In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and
of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Congratulate all the
fathers on this Father's Day. Godfathers. I congratulate
the newly baptized Carver Stephen and his family,
and Gabriel as his sponsor today. I congratulate
all the graduates. eighth grade to ninth grade,
from college and from high school. The graduates
have completed a long period of study. Now I
hope they look ahead to what they have learned
and to use that, hopefully, for the support of
their family, for the support of their church,
for the support of the society they live in.
In the church, we too have completed a course
of study. We began this course of study some
time ago, actually 19 weeks ago, and there were
certain goals in mind, which today we see in
front of us on this feast day of all saints.
So I congratulate all of you on your saint day
as well. We began that course, as I said, way
back. I think it was 19 weeks ago before Lent
with the Sunday of the parable of the publican,
the tax collector, and the Pharisee. Each week
led us deeper and deeper into knowledge of who
we are, who Christ is, the meaning of repentance,
prayer, our salvation. Now, some of us might
have missed some of those Sundays. Some of us
maybe did not have the time or the opportunity
to meditate during the week and implement those
lessons in our life. Some of us, like me, neglected
to do that. The goal's given to us, but we get
to do it next year. You know, Lent's going to
come again. The NFL and Major League Baseball
did not come up with spring training. The church
did. So we do it again in order to deepen our
relationship with Christ. So this is the Feast
of All Saints today. It brings us, Pentecost
does, brings us the fruit. If we receive the
Spirit, as I mentioned last week, the fruit of
the Spirit is saints. It's saints, logically.
And theologically, today is a Sunday of all saints,
mostly martyrs, of course, because they are most
like Christ. They witness, they stand testimony,
they put their life on the line. They trust in
the Lord and the resurrection so absolutely and
completely. It's the martyrs that are most like
Christ. But there's men, there's women, there's
husbands, there's wives. There's children. Many,
many, many children saints. Every kind. In other
words, today we commemorate all saints from the
beginning of time up to this present day. Saints
that are known to us. The ones we have on the
walls and the ones you hear about in the prayers.
And the many millions more, perhaps more millions,
that are unknown to us but known to God. So today's
celebration is an invitation to enter in with
them, to be surrounded by this great cloud of
witnesses, saints, says St. Paul in Hebrews,
and to enter into their number, like that song,
you know, when the saints come marching in, we
enter into their number. They are our brothers
and sisters too. And we're equipped to do that
by the Spirit. We're enabled to do that. And
we're invited to do that. Pursue peace with all
men, says the epistle to the Hebrews. And he
goes on and says, without holiness, no one will
see God. Without holiness, we shall not see the
Lord. The word saint and the word holy, the exact
same word. Agios Otheos, holy God. St. Demetrius,
Agius Demetrius. In English they sound different,
but they're the same. Without holiness, we shall
not see God. Holiness is not something extra
added on to special people. It's what happens
when you are united to Christ. We know what we
need to do, but we're lazy. We know what we need
to do because we've had 19 weeks of teaching,
of liturgies, of sermons, of hymns, of commemorations.
We know what we need to do. Our problem is not
ignorance. Our problem is usually spiritual laziness,
spiritual flabbiness. So let's look at what are
the characteristics of the saints. You've heard
today, Hebrews. The saints in times past did
all these things. You heard that. And then we
heard. Before that, the Beatitudes. Those are
the characteristics of the saints. Following
the words of the Lord we heard in the Gospel
today, perhaps the most challenging thing you're
going to hear all week, the saints love no one
more than they love Christ. And they live for
his love. This Gospel reading, as I said, offers
us one of the hardest sayings of Christ in the
entire Gospel of Matthew. But the saints love
God first. And that love is so strong and so
dedicated and so faithful and so energized by
the Holy Spirit and real. It makes every other
love seem not like love. But what happens is
every other love becomes healthy and balanced.
Because if you put love of yourself first, you
turn yourself into an idol. If you put love of
your family first before God, you turn them into
idols. If you put love of your children before
God, you turn your child into your master, an
idol. If you put land or money or anything before
God, it becomes what you serve. And we are all
going to serve, says that theologian Bob Dylan,
somebody. So the saints place nothing and no
one above the one thing needful, Christ and the
fulfillment of the gospel precepts. The gospel
precepts, they know what they are. Let me give
you more characteristics. A saint has ongoing
repentance. It's not something that happens once.
Saint never blames anyone. Doesn't mean they
blame themselves for everything. They understand.
They're balanced. The saints never despair. The
saints know the boundless love of God and his
boundless mercy. The saints don't have envy.
They're not jealous. They have no resentments.
They do not grumble. Bitterness is all gone.
When I complain, when I grumble, when I act bitterly,
the Spirit of God cannot dwell in me. I've chased
him away. The saints don't have backup. The saints
suffer. They suffer in their spirit over the
suffering of others in the world. They suffer
over injustice. They don't have anger and fists.
They have tears, and they're on their knees.
They mourn for the troubles and sorrows and sufferings
of others. Brothers and sisters, let me submit
to you. That there is not one thing in that list
that each of us could try to attain. Not one
thing that's too difficult. Let us try to do
that. By prayer and repentance, the heart of
the saint expands in order to embrace everything.
That we cannot do yet. We're too immature. But
that's what the saints do. The saints leave all
the judgment into God's hands. They always forgive.
They will always love their enemies. And they
have love, but they also have the truth. They're
not confused about reality, about the meaning
of what it is to be a human, what it is to be
a man, what it is to be a woman. They have no
confusion about that because they know that God
has created us. They never harm anyone else in
the process. Of pursuing the truth. Maybe I can
summarize the characteristics of the saints.
With one thing. One thing. The saints put God
first. That's what they do. They put God first.
And all saints today. This feast is given to
us as an antidote. The portrait of a saint. The
understanding his or her life. The child of God.
Here is a portrait. Of me as I. could be as I
should be and I must be to acquire holiness.
And let me just digress for just a half a second.
Allow me to mention just in passing that part
of what the Lord God has given to us is a sacred
responsibility for the building up of the body
of Christ. To parents and to their friends, to
godfathers, to godmothers, to all of us is the
care, the spiritual nourishment, and the education
of our children to also become holy and to become
saints, to be living, joyful, loving temples
of the Holy Spirit. That can happen at home if
the home has that goal. It's not going to happen
in the seven hours a child spends at a public
school. Your influence has to be greater, which
means your prayers have to be deeper. Your repentance
has to be more ongoing. Your love of God has
to be more full. How quickly can a person become
holy? Let's ask that question. Because we think
this is impossible, but really, brothers and
sisters, they said, there's not one thing in
that list of characteristics that each of us
could try to acquire. But let's say we ask the
question, how quickly can you become holy? How
quickly can the grace of God enter your soul
and absolutely change you? Well, picture yourself
hanging on a cross. You spent your whole life
as a malefactor, as a thief. You're dying in
punishment. Your whole life has been worthless.
You've never got a good deal in your life, and
you've never done a good deed in your life. You've
never kept the law. You've never done anything.
You've never done anything good. But beside you
hangs someone who has just said, Father, forgive
them for they know not what they do. He prays
for those who hate him. You've got beside you
somebody who's clearly a servant of God, and
you decide to put your trust in him with absolute
conviction. Jesus, Jesus, remember me when you
come in your kingdom. You see, one can become
a saint that fast. Jesus, keep me in mind when
you come in your kingdom. And at that very second,
when the thief believed in Christ with absolute
conviction, because God's grace poured the Holy
Spirit into his heart, he was baptized in his
blood. The Lord is merciful. We have a church,
and we have a God. who is so merciful that the
thief next to Christ can be saved, there's hope
for the rest of us. But our time is short now.
We have to acquire these things because holiness
is not an extra item. Holiness is simply the
gift of the Holy Spirit living within you and
guiding you and comforting you and guiding you
unto all truth. And to our Lord, whom we must
thank. for all that he has done for us, to make
saints that we are surrounded with. To him be
glory, now and ever, to ages of ages.