The
Sunday of All Saints was a few days ago, and while I had meant to write this
blog sooner, I have not had a chance. I am not going away, as that would be an
easy way out from all the controversy I have started with my previous post on
Father Ephraim. I understand that it is
a very confrontational topic. I understand that many people still believe he
conned an entire monastery for the past several decades, but his soul has been
rendered up to God and God is his only judge. Yes, I believe that it is sad
that the family of the victim never forgave him. Because they did not seek the
peace that forgiveness brings to people. However, I would like today to go in another
direction, a direction that reminds us, why men and women of the faith, who
have been recognized as saints by the Church are important. Father Ephraim has
not been declared a saint, and if he ever will be it will be decades before the
Church has enough time to determine that.
However a refresher course on sainthood and saints is very important I believe.
So today I think we need to look at Saints in the Orthodox Church and why they
are so important to the Church and the history of Christianity.
Sainthood in the Orthodox Church, as the early church
fathers and the early Christians understood it does not mean perfect. Far from
it. In fact, I would denote that Sainthood as a concept truly means that one
has taken all their faults and shed them off to become holy. Holy means to be
set a part, it does not mean perfect. When I refer to something as Holy, I mean
that it is set a part for a specific purpose, a liturgical purpose. We have holy
icons, holy water, and our holy fathers among the saints. All of these denote that
something has changed in them. It means that despite the failings of the flesh,
they overcame it through the grace of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. St.
Moses the Black was a murderer and thief, St. Olga committed genocide. Despite
all that, they found solace in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior of the Universe
and now dwell with him in heaven. St. Theodore the Commander was a warrior, so
was St. George. If we look at purely these actions, one will see that these
were regular people with regular dispositions. St. Xenia of St. Petersburg, was a widow who
lost her husband and became a fool for Christ. Elder Ephraim of Arizona left
his home to seek Christ in the deserts of America, and in many ways is already
a saint in all but title. The world around us, says that saints are people who
have extraordinary gifts and personalities that led them to God more strongly
than others. I disagree. I believe that these are people, who just like you and
me, fought tooth and nail to overcome their passions. They realized that everything
in this life was fleeting and unimportant. They sought forgiveness from their
sins and forgiveness from others. Nothing stopped them from seeking
forgiveness. They knew that forgiveness was the greatest gift of all. Something
in them changed…through Jesus Christ. The
workings of Jesus Christ in their lives took precedence over sports, movies,
television, video games, and other things people fill their lives with today. They
did not care for the food of this world, they fasted and prayed. Longing for a
home they had never seen, these men and women of the faith sojourned in a
country that was foreign to them, yet had lived their since birth. They abandoned the cares of the world and simple
pleasures to obtain something greater than themselves. They did not let sin
overcome them.
However, that does not mean the Church knows all the
saints. That does not mean the little old yiayia from down the street who has
been going to church since she was baptized as a baby is not a saint. Again, far
from it. She has as much potential as becoming a saint as we all do. Therefore,
the Sunday of All Saints was established. It is recognized that the Church does
not have the capacity to record every saint that has ever lived. We cannot commemorate
every name, because that would be an inexhaustible list of people who have
achieved perfection in Christ. The Sunday of All Saints was established to commemorate
even the ones we do not know, to allow the church to recognize all the saints
as we say in every liturgy. The Sunday
of All Saints reminds us that we too must continue our struggles. We may not have a day set a part for us on
the church liturgical calendar to be commemorated. We may not even been seen as
a saint in our lifetime. The Sunday of
All Saints though reminds us that no matter the circumstances of life, we have
been called to the exact same purpose that even the great men and women of the
faith have been called to. We are their equal on that footing. We have been
called to Sainthood.
We all have the capacity to become saints. Every single
one of us, through the grace of Jesus Christ can obtain the ability to perfect
our shortcomings and enter into heaven. Those of us who choose not to accept
the free divine grace that Jesus gives through his Church have rejected this
capacity and instead are overcome by the demons of the world and transformed
into mini devils. Those who persevere and forsake the glory of this world for
the sake of the glory of heaven instead become Holy. We enter the mystical
divine working essence of Christ and thus allow Christ to work through us and
with us to achieve sanctification in the world. We become set a part from all
the evils that have been allowed to enter into the earthly, mortal realm and can
fulfill the divine plan of God, that is to bring order to everything as Adam
once did, and was supposed to do. The only requirement for this is that we
allow God to enter us. God is not an overbearing overlord who forces himself
upon us. Rather he waits patiently until we are ready to be used by Him to
begin his work in us. He waits for us to
be willing to become his children and accept the beauty of divine grace. Our
call today as every day is to heed the same call that the saints of old did…to bring
the Light of Christ to all people.
Amen.
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