In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and
of the Holy Spirit. Glory to Jesus Christ. Well,
this Sunday we celebrate All Saints Day. All
the saints that have come before us. And we know
many of them. We also know that our mind can't
fully fathom the number of names of saints that
have come before. And there are even those...
who are unknown. They were faithful to God throughout
their lives over the past centuries, millennia,
and God knows who they are. We don't know their
names, but we will one day when we're in eternity,
and we celebrate all those who have come before
us, all the saints who have lived. We recognize
them this day, and we honor them. what makes
them saints and how did God transform them and
sanctify them? This can be instructive to you
and to me. Archbishop Andre of Novo de Vivo says
this of today's gospel reading. All the saints
being remembered today followed the example of
Christ and all of them in their time in their
circumstances of life, fulfilled God's commandment
of love of God and neighbor. And loving God leads
to us loving our neighbor because God loves us
all. He loves everything about each one of us.
He loves us all deeply. And so when we learn
to love God, That love flows through us to others
around us. When we truly love God, we will show
it through our actions to others. There are,
from today's Gospel reading, three things are
given to us that every saint must do. One is
from Matthew 10, verse 32. Whosoever therefore
shall confess me before men, him I will confess
also before my Father who is in heaven. Perhaps
you have been in a circumstance where you are
a Christian amongst people who don't have a Christian
worldview. They have strong worldviews that are
different, maybe opposed, maybe not, to Christianity.
But there's this thing that we can do, which
is like being a chameleon, you know, where you
change your colors to match where you are. Some
people have called this thing, when in Rome,
do as the Romans, right? I would call that the
Rome syndrome. And there can be circumstances
where that's fine. If perhaps it's something
very simple like a sports team, everybody there
likes this team, and maybe you don't really,
but you just kind of don't say anything, and
you let them believe that you like that team
too. And that's not so bad. But when it comes
to our Christian faith, when it comes to us identifying
with our Lord and God and Savior Jesus Christ,
It is a much different thing, and we need to
be careful not to fall into the Rome syndrome.
We need to remember these words of our Lord,
to confess him before the world. Now, that doesn't
mean you go out and shout at people. You know,
there are many that can actually turn people
away from God by being way too boisterous about
their faith. But it does mean that... if someone
were to ask you, are you a Christian? That we
would say, yes, yes, I followed the Lord Jesus
Christ. And we would not try to be a chameleon
in such a circumstance. The second verse is Matthew
10, 37. He that loveth father and mother more
than me is not worthy of me. and he that loveth
son and daughter more than me is not worthy of
me. What this really means is love God above
all else. It does not mean that loving your family
is something to be avoided. Of course, we love
our parents, our children, our family. They are
valuable to us. We love them. And that is the
point of this whole thing, that we love God even
more than that, that he is first. Saint Tikhon
of Zedonks says this, The true lover of God disdains
the world and all that is in the world and strives
toward God, his most beloved. He counts honor,
glory, riches, and all the comforts of this world,
which the sons of this age seek, as nothing.
For him only God, the uncreated and most beloved
good, suffices. In him alone he finds perfect
honor, glory, riches, and comfort. So the first
one was to confess God before the world. The
second, to love God above all else. And the third,
Matthew 10, 38. And he that taketh not his cross
and followeth after me is not worthy of me to
take the cross. We have repented of our past
sins and we've begun the journey on the narrow
road of salvation and we walk with God and we
follow his commandments and we watch as God sanctifies
us. But that sanctification, that being made
holy, sometimes requires some suffering. Are
we willing to pick up our cross and follow Christ?
Jesus bore the cross for us because of his love.
and he calls us to love others as well, and sometimes
that is quite a cross. Be willing to suffer in
order to grow, in order to change, in order to
be sanctified. And when we are doing these things,
confessing Christ, loving God above all else,
being willing to suffer, and to endure, and then
loving others because of God's love for us. Then
we are moving on that narrow path to heaven.
Saint Tikhon of Zedonk says this, The root and
beginning of love for neighbor is love of God.
Whoever truly loves God without fail also loves
his neighbor. Without doubt, God loves every
man, his beloved. Let us therefore love one another.
as God has loved us. In my home, there is a plant.
It is next to a window. It is not in front of
the window. It is next to the window. And I've
noticed over time that as it's grown, it first
grew straight, but then the stalk turned and
it actually bent instead of going up sideways
and turned around and faced the light, because
that plant knows where to collect the sunlight.
Well, we are to be like that plant when we seek
God's light, when we seek God's truth. If we
truly love God, the stock of our life is going
to go wherever God's light is, and we're going
to then receive his strength, his love. we are
going to put the God's presence in our life first
in order that we might learn and be sanctified
and be made holy. And just as that plant seeking
the light, the sunshine, then flowers forth,
so we, when we seek the Holy Spirit and seek
God's will, and want what God wants for us. And
when we do that, then just as a plant blossoms
forth, our life will have blossoms coming forth
that will bless our neighbors around us. Glory
to Jesus Christ.