In the name of the Father and of the Son and
of the Holy Spirit. Amen. As the entire outworking
of Great Lent, Pascha, the Ascension, and Pentecost,
today the Church commemorates, invokes, and celebrates
all the saints who have ever lived, the saints
who are universally known to us, but also those
who have been known only in their respective
communities, or even known only to God. Properly
speaking, today is the fullness of Pentecost.
The crucified, risen, ascended, and glorified
Jesus Christ pouring out his Holy Spirit upon
his apostles such that that same Spirit would
fill and inhabit all flesh. consecrate them as
his temples, and make them holy, that is, saints,
holy ones. In earlier times, this day was properly
marked out for the martyrs, those who witnessed
to the cross and bore in their bodies the very
marks of that cross as a weapon of love, Christ's
suffering, death, and subsequent glory. Thus,
why we heard last night from Isaiah the prophet,
you are all my witnesses, that is, you are all
my martyrs. Or this morning we hear from the
apostle of those who by faith conquered the world
by suffering graphically for Christ, of whom
the world was not worthy, who by faith conformed
their lives to Christ himself, who for the joy
set before him endured the cross. and despised
its shame to perfect our faith. The call of martyrdom
goes hand in hand with the call of Christ from
the Gospel reading this morning. Confess me before
men. Love me more than father, than mother, than
wife, than husband, than son, than daughter.
then lands, then property. It's not that you
don't love them, but I, only I, can be your supreme
love. Leave this world and your former life.
Take up your cross. Follow me. Deny yourself.
And you will receive a hundredfold. And you will
receive eternal life. and I will confess you
before my Father who is in heaven in the presence
of all the holy ones. As St. Paul puts it elsewhere,
this is the will of God, your sanctification,
that is, your sainthood, the outworking of the
life of the Holy Spirit in you to conform you
to the image of the Son of God. Jesus Christ,
crucified, risen, incorruptible, never to die
again. Through our death and martyrdom, this
is how we actualize our sainthood. That incorruptibility
of life and love in us. The will of God in Christ
Jesus for us is this, as St. Paul fleshes out
in that same letter. Rejoice always, pray without
ceasing, and give thanks. That is, be Eucharistic
in every circumstance. It's no wonder then that
joy is what animates Christ as he endures the
cross for us. For through the cross, joy comes
into all the world. We sing every Saturday night,
enabling us to rejoice through whatever adversity.
It's no wonder then that the apostle calls us
to fix our eyes on Christ. and confess him before
the world to behold him, even as the martyrs
did, as Saint Stephen the proto -martyr did,
for example, because his life had become a prayer
without ceasing, always in the presence of Christ,
Christ ever and always before him. It's no wonder
then that the texts this morning call us to give
our lives away, even the world. Property, homes,
lands, titles, riches, things important to us,
things that we hold on to dearly and are proud
of, even our families, or rather, to give them
away as we offer them up and transfigure them
in thanksgiving, in Eucharistic thanksgiving.
Eucharistio means thanksgiving to Christ, enabling
us to love him. first above all things, and only
then truly given the ability to be thankful for
what we have in this life, that it isn't something
we're entitled to or something that we have earned
or something that we are rewarded with, a nice
life, but it's been given to us to make us more
holy. Even though we might not bear the marks
of Christ graphically in our bodies, every aspect
of the Christian life is a kind of martyrdom,
a witness to our conformity to the crucified
life, enabled by the power of the resurrection
and actualized and perfected only in the life
of the Holy Spirit. When we are married, we hear
the martyr's song. We bear the crowns of king
and queen, situating us back in Genesis, in creation,
when God blesses male and female and beckons
them to take dominion, subdue creation, subdue
the world, become conquerors and be fruitful.
But how? Through the cross. They are made in
the image, the image even of the crucified one,
Jesus Christ, of the invisible God, through the
cross, through the crowns that the martyrs received,
through the husband dying to his own needs or
perhaps what he thinks he needs, to give life
to his wife, through the wife honoring, respecting,
and building up her husband rather than belittling
him and nitpicking him and criticizing him. And
of course, vice versa. These things go both ways.
to husband and to wife, back and forth. When
we add kids into the mix, what are we doing but
adding to our martyrdom, our death to this world,
especially now in a day and age when our society
would encourage us to forego having children?
Even in our own county, it is weird to walk around
this county with three kids. You get weird looks.
Our own society would encourage us to forgo having
children because they get in the way of our careers.
And they add stress to our lives. But that's
the whole point, as the Lord puts it. Let go
of properties, lands, titles, jobs, careers,
ambitions, and die. Learn to die. And instead
witness to the power. Of the cross and the resurrection.
Working in your life. Father Lawrence emailed
around that sub stack yesterday. A worthwhile
read on a number of levels. But it comports well
with the gospel reading. That when we leave former
lives behind. Or families or whatever. We are
united. To a new family here. It's here in this
parish. Among these people. That we confess Christ
before men. First. Our spiritual family in Christ.
A family where people might bother us. Irritate
us. Annoy us. Ask too much of us. Mess up our
priorities. And yet this is where the Lord has
placed us. The people he gave to us so that we
might not be orphans, so that we might not be
widows alone in this world, even if we're not
married or we don't have kids or we have had
kids, but they're out of the house and it sometimes
feels like they've forgotten us. This is who
we're giving, these people. who are becoming
saints, who the apostle himself can call saints.
Think of the letter to the Corinthians. Think
of the letter to the Galatians, the Ephesians,
the Colossians, to the saints. They are not on
the walls yet at that point. In fact, there are
so many things wrong with the churches in Corinth.
And yet, the apostle says what? Saints, holy
ones. consecrated, sanctified, the saints in
Santa Rosa at St. Seraphim. This is who we're
given so that we might become saints also with
them, sanctified, made holy with one another
through one another's lives, through one another's
prayers, through all of us jagged and messed
up rocks who get thrown in a rock tumbler together
and the button gets turned on and over time,
we get smoothed out. That is the hope of glory,
Christ formed in us. Finally, all the saints
are given to us as a cloud of witnesses, a nephos,
martiron, a cloud of martyrs, humans like us
who have borne the marks of Christ. in their
own lives and bodies, and are not dead, since
God isn't the God of the dead, but the God of
the living. As we look to Jesus, as we fix our
eyes on him, our life and our salvation, look
around. Seriously, look around. Look at all these
saints. Look at all these saints who surround
us, who through faith have conquered kingdoms,
stopped the mouths of lions, were made strong
out of weakness, their weakness, suffered mocking,
were destitute, afflicted, mistreated. Some even
suffered brutal death. The world was not worthy
of them. We enter into their life. We enter into
their prayers, the very prayers we pray. They
are not our own. They are given to us, handed
over to us in tradition, in the life of the Holy
Spirit. We enter into their prayers that they
pray evermore in the midst of Father, Son, and
Holy Spirit. The world was not worthy of them.
And yet the Apostle states very plainly that
apart from us, they should not be made perfect.
Their faith that Christ completes isn't complete
apart from us, which means, of course, the converse
is also true, that apart from them, our faith
that Christ completes remains incomplete, that
our faith is and will be perfected by their prayers.
by their presence in our life. They are our friends,
our families, our mothers, our brothers, our
fathers, our sisters, for some of us perhaps,
even our children, who are cheering us on, beckoning
us forward to set our minds on the things above.
To fix our eyes on Christ. So then let's ask
for their prayers. Let's draw near to them as
we draw near to Christ. Let's ask for their help.
Let's emulate their example in the earthly way
that we can. For we are not them and they are
not us. But we can ask. We can ask for help.
Because the prayer of the righteous person, the
Holy One, has great power in its working. Through
the prayers of all the saints known to us and
only known to God, Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy
on us. Amen.