Instruction for the Sunday of All Saints (3)

The present Sunday is called the Sunday of All Saints. In celebrating in honor of all the Saints, we call to mind all the people sanctified by the Holy Spirit—namely: the forefathers and patriarchs, the prophets and apostles, the martyrs and hierarchs, the hieromartyrs and venerable martyrs, the venerable and the righteous, the fools for Christ, and also all the holy women and the rest of the nameless Saints, and, with all of them, and before all of them, our Most Holy Lady and Mother of God, surpassing all the ranks of the Angels, the Ever-Virgin Mary. In celebrating the feast of All Saints soon after the feast of the descent of the Holy Spirit, the Church intends to show us the glory and the grace of the Holy Spirit—God, who sanctifies, enlightens, strengthens, and glorifies all the saints of the human race, in the Old Testament and the New; and especially intends to show us the fruits brought forth, through the Apostles, by the coming of the Holy Spirit—how it sanctified men like ourselves, made them wise, raised them to the rank of Angels, and led them to God: crowning some for the labors of martyrdom, others for a virtuous life. The All-Holy Spirit accomplishes what is above the laws of nature. Descending upon the Apostles in the form of fire, which strives upward, He kindles the frozen, earthbound hearts of men, bowed down into the earth, and raises them up to heaven. This is the first reason for the feast of All Saints. The second reason why it was appointed to celebrate all the Saints together is this: there are many Saints who pleased God by their perfect virtue, who nevertheless, having received great honor from God, remain unknown to men; besides this, the Fathers had in view also the Saints yet to come; and so they established the feast of All Saints, in order to honor together all of them, both those who had already lived and those who would come after, both the manifest and the unmanifest Saints. The third reason: it was necessary to remember, on one single day, the Saints who are each remembered separately on their own day, in order to show that they all struggled by the power of the one Savior, Jesus Christ, and that for this all of them, as servants of the one Lord, are crowned according to their worth, that they all make up one Church and dwell in one heavenly world—and thus to move us also to strive in every virtue for the sake of the life to come.

In the reading from the Apostle on the Sunday of All Saints, the Church proclaims that they conquered enemies, seen and unseen, by faith: that they patiently endured poverty, ill-treatment, persecution, torment, and every kind of death; that through them, or for their sake, countless miracles were and are wrought; that the whole world was not worthy of them. By the reading of the Gospel on this Sunday, the Church testifies that all of them are true confessors of the holy faith; for the Lord’s sake they left behind everything that drew them away from the service of God and blessed union with Him; and for this the Lord Jesus Christ confesses the Saints before His Father in heaven, and confesses them on earth before men, by the mouth of the Church. The Gospel of today reads thus: «The Lord said: whoever confesses Me before men, him will I also confess before My Father in heaven. But whoever denies Me before men, him will I also deny before My Father 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 after Me is not worthy of Me. Then Peter answered and said to Him: behold, we have left everything and followed You; what then shall we have? Jesus said to them: truly I say to you, that you who have followed Me, in the regeneration, when the Son of Man sits on the throne of His glory, you also shall sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. And everyone who has left houses, or brothers, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for My name’s sake, shall receive a hundredfold, and shall inherit eternal life. But many who are first shall be last, and the last shall be first» (Mt 10:32-33,37-38,19:27-30).

Even now, brothers and sisters, we can and must be confessors of Jesus Christ before men—and first of all, we, the clergy especially, must openly and boldly preach the glory of Jesus Christ, His wonders and His power at work in us and in all believers, His eternal truths as set forth in the Gospel, and must overthrow every human thought that rises up boldly against the mind of God; must overthrow and cut short the mocking, absurd talk of freethinkers, who have now multiplied more than weeds; and must also perform public and private worship with sincere devotion, without haste, without indulging the laziness of the rich and powerful of the earth, without accommodating ourselves to their tastes, or rather to their spiritual tastelessness. But you too, brothers and sisters, must always be sincere confessors of Jesus Christ, attending the house of God without slackening and with zeal, standing in it with reverence, tracing the sign of the cross upon yourselves with care and attention, and not being ashamed to make prostrations and to kneel, boldly confessing and declaring to whomever it concerns the mercies of God shown upon yourselves and upon others, that others too may be confirmed in faith and hope in God; striking up edifying conversation in company, not fearing to be called a hypocrite or a pietist, or a Pharisee—for mockery and slander from worldly people against godly people is the customary reward of the godly; blessed, it is said, are you when men revile you (Mt 5:11). But what does it mean to love father or mother, or son or daughter, more than the Lord Jesus Christ? It means—to please them by failing to keep the commandments of God, and instead to carry out their commands and whims, contrary to the will of God; or to live, and to raise one’s children, for the world, for connections, for wealth, for pleasures, for the glory of the world, and not for God, not for the salvation of the soul, not for eternity. And what does it mean to take up one’s cross and follow Christ? It means to walk the narrow and sorrowful path of unceasing struggle against the passions and lusts, against the temptations of the world, against the snares of the devil; to endure whatever sicknesses, misfortunes, calamities, persecutions, and banishments may come. For the Apostles’ leaving behind all the goods of the world, and their following of Him, Christ promised them the greatest of honors—thrones of judgment over the whole world at His coming again upon the earth; and to all people who leave the goods of the world for Christ’s sake, a hundredfold recompense and eternal life. So boundlessly great a reward for devotion, for a brief devotion to the Lord, for leaving behind the paltry goods of earth, for a short endurance, a short deprivation! How, then, beloved brothers and sisters, can we not give ourselves with our whole heart to the Lord, how can we not endure sorrows in this momentary life! Let us give, let us surely give, ourselves and one another and our whole life to Christ our God. Many who were first here will be last there, and many who were last here will be first there. God is no respecter of persons: before Him king and soldier will stand together, priests and laymen, the learned and the unlearned, the nobleman and the commoner, the rich and the poor, male and female—all in equal dignity; for each will be glorified or put to shame by his own deeds (1Cor 3:8,14,15). Amen.