Hebrews 11:33-12:2; Matthew
10:32-33, 37-38; 19:27-30
If you are like me, sometimes when you read the lives of the saints you
shake your head and think, “I could never do anything like that.” Many endured
horrible tortures to the point of death because they refused to deny
Christ. Others denied themselves food,
clothing, and shelter in ways that seem beyond the strength of human
beings. Some accepted insult and abuse
while forgiving their tormentors and turning the other cheek in a fashion that
seems not of this world. As today’s
epistle reading reminds us, the Old Testament saints endured such trials purely
in anticipation of the coming of the Savior.
Most of us, who have received the fullness of the promise in Christ,
cannot fathom how we could be nearly as faithful as was this cloud of witnesses
who point us by their examples and prayers to commend our lives to Christ.
On
this Sunday of All Saints, we commemorate all those who have united themselves
to the Lord to the point that they have become radiant with His holiness by the
power of the Holy Spirit, including those whose are not formally canonized as
saints by the Church. The canonized
saints are like the members of the hall of fame who stand as shining examples
of obedience to the Lord. We celebrate them because their lives are such vivid
icons of what it means for a human being to become a partaker of the divine
nature by grace. We do not know the
names of all the saints, of course. Not
all who are illumined with the divine glory are known publically as such; of
course, the point of holiness is never simply to draw attention to
oneself. It is, instead, to be faithful
in offering our lives to Christ. Only He knows the names and number of those
Who have done that, for He alone knows our hearts.
If
we want to join their number, then we must attend carefully to Christ’s
teachings today in the gospel reading. “Everyone who acknowledges Me
before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father Who is in heaven; but
whoever denies Me before men, I also will deny before My Father Who is in
heaven.” No doubt, these words concern
the importance of remaining faithful to the Lord even in the face of fierce persecution. Martyrs and confessors continue to refuse to
deny Him, regardless of the physical abuse they suffer in many countries around
the world. But we would let ourselves
off the hook by thinking that this teaching refers only to those who lives are
literally at risk for being faithful Christians. We must also ask whether we acknowledge Him
before our neighbors every day of our lives in what we say and do. It is only
our pride that makes us think that true faithfulness must be dramatic and
spectacular. Most of us struggle to be
faithful even in our routine trials and temptations. We will fail to unite ourselves to Christ in
holiness if we fail to see that the most common challenges that we face are our
opportunities to acknowledge that we belong to Him, and not simply to
ourselves.
The Savior said, “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 his cross
and follow Me is not worthy of Me.”
There is nothing wrong, of course with loving our parents or our
children, but if we are to become radiant with the holiness of God, we must
keep even our strongest loves in proper order.
We must remember that our parents, children, and spouses are gifts of
God to us. His love is obviously the ground of all love worthy of the
name. Our calling is not to worship
people or make them ends in themselves, but to relate to them in a way that
fulfills God’s gracious purposes for them and us. If we make false gods out of others, we will
make them miserable and probably drive them away. And since God created us in
His image and likeness, we will learn the hard way that we will never find
fulfillment in anyone but Him.
“People pleasing” is quite dangerous
because it is ultimately a self-centered form of idolatry in which we crave the
approval of others to the point that we will sacrifice anything for it. Instead of offering even our most prized and
intimate relationships to the Lord for His healing and blessing, we end up
offering ourselves to others, willing to compromise our faithfulness for the
sake of giving whomever we want to impress what we think they want. That is not taking up our crosses, but
sacrificing our obedience to the Savior in order to serve lesser gods. And since what drives this attitude is our
self-centered desire for the approval of others, it is ultimately a way of
worshiping ourselves.
The Lord said that, “everyone who has left houses or
brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands, for My
Name’s sake, will receive a hundred fold, and inherit eternal life.” That is
not only a promise for those who have physically given up their families and
possessions, but also for those who have made the less dramatic sacrifice of
putting Christ first in how they treat and speak to their spouse, children,
family members, and friends. It is a
promise for those who have denied themselves in order to have more time,
energy, and resources to share with the poor, sick, and lonely. It is a promise for those who turn away from
self-centeredness by offering themselves to the Lord in daily prayer, regular
worship, and conscientious fasting.
Too often we think that holiness occurs only within the
context of the four walls of the Church.
If we are to take up our crosses and follow Christ, we must also learn
to see the infinite opportunities of dying to self out of love for Him and our
neighbors in our daily lives. That means
we must take a painfully honest look at ourselves. For example, we may enjoy filling out minds
with entertainment—such as news, social media, video games, film, etc.--that
only inflames passions of worry, fear, hate, envy, and lust. If so, we need to turn away from it as we
focus on the words of the Jesus Prayer or at least something else that does not
inflame our passions. If we cannot learn
to make such small sacrifices, we will never have the strength to make larger
ones.
Regardless of our age, we likely are close to people whose values
and way of life are apparently not consistent with obedience to Christ. Even as we must not condemn them personally,
we must resist the subtle temptation to compromise our faithfulness to the Lord
in what we say and do in order to gain their approval. It is one thing to show everyone Christ’s
love as best we can, but another to fail to acknowledge Him by engaging in conduct
and conversation that contradict our primarily loyalty to Him. That would be a form of putting other people,
and ultimately ourselves, before God, which is a path only to greater weakness
for them and us. We must all discern
mindfully and prayerfully whether we are acknowledging Christ in situations where
it is much easier to act and speak as though He were not our Lord. We must all be willing to take up the cross
of obedience to Him even if it means that we will be met with disapproval.
“Many that are first will be last, and the last first.” The Savior’s statement applies to all who
have put Him first in their lives, for doing so requires sacrificing much that
the world worships. It is obviously the
case for martyrs and confessors to this very day, but also applies to everyone
who sacrifices, even in small ways, in order to seek first the Kingdom of
God. When we direct our time, energy,
and attention to serve Christ, His Church, and our neighbors in whom He is
present, we take a lower place in the estimation of the world. When we refuse to sacrifice ourselves on the
altars of conventional accounts of success and happiness, we embrace the
humility of Christ. Even when we do so
in seemingly ordinary ways, we take step in running “with perseverance the race
that is set before us, looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfection of our
faith.” That is how, we too, may join
that great cloud of witnesses who have become radiant with the holiness of our
Lord. Nothing dramatic or spectacular is required, but only true faithfulness.
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