Midweek Morning Meditation - Become What You Are

 

Source: uncutmountainsupply.com

Come, O believers,
Let us celebrate in song today,
Glorifying the memory of all the saints:
Hail, O glorious apostles, prophets, martyrs, and bishops!
Hail, O company of all the just!
Hail, O ranks of holy women!
Pray that Christ will grant our souls great mercy!

(Sunday of All Saints, Aposticha, Vespers)

The Sunday of All Saints fittingly follows the Sunday of Pentecost, for the saints of the Church are the “fruit” and manifestation of the Holy Spirit’s presence among us. They are the living icons that are transparent to the glory of God that shines in and through each of them as a gift of the Holy Spirit. The saints (literally, the “holy ones”) have “escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of passion and become partakers of the divine nature” (II PET 1:4). Created in the image of God, they “are being changed into his likeness from one degree of glory to another” (II COR 3:18). In the Book of Revelation, St. John has recorded his incomparable vision of the saints in heaven:

After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no man could number, from every nation, from all the tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits upon the throne, and to the Lamb!” (REV. 7:9-10)

Since, in the one Church of Christ, the heavenly and earthly realms are united, the saints are “the great cloud of witnesses” that surround us and exhort us to “run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith”(HEB. 12:1-2). At the most basic level, the saints are the true friends of God: “But to me, exceedingly honorable are Thy friends, O Lord”(PS. 138:16, LXX). The saints put Christ above all else in the fulfillment of their Master’s words:

"He who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and he who loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and he who does not take up his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for my sake will find it." (MATT. 10:37-39)

The words of the Scriptures are the seeds that nourish the life of sanctity which results in the slow transformation of a human being, made in God’s image, into the very likeness of God, so that this particular person becomes by grace what Christ is by nature. The saint is thus a scriptural man or a scriptural woman, inasmuch as he/she hears the Word of God and keeps it – meaning acting upon and living out what is heard. The saint has responded positively to the paradoxical admonition: “Become what you are!”

Now, as we like to say today: “No pain – no gain!” If we were “bought with a price” (I COR. 6:20), then we could say that the saints “bought” their sanctity at “a price,” abandoning security, comfort and safety which, we acknowledge, are so central to our own understanding of life. (It is rather easy, though it may go unnoticed, for Christians to be transformed in Epicureans over time: avoid pain and seek pleasure). Being “destitute, afflicted, and ill-treated” they “wandered over deserts and mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth.” As such, God has revealed that “the world was not worthy” of them. (HEB. 11:37-38)

The “diversity” of the saints is remarkable: fathers (and mothers), patriarchs (and matriarchs), prophets, apostles, preachers, evangelists, martyrs, confessors, ascetics, and every righteous spirit made perfect in faith,” culminating in “our most holy, most pure, most blessed and glorious Lady Theotokos and ever-virgin Mary” (Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom).

On the Sunday of All Saints, we do not commemorate only the saints whose names have been included on our ecclesiastical calendars; those, in other words, who have been officially “glorified/canonized” by the Church and whom we remember and venerate by name. We remember all of the saints, that vast multitude, both known and unknown, (symbolically numbered at 144,000 in the Book of Revelation; a multiple of 12 that signifies an incalculable figure as well as wholeness and totality – much to the dismay, I would imagine, of the Jehovah’s Witnesses) “who are written in the Lamb’s book of life” (REV. 21:27). Perhaps this will include our own ancestors who lived modest and humble Christian lives.

All of the saints, therefore, intercede before the throne of God on our behalf. They are with us and not cut off from us by death. Rather, they are now more alive than ever and being “in Christ” are present wherever Christ is present. The earthly lives of the saints become sources of inspiration and models of emulation for us, teaching by examples of faith, hope and love; of long-suffering, perseverance and patience; of lives steeped in prayer, almsgiving and fasting. They do not discourage us because they attained what may seem unattainable to us; but rather they encourage us to struggle to overcome our weaknesses as men and women who did precisely that in their own lives. They were not born saints or privileged from birth. They became saints by co-operating with the grace of God. We, in turn, simply need to become what we already are: saints of God through Baptism and Chrismation and membership in the Church!

Many of us are deeply impressed by the total dedication, perseverance, training, commitment and love of the sport exhibited by today’s athletes. (Possible envy of their great wealth and fame is a different subject). Many may shake their heads in disbelief or nod in admiration. Hardly anyone will call these athletes “fanatics.” But if someone is that single-minded and intent upon the life in God, that is a word that will inevitably ring out. But the saints are not fanatics – they simply have a passion for God and put the Gospel and the Kingdom of God above all else.

To be inducted into any particular Hall of Fame – from baseball to Rock ‘n Roll – is considered to be a great human achievement and a goal only an elite few could even aspire to. However, these Halls of Fame are the secular and rather pale – if not pitiful – reflections of an earlier age’s striving for the heavenly realm of the Kingdom of God. The saints looked beyond the fleeting and temporal “glory of men” to the unchanging and eternal “glory of God.” That seems to be the vocation of all Christians and the Lord’s desire for us.

Coffee With Sister Vassa: How Do We Celebrate The Saints?

 

HOW DO WE CELEBRATE THE SAINTS?

“…Woe to you! for you build the tombs of the prophets whom your fathers killed. So you are witnesses and consent to the deeds of your fathers; for they killed them, and you build their tombs. Therefore also the Wisdom of God said, ‘I will send them prophets and apostles, some of whom they will kill and persecute,’ that the blood of all the prophets, shed from the foundation of the world, may be required of this generation, from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, who perished between the altar and the sanctuary. Yes, I tell you, it shall be required of (ἐκζητηθήσεται) this generation.” (Lk 11: 47-51)

How chilling, that in this series of “woes” on the Pharisees and lawyers, the Lord equates their “building the tombs of the prophets” with condoning the killing of the prophets. Clearly, our Lord knew that the usual meaning behind“building a tomb” of a prophet, – just like financing a church-building in honor of certain martyrs, – is to honor the martyrs, and not their killers or persecutors. But in the case of the “building-projects” of the Pharisees and lawyers, our Lord sees the hearts of the builders, filled not with the Spirit “Who spoke by the prophets,” but with enmity to Him and His truth-tellers, including Jesus Christ, the Lord of the Prophets that now stood before them, in the flesh, and Whom they intended to kill. 

So, in our Church’s reading for this November 1, when many Christians celebrate the feast of All Saints, I’m reminded of the fact that our external veneration of the saints is also to be aligned with being “on their side” in Spirit. I’m also reminded not to be discouraged in our day, when we see churches being erected by those who persecute the truth-tellers of our time; when we see how the Patriarch of our own church is building more and more new churches in Moscow, while defrocking and persecuting our truth-telling priests; while blessing the destruction of churches and people in Ukraine; while condoning the imprisonment and/or execution of journalists and others who testify against all this. But God doesn’t “forget” those He sends us, as Christ tells us above, however marginalized and forgotten they may be today, and just as we, ultimately, will not forget them, but will celebrate their memory. All Saints, pray to God for us!

____

A timely reflection, indeed, from the indomitable Sister Vassa! A much-needed prophetic voice within the Church! Please be sure to read her final paragraph very carefully and all that it implies for the Church's witness - or is that lack of witness - to the world. When it comes to the Spirit-inspired saints, we need to be "on their side" as we read above - even when that is unpopular. Are "truth-tellers" becoming a  rare phenomenon? That would be a real loss, for that is the way of Christ.

Why We Celebrate the Saints

 

 

Dear Parish Faithful,

This is from Dn. Johnothon Sauer, delivered when he led a Reader Service in Lima, OH, a few years back. It anticipates this Sunday's commemoration of the Saints of North America

_____

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Glory to Jesus Christ!

My family will be bored with this sermon, because they have heard the stories I’m about to tell over and over and over again. But they’re good stories, so they’re worth hearing one more time.

The dining room set in our home is antique cherry wood. Before it came to us, it belonged to my grandparents, my mom’s mom and dad. It still feels strange to sit in grandpa’s chair. Not that he ever made a rule about sitting in the chair; it’s just that no one else ever did, as a sign of respect. One of the pieces of the dining room set is a buffet, about six feet wide and three feet tall. On the buffet is a collection of photos, of family and friends and events from our life. We have other photos scattered around our home, on the walls and on end tables, but this is the largest single collection. I think every home has such a collection. How could we not?

Above the buffet is a large mirror that takes up about one-third of the wall, and on either side of the mirror are four 8x10 photos, so two on each side of the mirror. There is a photo of my wife and me at our wedding, one of my mom and dad, one of my wife’s mom and dad, and one of my grandparents, my mom’s mom and dad. While it is completely fair to say that there have been a lot of people who have had a positive impact on my life, there has always been something special about grandma and grandpa, and about grandpa in particular.

He owned and ran a restaurant for over thirty years. He was Sicilian, and it was an Italian restaurant, and as such he made all of the Italian food from scratch: the spaghetti sauce, the noodles, the lasagna, the ravioli, the meatballs...all of it. He woke up around 4:30 every morning, and went into the restaurant to begin preparing the food for the day. He would cook through the lunch rush, get home around 3 in the afternoon, take a short nap, make sure things were ok, and then return to the restaurant for the dinner rush. The restaurant closed at 8, and on a normal night he was home around 9:15. And he would wake up the next morning to do it all over again. Every day, Monday through Saturday, for over thirty years. I know where my work ethic comes from. The restaurant was closed on Sundays, by the way. That was family day, and we were at their house every other Sunday. The alternating weeks were spent with my dad’s family.

Grandpa had a great sense of humor. Not the kind that came from telling a joke, because he couldn’t. He would try, but he would start thinking of the punchline about halfway through telling the joke, and start laughing so hard that he couldn’t finish. So the rest of us were laughing, not at the joke he was trying to tell, but rather at him trying to tell the joke. No, the sense of humor I inherited from him was the laughter that comes from everyday life. 

As an example, grandpa taught me how to drive. Their home sat in the middle of ¾ of an acre, with just enough trees to make a decent obstacle course. So one Sunday afternoon, he took me to the garage, pulled out the 1972 Pontiac LeMans, pointed it at the lawn, moved to the passenger seat, and told me to get behind the wheel. I was under strict orders to not touch the gas pedal. The car idled at around 35 miles per hour, so just letting your foot off the brake meant the car was moving more than fast enough for someone who was just learning how to drive. I gently let my foot off of the brake, and off we went, to the right of one tree, to the left of another, to the right of the next, around the corner of the house, dodged a couple more trees and around another corner, so that we’re now on the side of the house with the kitchen window. I promise you, he didn’t look. He was focused on making sure we didn’t hit any trees. But he said, “Turn to your left and wave to your grandma. She should be yelling at us from the kitchen window by now.” I turned to look and sure enough, there she was, arms flailing. I’m not sure what she was yelling at us, but I’m fairly certain she wasn’t happy. I look to my right, and grandpa is just sitting there, laughing. There are many such stories. Stories of Christmas, and Easter egg hunts, sure, but mostly stories of Sunday afternoons.

Grandpa passed away in September of 1991, three months before the birth of our first child. He and grandma liked to go to the horse races, and on this day, they had lawn seats. Grandpa drove, as he always did since grandma didn’t have her license, parked the car, and got the lawn chairs out of the trunk. They went in, found a place on the lawn, grandpa set up the chairs, and they sat down. Grandma looked at her program, and looked over at grandpa, and he was gone. Massive heart attack. That night at grandma and grandpa’s house, I remember my mom asking, “Who am I going to call now when I need advice?” I understood the question then as well as I do now, because there was a simplicity and a wisdom just in the way the man lived that taught the rest of us more than I think he ever realized. Even now, there are times when I will go to the dining room, look at the photo to the left of the mirror, just above the buffet, lean in close, and listen as hard as I can for even a whisper of that wisdom, and for the laughter.

 

 

When people ask me why we have icons in our homes and in our churches, why we ask the saints to pray for us, why we celebrate the saints, I tell them what I just told you. I tell them about my grandpa, because I think everyone has at least that one person in their life who just seems to have the wisdom they need to live the way they should. That is who the saints are for us. Their lives contain the simplicity and wisdom we need to live the way we should. The icon corner in our home is the buffet, full of photos of the family and events of our Orthodox faith, and even though all of the photos are important, there are those few photos that are just a little more special to us, that receive a special place in our home. In our home, this is the icon of St. Alexis Toth. 

The church sets aside two Sundays, dedicated to celebrating the saints. Last Sunday was the Feast of All Saints, so it was the celebration of the entire family. Today is the Feast of the Saints of North America, so it’s the celebration of the immediate family, of the people whose stories we have heard and told over and over and over again, until we are bored with them. But they’re good stories, full of the simplicity and wisdom we need to live the way we should. So they’re worth hearing one more time.

Why do we have icons in our homes? Why do we celebrate the saints? Why do we tell their stories over and over again? Like the stories about my grandpa, and like the photos on the buffet: How could we not?

Amen.

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Glory to Jesus Christ!

 

The Saints: Examples of Holiness

Dear Parish Faithful & Friends in Christ,

We recently celebrated the Great Feast of Pentecost on June 4. Therefore the following Sunday is called, simply enough, The First Sunday After Pentecost. All of the subsequent Sundays of the liturgical year, until the lenten Sundays of  next year, will be so numbered, challenging us to keep our spiritual sight on the overwhelming significance of Pentecost in the divine economy. 

The New Testament era of the Church began its existence on the Day of Pentecost with the Spirit’s descent as a mighty rushing wind that took on the form of fiery tongues alighting upon the heads of the future apostles [Acts 2:1-13]. The Church has always existed, but the Church as a remnant of Israel that would flourish and grow with the addition of the Gentiles began its final phase of existence with the death, resurrection and ascension of God’s Messiah, Jesus Christ Who, seated at the right hand of the Father, would send the Holy Spirit into the world and upon “all flesh” on the day of Pentecost. 

As Saint Epiphanius of Cyprus wrote in the fourth century, “The Catholic Church, which exists from the ages, is revealed most clearly in the incarnate advent of Christ.”

The simple calendar rubric of numbering the Sundays after Pentecost is one way of reminding us of this essential truth of the Christian Faith. The Church is the Temple of the Holy Spirit, and in and through the sacramental life of the Church we experience something like a permanent pentecostal outpouring of the Holy Spirit.
The first two Sundays after Pentecost are dedicated to the saints -- the first, to All Saints, and the second, to local Saints, in our case, the Saints that have shown forth in North America. We commemorate all of the saints of the Church – men, women and children -- from her beginning to the present day, including "ancestors, fathers, mothers, patriarchs, matriarchs, prophets, apostles, preachers, evangelists, martyrs, confessors, ascetics and every righteous spirit made perfect in faith.” That is, the entire “cloud of witnesses” that surround us and pray for us while serving as models for our own faith. 

God has revealed to the Church His innumerable saints, and we rejoice in their continuous presence, made possible by the ongoing presence of the Holy Spirit. The divine and co-eternal Spirit, holy by nature, makes human beings holy by grace. That is why these particular Sundays fall so naturally after the Sunday of Pentecost.

The word we use for "saint" is the Greek word for “holy” – agios. In a real sense, we are celebrating the presence of holiness in the world, incarnate in actual flesh and blood human beings. The descent of the Holy Spirit makes it possible for human beings to become and remain holy. Without the Holy Spirit, human beings can be nice, pleasant and even good – but not holy. And it is the holiness of the saints that is their one common characteristic, expressed in an endless diversity of vocations. 

Every baptized and chrismated member of the Church is already a saint – a person sanctified and set apart as a member of the People of God – and every such member has the vocation to become a saint. The phrase often used to capture this paradox of the Christian life is “become what you already are.” This phrase expresses an entire lifetime of striving and struggle to attain, by God’s grace, the highest of vocations – the holiness of a genuine child of God, “born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God” [John 1:13]. 

Of this we are reminded in the Gospel reading for the Sunday of All Saints: 

“So everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father Who is in heaven; but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father Who is in heaven...

"He who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and he who loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and he who does not take up his cross and follow me is not worthy of me” [Matthew 10:32-33, 37-38].

 

We probably have a difficult time relating to such a passage, since we expend an enormous amount of energy – time, talent and treasure -- in order to guarantee for ourselves a comfortable life and the closest of possible family relationships. God and Church may be a part of that choice, but perhaps only as one compartment of life among many. At times, the greatest of our goals may be to create a certain form of “domestic bliss,” to the extent that this is humanly attainable. Nothing else can seem greater or more desirable.

Jesus, however, makes other claims on us. And the first of those radical claims is that we must love Him above all else – including father and mother, son and daughter. This is a “hard teaching.” 

Perhaps it is here that we discover the greatest “achievement” of the saints, and the reason behind the sanctity that they often so clearly manifest. They simply loved Christ before all else. And there is nothing that can deflect them from that love. 

But in no way does this diminish our love for our loved ones. I believe that if we love Christ before all else, then we would have a greater love for those around us, including our very family members. Of course, when a choice must be made between Christ and family, it must be Christ, whatever the "cost" of that choice may be. To love Christ above all else is to expand our very notion and experience of love. If we live “in Christ,” we can then love “in Christ.” Elsewhere, Jesus would claim that this would include our enemies! This is a love that will not disappoint.

With any other deeper love, there is always the lurking temptation of succumbing to one form of idolatry or another. Jesus even says that if we love anyone else more than Him, we are not “worthy” of Him! Clearly, there is nothing easy about bearing the name of Christ and calling oneself a Christian. Is all of this impossible? Jesus teaches that “with men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible”[Matthew 19:26].

We share the most difficult of vocations – to live up to our high calling in Christ Jesus. This is not something that we achieve on our own, but a process that includes the grace of God and our own self-determination, what we call our freedom of choice or “free will.” There are obstacles that begin with the genetic and the environmental. There are distractions and temptations too numerous to keep track of. There is the unbelief of the world around us. Yet, if we approach this “day by day,” we soon realize that we are simply trying to become genuine human beings, for the glory of God is a human being fully alive, to paraphrase Saint Irenaeus of Lyons. 

As disciples of Christ, we have the “inside track” to allow us to “run with perseverance the race that is before us” [Hebrews 12:1]. So, we thank God for the multitude of the saints who not only set an example for us, but who also pray for us unceasingly in the Kingdom of God.

 

The Holy Spirit's Presence in the Church

Dear Parish Faithful,

I opened my homily yesterday, by pointing out the possibility of seeing the last three Sundays as forming something of a "thematic trilogy:" The Sunday of Pentecost; The Sunday of All Saints; and The Sunday of the North American Saints, are profoundly connected because it is the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost that transforms human persons into vessels of the Holy Spirit. Yes, the glory of Pentecost can fade quickly as we enter into the month of July, wherein following the Feasts of the Apostles Peter & Paul, nothing that "special" seems to happen until August. To make the point yet again, perhaps that is why we number the Sundays from Pentecost onwards up to next year's Great Lent, as "after Pentecost."  

As is often the case, it is the Apostle Paul who articulates this truth to us in a passage of deep encouragement and comfort: "May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope." (ROM. 15:13) It is fitting that we dedicate a season of fasting in preparation for the Feast of the Apostles Peter & Paul, in that the two great apostles were clearly vessels of the Holy Spirit in their fruitful ministries to both the circumcised and uncircumcised, respectively. Here, I would simply like to share the insights from a fine passage from Fr. John Breck who wrote a summary paragraph of the role and work of the Holy Spirit in the divine economy, and in the life of Christian believers. This passage gives us a sense of the extraordinarily rich and varied aspects of the Spirit’s presence in the Church which is the Temple of the Holy Spirit. I am breaking down Fr. John’s paragraph in a more systematic manner:

The Spirit …

+ Prays within us and on our behalf (ROM. 8:26).

+ He works out our sanctification (ROM. 15:16; I COR. 6:11; II THESS. 2:13; GAL. 5:16-18).

+ He pours out God’s love into the hearts of believers, enabling them to address the Father by the familiar and intimate name, “Abba” (ROM. 5:5; 8:15-16; GAL. 4:6).

+ He confirms out status as “children of God” through His indwelling presence and power (ROM. 8:16; GAL. 4:6).

+ He guides and preserves the faithful in their ascetic struggles against the passions (GAL. 5:16).

+ And He serves as the source and guarantor of our “freedom” from the constraints of the Law, a freedom which enables us to behold the glory of the Lord (II COR. 3:17-18).

+ The Holy Spirit "seals" the Sacraments of the Church with His transforming presence, so that the Sacraments are indeed the source of our personal and collective sanctification: "Send down Thy Holy Spirit upon us and upon these Gifts ..."

Looking up these passages in the Bible may further prove to be helpful in gaining a sense of the ongoing and endless gifts that the Holy Spirit brings to the Church and to our personal lives.

_____

To add a little bit more to these “fragments,” I would like to include a passage from Veselin Kesich’s book The First Day of the New Creation. In his discussion about Pentecost, Prof. Kesich offers a good summary of the Orthodox position concerning the issue of the filioque. As Orthodox Christians, we continue to recite the Nicene Creed in its original form, without the interpolation of the filioque, the Latin term that means “and from the Son,” when proclaiming the eternal procession of the Holy Spirit from the Father. Prof. Kesich summarizes the Orthodox position based upon a careful reading of the Scriptures. The “filioque controversy” remains to this day a divisive point of contention between the Orthodox and Roman Catholic Churches respectively – and those Western churches that also use the term. The point to be made is not about remaining entrenched in a polemical position, but to try to come to some understanding as to why the Orthodox have never embraced this later addition to the Nicene Creed. In the words of Prof. Kesich:

It is equally true that the Fathers sends the Spirit (JN. 14:16, 26). The Son sends the Spirit, but the source of the Spirit is the Father, for the Spirit proceeds from the Father (JN. 15:26). The verb “proceed” that is used in JN. 15:26 is ekporeuomai. When it is said that the Son “comes forth” from the Father the verb is exerchomai. St. John consistently uses the latter verb whenever he speaks of the Son coming forth from the Father (8:42: 13:3; 16:27f.; 16:30; 17:8). The Spirit and the Son have the same and only origin. They are two distinct persons. Their missions are not identical. Although the Spirit had not been given because Jesus was not yet glorified (JN. 7:39), yet it is nowhere stated in St. John’s Gospel that the Spirit “proceeds” from the Son as he proceeds from the Father. Therefore, there is no filioque here.

The entire book by Prof. Kesich - The First Day of the New Creation - is very much worth the time and effort!

 

Become What You Are!

 

 

Dear Parish Faithful & Friends in Christ,

Come, O believers,
Let us celebrate in song today,
Glorifying the memory of all the saints:
Hail, O glorious apostles, prophets, martyrs, and bishops!
Hail, O company of all the just!
Hail, O ranks of holy women!
Pray that Christ will grant our souls great mercy! 

(Sunday of All Saints, Aposticha, Vespers)

 

The Sunday of All Saints fittingly follows the Sunday of Pentecost, for the saints of the Church are the “fruit” and manifestation of the Holy Spirit’s presence among us. They are the living icons that are transparent to the glory of God that shines in and through each of them as a gift of the Holy Spirit. The saints (literally, the “holy ones”) have “escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of passion and become partakers of the divine nature” (II PET 1:4). Created in the image of God, they “are being changed into his likeness from one degree of glory to another” (II COR 3:18). In the Book of Revelation, St. John has recorded his incomparable vision of the saints in heaven:

After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no man could number, from every nation, from all the tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits upon the throne, and to the Lamb!”  (REV. 7:9-10)

Since, in the one Church of Christ, the heavenly and earthly realms are united, the saints are “the great cloud of witnesses” that surround us and exhort us to “run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith”(HEB. 12:1-2). At the most basic level, the saints are the true friends of God:  “But to me, exceedingly honorable are Thy friends, O Lord”(PS. 138:16, LXX). The saints put Christ above all else in the fulfillment of their Master’s words:

"He who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and he who loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and he who does not take up his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for my sake will find it." (MATT. 10:37-39)

 

The words of the Scriptures are the seeds that nourish the life of sanctity which results in the slow transformation of a human being, made in God’s image, into the very likeness of God, so that this particular person becomes by grace what Christ is by nature. The saint is thus a scriptural man or a scriptural woman, inasmuch as he/she hears the Word of God and keeps it – meaning acting upon and living out what is heard. The saint has responded positively to the paradoxical admonition: “Become what you are!”

Now, as we like to say today: “No pain – no gain!” If we were “bought with a price” (I COR. 6:20), then we could say that the saints “bought” their sanctity at “a price,” abandoning security, comfort and safety which, we acknowledge, are so central to our own understanding of life. (It is rather easy, though it may go unnoticed, for Christians to be transformed in Epicureans over time: avoid pain and seek pleasure). Being “destitute, afflicted, and ill-treated” they “wandered over deserts and mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth.” As such, God has revealed that “the world was not worthy” of them. (HEB. 11:37-38)

The “diversity” of the saints is remarkable: fathers (and mothers), patriarchs (and matriarchs), prophets, apostles, preachers, evangelists, martyrs, confessors, ascetics, and every righteous spirit made perfect in faith,” culminating in “our most holy, most pure, most blessed and glorious Lady Theotokos and ever-virgin Mary” (Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom).

On the Sunday of All Saints, we do not commemorate only the saints whose names have been included on our ecclesiastical calendars; those, in other words, who have been officially “glorified/canonized” by the Church and whom we remember and venerate by name. We remember all of the saints, that vast multitude, both known and unknown, (symbolically numbered at 144,000 in the Book of Revelation; a multiple of 12 that signifies an incalculable figure as well as wholeness and totality – much to the dismay, I would imagine, of the Jehovah’s Witnesses) “who are written in the Lamb’s book of life” (REV. 21:27). Perhaps this will include our own ancestors who lived modest and humble Christian lives.

All of the saints, therefore, intercede before the throne of God on our behalf. They are with us and not cut off from us by death. Rather, they are now more alive than ever and being “in Christ” are present wherever Christ is present. The earthly lives of the saints become sources of inspiration and models of emulation for us, teaching by examples of faith, hope and love; of long-suffering, perseverance and patience; of lives steeped in prayer, almsgiving and fasting. They do not discourage us because they attained what may seem unattainable to us; but rather they encourage us to struggle to overcome our weaknesses as men and women who did precisely that in their own lives. They were not born saints or privileged from birth. They became saints by co-operating with the grace of God. We, in turn, simply need to become what we already are: saints of God through Baptism and Chrismation and membership in the Church!

Many of us are deeply impressed by the total dedication, perseverance, training, commitment and love of the sport exhibited by today’s athletes. (Possible envy of their great wealth and fame is a different subject). Many may shake their heads in disbelief or nod in admiration. Hardly anyone will call these athletes “fanatics.” But if someone is that single-minded and intent upon the life in God, that is a word that will inevitably ring out. But the saints are not fanatics – they simply have a passion for God and put the Gospel and the Kingdom of God above all else.

To be inducted into any particular Hall of Fame – from baseball to Rock ‘n Roll – is considered to be a great human achievement and a goal only an elite few could even aspire to. However, these Halls of Fame are the secular and rather pale – if not pitiful – reflections of an earlier age’s striving for the heavenly realm of the Kingdom of God. The saints looked beyond the fleeting and temporal “glory of men” to the unchanging and eternal “glory of God.” That seems to be the vocation of all Christians and the Lord’s desire for us.

The Saints: Examples of Holiness

Dear Parish Faithful & Friends in Christ,

Synaxis of All Saints

We recently celebrated the Great Feast of Pentecost on June 20. Therefore the following Sunday is called, simply enough, The First Sunday After Pentecost. All of the subsequent Sundays of the liturgical year, until the pre-lenten Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee sometime next year, will be so numbered, challenging us to keep our spiritual sight on the overwhelming significance of Pentecost in the divine economy. 

The New Testament era of the Church began its existence on the Day of Pentecost with the Spirit’s descent as a mighty rushing wind that took on the form of fiery tongues alighting upon the heads of the future apostles [Acts 2:1-13]. The Church has always existed, but the Church as a remnant of Israel that would flourish and grow with the addition of the Gentiles began its final phase of existence with the death, resurrection and ascension of God’s Messiah, Jesus Christ Who, seated at the right hand of the Father, would send the Holy Spirit into the world and upon “all flesh” on the day of Pentecost. 

As Saint Epiphanius of Cyprus wrote in the fourth century, “The Catholic Church, which exists from the ages, is revealed most clearly in the incarnate advent of Christ.”

The simple calendar rubric of numbering the Sundays after Pentecost is one way of reminding us of this essential truth of the Christian Faith. The Church is the Temple of the Holy Spirit, and in and through the sacramental life of the Church we experience something like a permanent pentecostal outpouring of the Holy Spirit.

The first two Sundays after Pentecost are dedicated to the saints -- the first, to All Saints, and the second, to local Saints, in our case, the Saints that have shown forth in North America. We commemorate all of the saints of the Church – men, women and children -- from her beginning to the present day, including "ancestors, fathers, mothers, patriarchs, matriarchs, prophets, apostles, preachers, evangelists, martyrs, confessors, ascetics and every righteous spirit made perfect in faith.” That is, the entire “cloud of witnesses” that surround us and pray for us while serving as models for our own faith. 

God has revealed to the Church His innumerable saints, and we rejoice in their continuous presence, made possible by the ongoing presence of the Holy Spirit. The divine and co-eternal Spirit, holy by nature, makes human beings holy by grace. That is why these particular Sundays fall so naturally after the Sunday of Pentecost.

The word we use for "saint" is the Greek word for “holy” – agios. In a real sense, we are celebrating the presence of holiness in the world, incarnate in actual flesh and blood human beings. The descent of the Holy Spirit makes it possible for human beings to become and remain holy. Without the Holy Spirit, human beings can be nice, pleasant and even good – but not holy. And it is the holiness of the saints that is their one common characteristic, expressed in an endless diversity of vocations. 

Every baptized and chrismated member of the Church is already a saint – a person sanctified and set apart as a member of the People of God – and every such member has the vocation to become a saint. The phrase often used to capture this paradox of the Christian life is “become what you already are.” This phrase expresses an entire lifetime of striving and struggle to attain, by God’s grace, the highest of vocations – the holiness of a genuine child of God, “born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God” [John 1:13]. 

Of this we are reminded in the Gospel reading for the Sunday of All Saints: 

 

“So everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father Who is in heaven; but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father Who is in heaven... "He who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and he who loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and he who does not take up his cross and follow me is not worthy of me” [Matthew 10:32-33, 37-38].

 

We probably have a difficult time relating to such a passage, since we expend an enormous amount of energy – time, talent and treasure -- in order to guarantee for ourselves a comfortable life and the closest of possible family relationships. God and Church may be a part of that choice, but perhaps only as one compartment of life among many. At times, the greatest of our goals may be to create a certain form of “domestic bliss,” to the extent that this is humanly attainable. Nothing else can seem greater or more desirable. 

Jesus, however, makes other claims on us. And the first of those radical claims is that we must love Him above all else – including father and mother, son and daughter. This is a “hard teaching.” 

Perhaps it is here that we discover the greatest “achievement” of the saints, and the reason behind the sanctity that they often so clearly manifest. They simply loved Christ before all else. And there is nothing that can deflect them from that love. '

But in no way does this diminish our love for our loved ones. I believe that if we love Christ before all else, then we would have a greater love for those around us, including our very family members. Of course, when a choice must be made between Christ and family, it must be Christ, whatever the "cost" of that choice may be. To love Christ above all else is to expand our very notion and experience of love. If we live “in Christ,” we can then love “in Christ.” Elsewhere, Jesus would claim that this would include our enemies! This is a love that will not disappoint. 

With any other deeper love, there is always the lurking temptation of succumbing to one form of idolatry or another. Jesus even says that if we love anyone else more than Him, we are not “worthy” of Him! Clearly, there is nothing easy about bearing the name of Christ and calling oneself a Christian. Is all of this impossible? Jesus teaches that “with men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible”[Matthew 19:26].

We share the most difficult of vocations – to live up to our high calling in Christ Jesus. This is not something that we achieve on our own, but a process that includes the grace of God and our own self-determination, what we call our freedom of choice or “free will.” There are obstacles that begin with the genetic and the environmental. There are distractions and temptations too numerous to keep track of. There is the unbelief of the world around us. Yet, if we approach this “day by day,” we soon realize that we are simply trying to become genuine human beings, for the glory of God is a human being fully alive, to paraphrase Saint Irenaeus of Lyons. 

As disciples of Christ, we have the “inside track” to allow us to “run with perseverance the race that is before us” [Hebrews 12:1]. So, we thank God for the multitude of the saints who not only set an example for us, but who also pray for us unceasingly in the Kingdom of God.

 

Pentecostal Renewal or the Summertime Blues?

Dear Parish Faithful & Friends in Christ,

 

 

Last Sunday was the First Sunday After Pentecost.  All of the subsequent Sundays of the liturgical year until the pre-lenten Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee sometime next year will be so numbered.  Thus, this coming Sunday will be the Second Sunday After Pentecost. This is not intended to help us count better. 

The purpose is to keep before our spiritual sight the overwhelming significance of Pentecost in the divine economy. 

The New Testament era of the Church began its existence on the Day of Pentecost with the Spirit’s descent as a mighty rushing wind that took on the form of fiery tongues alighting upon the heads of the future apostles (ACTS 2:1-13).  The Church has always existed, but the Church as a remnant of Israel that would flourish and grow with the addition of the Gentiles began its final phase of existence with the Death, Resurrection and Ascension of God’s Messiah, Jesus Christ, Who, seated at the right hand of the Father, would send the Holy Spirit into the world and upon “all flesh” on the Day of Pentecost.  As St. Epiphanius of Cyprus wrote in the fourth century:  

 

“The Catholic Church, which exists from the ages, is revealed most clearly in the incarnate advent of Christ.” 

The simple calendar rubric of numbering the Sundays after Pentecost is one way of reminding us of this essential truth of the Christian Faith.  The Church is the Temple of the Holy Spirit, and in and through the sacramental life of the Church we experience something like a permanent pentecostal outpouring of the Holy Spirit.  It is this outpouring of the Spirit "on all flesh" that offers the possibility and the promise of human holiness.  The fact that so many men, women and children throughout the centuries of the Church's existence received this gift with joy and gladness is revealed to us in the lives of the saints.  It is these "holy persons" that we commemorated last Sunday on the Sunday of All Saints.

However, as we embark upon the Sundays of Pentecost we immediately encounter a prevailing tension between the "rhythm" of the Church and the "rhythm" of our personal lives.  We begin these Pentecostal Sundays just when summer is also beginning - and our summer schedules often minimize our participation in the Church. 

So, as we receive the Spirit of renewal and re-commitment to the Church as the source of authentic life; as we pray to the Heavenly King and Spirit of Truth to "come and abide in us;" we more-or-less settle into our church summer schedules that have something of a lazy-hazy approach to the Church.  There seems to exist an Orthodox version of "the summertime blues!" 

This can especially afflict Orthodox parents who equate "summer vacation" from school and summer vacation from church school.  The notion of  "we're off until the Fall!" can translate into sporadic attendance at the Lord's Day Liturgy, let alone any other services or events in the church.  Fortunately for us, God's providential care for us is not seasonal.

Thus, the tension between Pentecostal renewal and the beginning of summer.  If anyone gets the urge to just stay home on Sunday for leisure purposes or for no particular reason at all, my pastoral response is:  that is a temptation that must be resisted.

Also, this weekend we will commemorate the two great apostles, Peter and Paul, with Great Vespers on Friday evening and the Divine Liturgy on Saturday morning. And this after a week of observing the Apostles Fast. There are all kinds of activities that attract us on a Friday evening - from festivals to "chilling out." This leaves us with a choice, of course. 

 

I am a realist about what to expect for liturgical services on Friday evenings and Saturday mornings. But I am also open to surprises. The Apostles Peter & Paul labored so that we could hear and receive the gift of salvation. We honor their labors and their martyric deaths when we celebrate their memories. And we also commit ourselves to their vision of life in the Church when we do so.

The Lord's Day cycle for the Second Sunday of Pentecost - when we commemorate the Saints of North America - begins with Great Vespers on Saturday at 6:00 p.m. and culminates with the Hours and Liturgy on Sunday morning at 9:10 and 9:30 a.m. respectively. 

Pentecostal renewal or the summertime blues?