In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and
of the Holy Spirit. Amen. I wish all of you a
happy and joyous Saint's Day. Today being All
Saints, it's your Saint Day today too. Think
with me for a minute. If I were to take, and
I did, music lessons or language lessons, then
with time and effort, I expect some results.
If I plant a fruit tree and care for it, I expect
in due course, at the right time of the year,
some fruit. If I exercise my body or run a race,
or for me something a little more reasonable
than running a race, like maybe fast, there's
an expectation coming from this investment. So
what result are we expecting now today? What
has been invested? What have we given? What's
the Lord given? What effort has been made? It's
all from Christ. The incarnation, the cross,
the tomb, the resurrection, the gift of the Holy
Spirit. God has done everything to gather us
together, to make us one, to bring him to himself,
to sanctify us, to wash us, to save us, to Destroy
death and sin and shame and those powers that
have control over us. Banished by Christ. And
the gift of the Holy Spirit from heaven. The
spirit of love. The spirit of unity. The spirit
of conciliarity. The spirit of goodness and truth.
So today, we see. What has been cultivated by
the Holy Spirit from Pentecost is saints. The
Holy Spirit makes us holy, makes people holy.
The word holy and the word saint in Greek, agios,
same word. Saint Demetrius, Holy Demetrius. Holy
God, Saint God. It doesn't sound right in English,
but it's the same word. And if we remember that,
then we know that the holiness comes from God.
No one could number the cloud of witnesses, the
great cloud of witnesses that surrounds us, saints
venerated by name in the church, and many more,
far more, who humbly treasured God in the hidden
depths of their heart, unknown to all. Preserved
from the praise of people. No service is written.
But the multitude, the majority of saints are
those that are not known from every walk of life,
every land, rich and poor, free and slave, men,
women, and children, beyond counting. But what
is a saint? What is a saint? A saint is a heavenly
human being. When I say heavenly, don't think
of clouds with some angels playing harps. Think
of this. Have you ever seen something that catches
fire and is completely consumed in the flames?
That's a saint. And that fire is God's love.
God's saints, says St. John of Damascus, of their
own free will, united themselves with God. received
him into the habitation of their heart. And having
thus received him through grace, they became
in their very nature like unto him. Saints are
like God. In them, God rests. God rests. The
incredible, inconceivable, uncircumscribable
God rests in the heart. of the person who loves
him. And St. John of Damascus says they become
treasures and the pure habitation, the pure home
of God. That's a saint. And we have been given
the same grace, the same Holy Spirit. We are
beneficiaries of the resurrection. We are joined
to Christ in holy baptism. What are we lacking
except resolve? Our Savior Jesus Christ speaks
of loving God so much, and this is what our resolve
needs to be, to love God so much. With such fire
in the heart that when he said, when Jesus said,
you heard today, he who loves father or mother
more than me is not worthy of me. He who loves
son or daughter more than me is not worthy of
me. When we hear that, we understand that the
real, proper, sacrificial, emotionally and psychologically,
healthy love for our family, our spouse, our
friends, is only possible if we love God first.
Because He gave them to us. This is the way of
the saints. And saints attract us. You heard
the Beatitudes. Blessed are the merciful. Blessed
are the peacemakers. Blessed are the pure in
heart. They attract us. Because people are attracted
by love and not condemnation. Saints don't condemn.
Condemnation does not liberate. It oppresses.
And the saints, when you are close to a person
who is sanctified, you feel liberated and free
and completely loved. Since they have unceasing
prayer. My Christ. they say to him constantly,
come into my heart, my Lord, my Jesus, my Christ,
come and dwell in me. And Christ comes and dwells
mystically in their hearts. It's very simple.
When you call someone dear to you, someone you
love, come to me. Doesn't that person come? Will
not Christ come when you call him? Whatever you
ask of me, I will give you. And we always say,
come and dwell in us. But the saint perhaps,
and we can attain this too, the saint says it
with her or his whole mind. He says it with her
or his whole heart. And Christ enters the heart.
And that person has picked up the cross. And
said no to the impulses and the passions of sin.
And turned away from that. Each Christian, we
are like sportsmen in an arena running to get
a prize. St. Paul says, keep the race. Keep going
on the race. Christ is the finisher of the race.
And each person, if you fall, you rise again.
And you keep running. Pentecost. Last week and
this week, it continues, revives our spirit,
our weariness, helps our burdens for one another,
for the world, our worries and cares. Then we
can bear whatever tempests of life, whatever
difficulties, pain and sorrow we have. And we
can be joyful too, because we know Christ loves
us. But let's understand again, Christian life,
the life in Christ, has an ascetic component.
It requires a struggle, not against other people,
but against ourselves first, before we can stand
for truth and say what is right and speak a prophetic
word from God. We have to oppose ourselves. He
who does not take up his cross and follow me
is not worthy of me. We have to cut sin from
our life. Let the old Adam die in us so that
we can be free and have that liberty and freedom
that the saint has. Then the impulses of selfishness.
We know where they come from and we turn away.
The laziness that may afflict us, we know where
that's coming from. Suggestions of the evil one
and just our own poor nature. And we turn away
the fear and anxiety, suggestions from the evil
one. We know that this is not from God, and we
turn away. This is what it means to pick up your
cross, deny yourself. And when our life has become
difficult, as it is now for everybody in all
kinds of ways, then we hold tightly to the cross
like the saints do, the cross that the Lord has
given each one of us. And we say to ourselves,
Wisdom, stand aright. And doubts and hesitations,
imaginings and anger and fear and thoughts about
what if there is no God, they will come to mind.
What if all this is stupid? We have only our
weakness. It's okay. We have only our weakness
to offer to the Lord. In our weakness, God's
grace is strong, and he acts. Then we say, like
the saint, my God, you exist. Send me your Holy
Spirit. Dwell in my heart. I wish all of us,
each one of us, to be a saint, to be the habitation
of God, as St. John of Damascus said. To unite
ourselves to God. To let him be in the habitation
of the heart. To be a heavenly human being. To
always seek to be with Christ. To live as St.
Justin the martyr and philosopher said in the
second century. He wrote this. To live in likeness
of God. To live in his truth. To live in his
chastity. And to live in his love for mankind.
And St. Silouan said something similar. St. Silouan,
who died in 1938 on Mount Athos, said something
similar. He said that the task of the Christian
is to expand our personal I so that I doesn't
just mean me. I, when we stand before God, not
only includes me, but all those who I love and
all those who love me. So that my I, as we grow
spiritually, our personal identity expands, so
that when we stand before God in prayer, we cannot
think of ourselves alone, but of everyone, our
wife, our husband, our children, our family,
our friends, our parish, our people, our nation,
those who love us, those who hate us. The saints
are those whose personal I expanded to embrace
the church, and the peoples, and the nation,
and everyone. Which is why people feel liberated
when they meet a saint. And every Christian is
called to be like that. You are called, we are
called to be saints. There's much more to say.
Another time. About how we become closer to the
saints. How we call upon them to help us in our
time of need. Especially now in our time of need.
For now, let's read the lives of saints every
day, every morning. And we'll speak of those
things another time. For now, as I end, I want
to recall for us that our parish is named the
protection of the Holy Virgin and the icon of
the protection. I'm placed out today. This is
an icon of all the saints. All gathered, lifting
up their hands. their hearts in prayer, with
the Theotokos at their head, asking for mercy
for the world, the protection of God, for the
love of God, for the transformation of sorrow
into joy, of suffering into good health, to ignorance
to understanding, godly understanding. This is
the unity of the world, the unity of the Church.
This is how we are. Don't ever forget you are
standing in line with these people and lifting
up your hands and you're saying, all saints of
God, pray to God for us.