All The Saints

+In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, One God. Amen.

On each day of the Church calendar, several particular saints are commemorated to remind us of their lives and contributions to our Christian faith. On this day however, known as All Saint’s Day, the Church pauses to remember all the saints—that “great cloud of witnesses” encompassing us, supporting us by their examples and through their prayers—who encourage us to run the race with endurance and complete it together with them.

The placement of this commemoration on the first Sunday after Pentecost is deliberate, and reminds us that it is the Holy Spirit who makes sainthood possible. The word “saint” means “one who is holy” and no one is made holy except by the Spirit of God.

In the Gospel lesson today [Matthew 10:32-33, 37-38; 19:27-30], our Lord shows us that sainthood is born out of placing the love of God above every other love. By coincidence, today is also Father’s Day on the secular calendar, and while this particular scripture may not seem to be the best choice for the occasion (“He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me” Oh, and by the way, happy Father’s Day…) in reality it is entirely appropriate, if accidental. Our Lord reminds us that as important as the love of father and mother is to the wholeness and well-being of our humanity, the love of God is of even greater importance and brings healing unto life eternal.

The Christian life could be described as the path to sainthood by the acquisition of the Holy Spirit. Each of us, upon chrismation, is granted the seal of the gift of the Holy Spirit. Throughout our lives we are to grow in the Spirit, cooperating with Him, not grieving Him, but submitting our lives to the Spirit’s leading and acquiring His presence and governance more and more. To acquire the Spirit of God is, according to St. Seraphim of Sarov, the true aim of the Christian life. Everything else that we do is for the single purpose of gaining the fullness of the Holy Spirit in our lives and being transformed by Him into saints or “holy ones” of God.

Think of it this way. Every time you pray or fast or come to church; every time you fight some temptation toward evil; every time you offer a work of charity or mercy; every time you are careful to follow any penance given you by your father-confessor; in short, every time you renounce yourself and take up your own cross, seeking to obey God and please Him, you are opening the door to the Holy Spirit and inviting Him to take a larger role in your life. God does not force Himself upon people; He comes to those who desire Him and long for His presence in their lives and wish to become like Him by grace. Sainthood therefore is a deliberate choice, and a daily one for each and every Christian.

There are many people today who perpetuate a corrupted teaching about sainthood, insisting that no one can be truly holy in this life. Whether or not they call themselves Calvinists, they seem to accept without question his idea of the total depravity of man and therefore relegate sainthood to a kind of honorary title bestowed upon Christians by God. They teach that God “looks upon us as being holy” even though He and we apparently both know that this is far from true. They’ve invented the term “positional righteousness” to distinguish from “actual righteousness” which they see as impossible. They will often quote the scripture, “There are none righteous; no, not even one” as if this somehow nullified the glorification of our humanity in Christ and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in our lives.

Further, they will claim that there is nothing unique about sainthood and that the New Testament calls all believers saints automatically. This, along with the rest of their teaching, is simply not true. As Romans 1:7 says, we are called to be saints. It is a calling, and therefore must be followed to be fulfilled. If the epistles often refer to the early believers as saints, there are at least two reasons for this. One was to remind them of their calling, lest they rest on their halos, and the other was because in their case, the title was appropriate. Because of their fearless devotion to God despite the threat of martyrdom, which gave them the certain knowledge that they were “not of this world”; because they had laid every earthly encumbrance aside awaiting the imminent return of Christ; because of their endless prayer and their selfless acts of charity; because of their basic recognition of the Christian way as transformational, and because they were filled with the Holy Spirit, the early believers became, in the words of H. Tristram Englehart “scary holy”. The title of “saints” in their case was very real and deserved.

Which do you think is better: to imagine that we are merely called saints so that, despite our obviously sinful lives, we can feel better about ourselves knowing that God thinks we are holy; or that we are called to be saints so that we can set upon the path leading to an actual sharing in the holiness of God Himself? I chose the latter, even though it is the more difficult way.

I fear that the modern misconceptions about sainthood trap many believers into a “Christians aren’t perfect, just forgiven” mentality that takes away any incentive to pursue holiness. I am not trying to foster a “them vs. us” mentality here, but only pointing out that this false theology is very pervasive today and may linger in our thoughts and in our approach to God even long after we convert to the Orthodox faith. Many people feel that whatever they do or however they live, nothing matters to God as long as they believe the right things. This strictly rational, doctrine-based approach to salvation fails to satisfy the human longing for true communion with God and for transformational holiness. Thus we see modern Christians constantly in search of the purpose and power that, ironically, their own reason and doctrine have robbed them of. For the Christian, purpose is found in repentance, that daily taking up of one’s own cross in following Christ and in walking in the works which He has prepared for us beforehand. And power is found in the acquisition of the Holy Spirit, not to speak in strange babblings, but for something rather more substantial: to become holy.

On this day that we remember all the saints, let us understand that our lives have real meaning and purpose, and can be joined with power from on high. Sainthood is not some honorary title, but an incredibly high calling granted to us, which is ours to fulfill with the help and indwelling of the Holy Spirit, the Lord and Giver of Life. May His presence be real in each of our lives and in this holy community, as His work of making sinners into saints continues.

+To the glory of God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.