and the life of Grace within the Christian Church was born. It is very fitting that on this first Sunday after Pentecost, the Holy Church celebrates all of the saints of the Orthodox Church. It is fitting because Pentecost is the celebration of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon the Church and in the lives of those who live in devotion and surrender to the will of God. This life-giving and grace-bestowing presence of the Holy Spirit is precisely the key which opens to us the mystery of the sanctity of the lives of these holy men and women whom we glorify as saints. The saints are those who manifested most clearly within their lives the transforming glory of the Holy Spirit. In today’s Holy Gospel and in the Epistle read on this day we hear the call of Christ to sanctity and the path which we must be willing to walk if we are to follow Him.

            Today’s is not an easy Gospel for us to hear. Our Lord says the ‘he who loves his father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; and he who loves his son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me; and anyone who does not take up his cross and follow Me is not worthy of Me.’ Our Lord is asking for a complete devotion and surrender to God, letting nothing else eclipse our love for Him. He states further that ‘he who seeks to keep his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for My sake will find it.’ These are hard sayings and difficult for us to live up to! Indeed, the disciples were astonished and asked, ‘Who then can be saved?’ Jesus looked upon them with love and understanding and said, ‘With men this is impossible, but with God, all things are possible.’

            With God all things are possible… we must trust and believe these words of Christ our Lord! In today’s Epistle reading we hear of the glorious ones who did live in this determined devotion to God. This description of the holy prophets and righteous ones of the Old Testament is a fitting tribute to all the saints whom we celebrate today – who endured sufferings, mockings, persecution, of whom the world was not worthy.

            The Orthodox Christian is called upon to take up his cross and to have a perspective of ‘other-worldliness’. We must beware of getting so caught up in the little dramas of our lives that we lose perspective, we lose sight of the context of eternity. Our Lord has told us that ‘in the world, ye shall have tribulations, but don’t be discouraged, for I have overcome the world.’ This is the vision and the faith and the experience of our fathers… who endured their sufferings in the context of hope and trust in the Lord.

               The Apostle Paul writes: ‘If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom a father does not chasten? …Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.’

            And so we must not be discouraged or disheartened by trials and sufferings. God calls upon us to endure them in a spirit of patience and love, trusting God that through these struggles He is forging us in the image He desires. We do not have to understand… We have to trust. We have to surrender. We have to fix our eyes upon the bigger picture of eternity and of the healing of our souls toward salvation.

            But how can we overcome our fears? How can we give up our false sense of control? How can we get our attention elevated above the concerns of this life? How can we gain confidence to truly trust in the Lord?

            One of the most effective ways to do so is by acquainting ourselves with the lives of the saints. In reading their lives and becoming acquainted with their struggles, we will see over and over again the transformational grace of God in their lives. Not only will we be inspired by their heroic faith, but our own trials and tribulations will be put into perspective when compared with what they endured.

            And our study of the saints must never be academic. We are not reading historical biographies… we are coming into living contact with our brothers and sisters in the faith! We should pray to those saints whom we meet, we should lean upon them as those that have gone before us, those that have finished the race and have emerged victorious through Christ our God.

            Tomorrow we begin the Apostles’ Fast. Let us redeem this time by making our best effort to observe the fast, to make time for prayer and spiritual reading by reducing the worldly distractions of our lives. This fasting period is a perfect time to immerse yourself in reading the life and writings of a chosen saint. May that effort be blessed!

            On this Sunday of All Saints let us honor and celebrate all those holy ones who shone forth with the light of Christ. For it is none other than Christ Himself Whom we honor when we reflect upon and glorify the holy saints of God. All goodness, all courage, all pure teaching, all that we see and hear and respect in the lives of God’s saints, is precisely the clear reflection of Christ our God and our hope. Just as we are drawn to the light of the moon on a dark night, so we are drawn to the light of the saints in the darkness of our life. And just as the moon is not the source of light, but stands in the sky as a beacon and trusty reflection of the light of the sun, so too are the saints – they stand before us as beacons and reflections of the light of Christ.

            Holy saints of God, pray to God for us!