Sunday of All Saints of Antioch & Second Sunday of Matthew in the Orthodox Church

 

 Acts 11:19-30; Matthew 4:18-23

           We celebrate today for the first time in our Archdiocese the Sunday of All Saints of Antioch together with our Patriarchate. It is through their faithful witness that we have been welcomed into the fullness of the Body of Christ in which divisions according to nationality, ethnicity, and culture have no legitimate place or spiritual significance.  The miracle of speaking in diverse languages at Pentecost shows that the transforming power of the Holy Spirit enables all people to fulfill their basic human vocation to become like God in holiness.  The first Gentile church was in Antioch, where “the disciples were first called Christians.”   As His Eminence, Metropolitan SABA recently wrote, the Antiochian Church has always been a multicultural and multilingual church.  Its “freedom from ethnocentrism made it the first Orthodox church in North America to open its doors…to converts to Orthodoxy.”[1]  We are obviously deeply indebted to those through whom we have heard the Lord’s call, “Follow Me.” The ministry of Antioch proclaims this calling not to a select few but as the vocation of all who bear the divine image as unique, irreplaceable icons of God.

 

To gain the spiritual strength to respond to this calling, we must grow in humility and find healing for our souls.  From ancient times, Christians have observed a fast after celebrating the great feast of Pentecost.  After the festive seasons of Pascha, Ascension, and Pentecost, we now focus on the struggle to become fully receptive to the healing power of the Holy Spirit.   The Apostles Fast concludes with the celebration of the feast of Saints Peter and Paul, who are shining examples of what it means to become radiant with the divine glory.  The stories of their personal transformations should inspire us, for both had sinned greatly, with Peter denying the Lord three times and Paul having fiercely persecuted Christians.  Nonetheless, they became foundational pillars of the Church by the power of the Holy Spirit.  They truly were healed.

 

            We might refuse to see how they are examples for us due to a misplaced sense of humility.  It may seem presumptuous to put ourselves anywhere near the place of those who first heard the Savior’s call: “Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.”   The point is not that we are somehow to repeat the unique roles of any of the apostles, but that we must learn from their examples how to become fully receptive to the healing mercy of the Lord.  The difficult journeys of all the apostles had nothing to do with glorifying themselves.   Instead, they became living icons of Christ by their humility, for their sins were made clear for all to see.  Sts. Peter and Paul both made the ultimate witness as martyrs, becoming last in this world to the point of shedding their blood for Christ. Contrary to the temptations common to religious people and leaders to this very day, the apostles pursued paths that had nothing to do with exalting themselves above others. As St. Paul wrote, “God has displayed us, the apostles, last, as men condemned to death; for we have been made a spectacle to the world, both to angels and to men… To the present hour we both hunger and thirst, and we are poorly clothed, and beaten, and homeless. And we labor, working with our own hands. Being reviled, we bless; being persecuted, we endure; being defamed, we entreat. We have been made as the filth of the world, the offscouring of all things until now.” (1 Cor: 4: 9-13)

 

As living members of Christ’s Body, the Church, we have received the fullness of truth by the power of the Holy Spirit, poured out richly at Pentecost.  We are filled with the same Spirit personally in Chrismation and nourished by the Savior’s Body and Blood in the Eucharist. He has called and empowered us to live each day of our lives as those who participate by grace in the life of the Holy Trinity.  To confess these truths is to know immediately how unworthy we are of such blessings and how far short we fall of living accordingly.  When we recall the Lord’s teaching that “to whom much is given, much will be required,” we should fall on our faces in repentance because of the great responsibility that is ours. (Lk 12:48) The Savior said, “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven.” (Matt. 7:21) He also said, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” (Jn. 14:15) As the Lord told His disciples, “Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” (Matt. 5: 20) Struggling to obey the Lord each day in humility is the only way to grow in holiness and follow the apostles to the heavenly kingdom.  To identify ourselves as Orthodox Christians without pursuing this demanding path is sheer hypocrisy by which we condemn ourselves.  We will become the opposite of “fishers of men” if we entangle ourselves in the nets of our passions, such as spiritual pride and the false gods of worldly political and ethnic divisions. Instead of attracting others to Christ like a beacon in the darkness, we will repel them by our refusal to follow in the way of the apostles and saints. 

 

The world so obviously lacks peace today, especially in situations where earthly powers blasphemously view themselves as the highest good and become blind to the humanity of those who threaten their desires and illusions.  As His Eminence has written, the refusal of the Antiochian Church to identify itself with a nation arises from the experience of “living under non-Christian rule since the seventh century [which] exposed the Church to various persecutions. Yet, wherever possible, it engaged with its surroundings, rulers, and citizens of different sects, remaining a witness to its faith and spirituality...” To be faithful stewards of the spiritual inheritance that we have received from our Antiochian forebears, we must follow in their way of freedom “from ethnic and nationalistic entanglements” and maintain “a theology untainted by a fusion of religion and nationalism.”[2]  

 

St. Seraphim of Sarov taught, “Acquire the Spirit of peace and a thousand souls around you will be saved.”  The Spirit of peace is, of course, the Holy Spirit, through whom we have become children and heirs of God through Christ, regardless of our ethnic, cultural, or national identity. (Gal. 4:6-7) St. Seraphim also taught that “the true aim of our Christian life consists of the acquisition of the Holy Spirit of God.”  Our vocation is not to serve the false gods of our passions or of the divisions of the world. It is, instead, to become like God in holiness through the healing, transformative presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives.

 

The light yoke of the Apostles Fast gives us an opportunity to do precisely that, as we humble ourselves before the Savior in prayer, fasting, and almsgiving.  That is how we acquire the spiritual strength necessary to overcome the weakness of slavery to our self-centered desires as we answer the calling to become the uniquely beautiful living icons that our Lord created us to be.  Remember that when the disciples first heard Christ say, “Follow Me,” they were doing their daily work as fishermen.  His calling is not esoteric or removed from the mundane realities of life.  We have no lack of opportunities to answer His call today in our families, workplaces, friendships, and neighborhoods, as well as in our parish.  No one else is married to your spouse, is the father or mother of your children, or is the particular friend, worker, or parishioner that you are.  No one else has the vocation to serve Christ in those around you in the unique way that you do. The present circumstances of our lives present limitless opportunities to become fully receptive to the healing presence and peace of Holy Spirit.  None of us lacks anything at all that is necessary to grow in holiness, obey Christ’s calling, and draw others into the life of the Kingdom.  The disciplines of the Apostles Fast will help us gain the spiritual clarity to hear and respond faithfully to that calling, as have all the saints across the centuries.  Let us use these weeks to abandon the nets that would hold us back from doing so.

 

 

---

[1] “Antiochian Distinctions,” https://www.antiochian.org/regulararticle/2465.

[2] https://www.antiochian.org/regulararticle/2465

Homily for the Sunday of All Saints and the Synaxis of the Twelve Apostles in the Orthodox Church

 

Hebrews 11:33-12:2; Matthew 9:36-10:8

 

            Today we commemorate our Lord’s Twelve Apostles and all the Saints, looking to them as brilliant examples of faithfulness to the Savior.  We may, however, be tempted to think that such glorious persons have little to do with the humble and broken circumstances of our lives.  After all, the Apostles were our Lord’s closest followers during His earthly ministry. Though they did not fully understand Who He was until after His resurrection, He sent the Holy Spirit to empower them to shepherd the Church as they fulfilled His command to “preach…‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’ Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, cast out demons.”  They all struggled and suffered greatly in faithfulness to the Lord in their ministries, with St. John the Theologian being the only one not dying as a martyr. 

 

            If we are ever tempted to think that we have achieved something great in the Christian life, we should look to their example of abandoning all the comfort and security of a conventional life to experience the uncertainty of following a Messiah Who Himself was rejected and condemned by respectable religious and political leaders.  The Savior’s message was such a threat to their power that they crucified Him as a public example of what happened to those who got in their way and threatened the interests of the powerful.  As Christ foretold, “the time is coming when anyone who kills you will think they are offering a service to God.” (Jn 16: 2) It is not surprising that the Apostles who continued our Lord’s ministry met deaths like His.  They obeyed literally the Savior’s teaching to deny themselves, take up their crosses, and follow Him.

 

The way of Christ was certainly not popular or celebrated during their lifetimes.  To the contrary, it was a path to persecution, imprisonment, torture, and death.  In contrast to false teachers who tried to use their position for self-glorification, true Apostles followed in the way of those in the Old Testament who looked forward in faith to the coming of the Messiah. As we read today from Hebrews: “Some were tortured, refusing to accept release, so that they might rise again to a better life. Others suffered mocking and scourging, and even chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were tempted, they were killed with the sword; they went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, ill-treated—of whom the world was not worthy—wandering over deserts and mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth.”

 

Christ fulfilled their hope not by setting up an earthly kingdom with geographical borders in which they or their descendants would rule, even though that is what the Apostles themselves had originally anticipated.  Instead, He offered Himself freely to the point of death on the Cross for the salvation of all in a Kingdom not of this world.  He then rose in glorious victory over the worst that the most powerful empire of the world could do.  Empowered by the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, the Apostles were completely transformed and manifested the ways of heaven amidst the realities of a broken world.  They healed the sick, cast out demons, and raised the dead.  They did not respond in kind to their enemies, but embodied the merciful love of the Savior.  Even as He prayed for the forgiveness of those who killed Him, St. Paul wrote of the Apostles, “When reviled, we bless; when persecuted, we endure; when slandered, we try to conciliate.”  The Apostles are members of Christ’s Body, the Church, and chief shepherds of His flock. Their work is not their own, but Christ’s.  That is why St. Paul could say with integrity “I urge you, then, be imitators of me.” (1 Cor. 4:12-16) His life had become an enacted icon of the Savior.  As he wrote elsewhere, “It is no longer I who live, but Christ Who lives in me.”  (Gal. 2:20)

 

No matter what our particular calling in  life may be, we all have the same fundamental vocation to become radiant with the holiness of God.  People should be able to look at any one of us and see a vibrant image of the healing of the human person in God’s image and likeness that our Savior has worked for the salvation of the world.  The Apostles are examples for us all in this regard, as are all the Saints.   We do not know the names of all the Saints, but God certainly knows all who have entered into the blessedness of the heavenly kingdom, regardless of whether they have been formally recognized by the Church.  We have the benefit of the teachings, ministries, and prayers of countless people who have manifested the holiness of God, and we must not excuse ourselves from faithfully following their examples.  As today’s epistle reading exhorts us: “Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfection of our faith.”

 

Christ said to the Apostles, “You received without paying, give without pay.”  All the more does His admonition apply to us, who have benefited from the witness of countless generations of holy people in the Church, not as a reward for good behavior, but due to the mercy of our Lord Who was and is at work through them by the power of the Holy Spirit.  We must resist the strong temptation to make the pursuit of the Christian life all about ourselves, or about people who are superficially like us, as though God’s salvation were our personal possession to be used for our own comfort and satisfaction.  The Apostles and the Saints have rejected the temptation to distort the way of Christ into an exercise in serving themselves or seeking earthly glory. Had their religion been something they had invented, they could have done with it as they pleased.  Our Lord’s salvation, however, is not a product of this world or a commodity to be divided up or bought and sold according to conventional human designs.  He has conquered death, the wages of sin, by His own death and resurrection.  We share in His life by grace, which means that we are always in the position of those who have “received without paying.”  Consequently, we must “give without pay” as we offer our resources, time, and attention in support of the ministries of our parish and to bless the suffering, outcast, and needy neighbors with whom our Lord identified Himself.  If we are truly in Christ, then His life will become our own; our character will conform to His.  He is the vine and we are the branches.  (Jn. 15:5) Since He offered up Himself freely for our sake, we must offer ourselves to become channels of His blessing and healing for the world, as all His faithful servants have done. 

 

Across the centuries and to this very day in some parts of the world, countless Christians have followed the Apostles in literally dying as martyrs.  Such martyrdom is a particular calling that requires a God-given strength to make the ultimate witness for Christ.  By the power of the Holy Spirit, the Lord calls and enables us all to bear witness to Him as we take up the crosses we bear in our particular circumstances. In order to gain the spiritual strength to bear faithful witness to Him, we must make the most basic spiritual disciplines part of our daily lives as we pray, fast, share our resources, read the Scriptures, forgive our enemies, and keep a close watch on the thoughts and desires that we welcome into our hearts.  These practices are essential for gaining the spiritual clarity to discern how the Lord is calling us to serve Him in the Church and in the world.  Embracing them is an essential step in following in the way of all the Saints.   

 

By the power of the Holy Spirit, an unlikely group of Palestinian Jews became our Lord’s Apostles.  To this very day, people who face all the problems of life in our fallen world become radiant with the holiness of God as His Saints.  Let us take the small, faltering steps that we are capable of taking today as we follow in their path to the Kingdom.  We have no lack of opportunities to do so in our parish, our families, our workplaces, and our neighborhoods.  By responding to those opportunities as best we presently can, we will learn to take up our crosses and take our place among those who bear faithful witness to the saving mercy of our Lord.  We have received from Him without paying.  Let us give ourselves to Him and our neighbors in the same way. That is how, by His grace, we may all become Saints.