Sunday of All Saints: a Sermon by Archbishop Andrew (Rymarenko)
"...Just look at the murals of our church and you will see: martyrs, confessors, ascetics, fools for Christ, educated people, simple people, rich, poor, bishops, monastics, lay people. This is the Heavenly Church. She is all-embracing, and she is filled up by the earthly, Militant Church!"
Brothers
and sisters! Last week the Holy Church placed flowers in our hands, as if
saying to us: See how soulless nature is obedient to its Creator. Starting with
the days of Christmas, the earth has been turning toward the sun, which began
to bestow upon the earth its life-giving warmth. And nature does not prove
itself ungrateful toward its Creator. In answer to His caress, she has produced
this glorious beauty, these flowers, and further on, will produce fruits. And
what about us? In answer to the spiritual warmth of God’s Grace, so abundantly
poured out on us, do we bring to our Creator spiritual beauty, flowers, fruits
of virtues?
After all, He became Man for our sake, died for us, rose for us,
ascended into Heaven in order to send down to us His Holy Spirit. And what
about us? Is not this beauty of nature around us a reproach to our conscience?
Let us answer honestly. Yes, it is. But more than this, we want to justify our
negligence, our ingratitude. The commandments of Christ are wonderful, we say;
and if people would begin to fulfill them, then the whole earth would be
transformed into a wonderful divine garden. But is this possible for weak human
strength? And here this Sunday, the Sunday of All the Saints, answers this
question loudly so that the whole world hears: Yes, it is possible.
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. Occasionally their times were difficult, maybe more
difficult than ours; and not infrequently their circumstances in life were more
dangerous in spiritual terms, and often in worldly terms were worse than ours.
But they still proceeded, struggled, and reached the abodes on high where they
now triumph.
Just look
at the murals of our church and you will see them: martyrs, confessors,
ascetics, fools for Christ, educated people, simple people, rich, poor,
bishops, monastics, lay people. This is the Heavenly Church. She is
all-embracing, and she is filled up by the earthly, Militant Church. There is room
for each of us there. This is what today’s Apostle reading tells us: “Wherefore
seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us
lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us
run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus the author
and finisher of our faith” (Heb. 12:1-2).
Just think: all of these saints were
live people like us. And like us, all of them were different people; and their
paths were different. But all of them, absolutely all, had three qualities
which they all possessed identically. These qualities are pointed out to us in
today’s Gospel. They are obligatory for everyone, and this means for us, too;
we cannot escape them.
Here they are: ‘Whosoever therefore shall confess Me
before men, him will I confess also before My Father, which is in heaven” (Mt.
10:32). This is the first thing. Don’t you feel, brothers, how important this
is for us modern-day people? Why, the whole world around us as if asks us: “Are
you Christian or one of ours?” We cannot leave this question unanswered. In our
speech, our actions, our thoughts and feelings (for our feelings are somehow
passed on to the others), we must answer loud and firm: “Yes, I am a
Christian!”
Here is
the second: “He that loveth father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me:
and he that loveth son or daughter more than Me, is not worthy of Me” (Mt.
10:37). Here and now, the Lord demands from you and me this all-consuming love
– to love Him more than everyone and everything. And only through this love for
Him will we really be able to love our relatives, strangers, and even our
enemies.
Finally
the third: “And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after Me, is not
worthy of Me” (Mt. 10:38). This instance does not even require explanation.
Each of us has his own sorrows and difficulties in life; they are personal for
each of us. It is difficult, burdensome, but such is our life; and this means,
such is the Will of God for us.
Let us
thank the Lord even for this cross! Without it we cannot be saved. And the Lord
wants all of us to be saved, and to be united into one Triumph with all the
Saints, whom we are glorifying today.
African Orthodox Church & Caucasian Mountains: Bishop Innocentios of Burundi and Rwanda, on the feastday of St. Nina, the Enlightener of Georgia, in a Pilgrimage Chapel near the borders of Armenia and Turkey (more here).
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