Homily One for the First Sunday After Pentecost, the Sunday of All Saints
By Archimandrite Kirill Pavlov
(Delivered in 1960)
By Archimandrite Kirill Pavlov
(Delivered in 1960)
In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit!
On this day, at the conclusion of all the great feasts – the Bright Resurrection of Christ, His glorious Ascension into Heaven and the sending of the Holy Spirit from the Father upon the Apostles, the Holy Church solemnly commemorates all the saints who have pleased God from the beginning of time and have been glorified by God, who are already celebrating in Heaven the great victory of the Conqueror of death and hades, our Savior. This is the blessed fruit of the suffering, death and Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. These are the gracious fruits of the coming of the All-Holy Spirit of God and His presence in the Church of Christ. These are the first-born of humanity redeemed by the Blood of Christ and renewed by the grace of the Spirit of God, brought to God the Father by Jesus Christ.
Since today the Church glorifies virtues, creates the memory of all the saints who shone in the east, west, north and south, beginning from the very creation of the world to the present time, of whom it is impossible to count them all, for the names of many of them are unknown, it was established to celebrate their memory together, so that they, united among themselves by virtues, would not be divided by the celebration. Therefore, today we celebrate the memory of the most ancient Patriarchs - the forefathers, who, believing in the Divine promises about the Coming of the Redeemer into the world, lived by this faith, remaining on earth as strangers and pilgrims (Heb. 11:13). We commemorate the zealous Prophets who, foretelling the Coming of Christ, exposed the vices and wickedness of their people, urged them to prepare themselves by repentance to meet the coming Lord, threatened the unrepentant with judgment and execution, for which they suffered reproach, persecution and suffering from their fellow tribesmen. We commemorate the holy and glorious Apostles who, having left everything, followed Christ and amid temptations, persecutions and sufferings preached the gospel of Christ in the world, who, having enlightened and benefited the whole world with their preaching, themselves endured sorrows and deprivations, illnesses and sufferings, tortures and death.
We celebrate the memory of the invincible martyrs who, for confessing the name of Christ, endured various sufferings, torments and executions. We commemorate the holy shepherds and hierarchs who, by word and deed, by teaching and life, taught and teach a living faith in Christ and a pious life, who zealously defended the purity and truth of the Orthodox teaching of the Christian Church and for this also endured suffering and all kinds of deprivations. We commemorate the venerable men and women who, in the deserts and caves, with their wondrous deeds reached an equal-to-angelic height, ascended to incomprehensible spiritual perfection. Now we commemorate the memory of every righteous soul, those who, while living among the world, were not of this world, who amidst the gossip and cares of life have made their souls and hearts pure and holy abodes of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, by reading the Gospel this week, the Church testifies that all of them are true confessors of the holy faith; they, in the name of the Lord, have forsaken everything that separated them from serving Him and the blessed union with Him; for this reason, the Lord Jesus Christ acknowledges the saints before His Father in Heaven, and through the lips of the Church, He acknowledges them on earth before mankind.
The Gospel of this Sunday reads as follows: The Lord said, “Whoever confesses Me before men, him will I also confess before My Father who is in heaven: but whoever denies Me before men, him I also will deny before My Father who is in heaven. Whoever loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me: and whoever loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me: and whoever does not take up his cross and follow Me is not worthy of Me.” Then Peter answered and said to Him, “Behold, we have left all and followed You; what then will happen to us?” Then Jesus said to them, “Truly I say to you, that you who have followed Me, in the regeneration, when the Son of Man shall sit on the throne of His glory, you also shall sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands, for My name's sake, shall receive a hundredfold, and inherit eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last first" (Matt. 10:32–33, 37–38, 19:27–30).
From this Gospel reading we see that the Lord commands us to confess Him, promising eternal blessedness to those who confess and threatening eternal torment for rejection. To confess Jesus Christ before men means not only to believe in Him and His teaching, but also to confess this teaching with your lips and deeds everywhere and always, regardless of what others will say, even if there are those who would laugh at this confession.
The Holy Apostles rejoiced when they were dishonored for the name of Christ. Therefore, if we begin to be oppressed for the faith, we should rejoice even more. For this is most beneficial for a Christian, because it brings down the crown of martyrdom on his head. Shame, fear, confusion are sure signs of little faith. "Whoever is ashamed of Me and My words, of him the Son of Man will be ashamed when He comes in His glory and the glory of the Father and the holy angels" (Luke 9:26). To believe in the Lord Jesus Christ in the secret of your heart, but not to confess your faith openly, means to believe with only half your heart. In such a divided heart there is no complete love for the Lord Jesus Christ, and the faith of such a person does not give full hope for salvation. That is why the Apostle Paul says: "For if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart man believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation" (Rom. 10:9–10). But to confess Jesus Christ with your lips alone, and not to conform your life and deeds to His teaching, is not confession, but only hypocrisy. A true confessor of Jesus Christ is one who, under any circumstances of life, confesses Him before people with lips and deeds, with purity and firmness of faith and holiness of life, so that the words of the Lord are fulfilled in him: "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven" (Matt. 5:16), and is always ready to sacrifice all earthly goods and even his very life for the truth of His teaching, if this pleases God.
The Lord, faithful in His promises, glorified His confessors on earth, but He will glorify them with ineffable glory before His Heavenly Father when He comes to judge the living and the dead. Then, according to His righteous Judgment, He will deny before His Heavenly Father and before the whole universe those who rejected Him before men: “I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!” (Matt. 7:23).
Further, the following words of the Savior's commandment attract attention: "Whoever loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me." To love father, or mother, or son and daughter more than the Lord means not to fulfill the commandments of God out of pleasing them, but to fulfill their orders and whims, contrary to the will of God. Of course, loving parents is a natural thing and is commanded by God, but love for God must come first. And since love for God has died out in human hearts because of incorrect love for parents and relatives or because of passion for them, then in order to make this love pure and holy, the Lord gives this commandment.
The love of parents and children is holy only when they love the Lord God more than any creature, no matter what it may be. And any love that makes one love someone more than the Creator is unlawful and destructive both for the lovers and for the loved ones. And so, driving out this love, the Savior wants to plant in the hearts of believers mutual love, which would be based on love for Him, our God and Savior. We must love God first and foremost, because He is God, He never leaves us for a minute from the very beginning of our existence until our death, He takes care of us every moment, He fills our hearts with joy, saturating us with food, He gives food to our spirit and mind. That is why He is called our Heavenly Father, who sincerely loves His children. Can our parents give all this? Of course not. Having a very wrong understanding of good, they can cause us more harm than good. Therefore, only that love will be correct and saving, which is based on love for our Savior Jesus Christ.
Further in today's Gospel the Lord says: "He who does not take up his cross and follow Me is not worthy of Me." Dear brothers and sisters, what does it mean to take up your cross? It means that we, having become disciples of Christ, must walk the narrow and sorrowful path of unceasing struggle with passions and lusts, with the temptations of the world, with the temptations of the devil, endure illnesses, troubles, misfortunes, persecutions, exiles and death, if the Lord is pleased to send all this to us. Our entire earthly life is work, illness, sorrow and sighing, it is nothing other than the continuous bearing of the cross, made up of various sorrows, griefs and illnesses that we encounter in our lives, of all sorts of burdens, labors and worries that everyone is obliged to bear as a member of human society. And so, in order to be with Christ in His glory, one must follow Him with one’s cross, one must imitate and become like Him as one’s Lord and Head.
We see the Savior sinless and dispassionate, but fasting. We see Him coming to the Temple of God on all the feasts prescribed by the Law. We see Him, finally, coming to Golgotha with the Cross. Do not turn away from Golgotha, from the cross of patiently enduring to the end all the troubles, sorrows and griefs of life sent by God. It was this path of bearing the cross that all the saints, who now reign with Him in His glory, followed after the Lord Jesus Christ.
The question of the Apostle Peter is also noteworthy: "Behold, we have left everything and followed You; what then will become of us?" The Apostles left everything for the sake of the Lord, and this means that following the Lord requires a feat, requires a willingness to sacrifice, if necessary, family ties and everything that is dear to us. And therefore it is not easy to be a true disciple of Christ.
But in response to this question the Lord answers this way: "You who have followed Me - in the regeneration," that is, in the future life, "when the Son of Man sits in His glory, you too will sit on twelve thrones to judge the twelve tribes of Israel," that is, with your faith, virtuous life you will expose the wickedness, sinfulness and unbelief of other people who have not believed in Me. "And everyone who has left houses, or brothers, or sisters, or father, or mother, or lands, for My name's sake, will receive a hundredfold and inherit eternal life."
Again the Lord says that for the sake of preserving faith in Him and inheriting eternal life we must renounce attachment to near and dear persons if they distract us from Him and the fulfillment of His commandments and lead us into temptation. For the fulfillment of this commandment the Lord promises both the highest reward in this life (in the sense of a feeling of spiritual satisfaction and good humor, spiritual enjoyment of calm and peace), and eternal life in the age to come.
And the Lord finished His words with the following saying: "Many who are first will be last, and the last first." The Last Judgment of Christ will show who has earned what reward from the Lord with their lives. Then many here on earth, famous for their power, honor, nobility, wealth, respect, will be last, and humble, simple, honest people, who were perhaps despised, ridiculed for their faith, their piety and generally considered the last people on earth, unworthy of attention, will be higher than the majestic and proud people. Because the distribution of rewards will depend not on who was noble and glorious on earth and how much, but on who preserved and demonstrated their faith in Christ in life.
This is the teaching of our Lord and Savior about the path we must follow in order to attain holiness and inherit eternal blessedness. This is the path that all the saints whose memory we celebrate today walked. The Church celebrates the memory of the saints in order to present us with living examples of people being saved and so that we can imitate them in life. They are our teachers in how to please the Lord. Therefore, the word of God commands us: "Remember them which have the rule over you, who spoke the word of God to you; and considering the end of their life, imitate their faith" (Heb. 13:7). By glorifying the saints, we at the same time call upon them to pray for us, for they love us and, having boldness before the Throne of God, can help us with their prayers in the work of our salvation. By glorifying the saints, we glorify their virtues, and by glorifying virtues, we glorify God, the Source of all virtue.
But, glorifying the saints and resorting to their prayerful help, we ourselves must be virtuous, or at least zealous about virtue and feel disgust for our vices and sins. Otherwise, the saints will turn their faces away from us and will not be our intermediaries before God, because they love purity, holiness and only goodness.
There are many saints who have shone with a pious and righteous life. According to one Church historian, just as the stars in the sky illuminate all the ends of the earth and show the way to those traveling and sailing on the seas, so the exploits of the saints shine and spiritually enlighten and show the way to those who want to be saved. And let no one despair of their salvation, for the examples of the saints testify that people of every rank, class, gender, under different circumstances and conditions of life have achieved eternal blessedness. It is not the place that saves a person, not the conditions, but only one thing is required - that our work and life do not violate the demands of conscience and the law of God.
From the lives of the holy saints of God we see that it is not the place, or this or that type of service or occupation that saves a person. Only a good conscience and honest fulfillment of one's duties save a person. He who obeys the law of God and his conscience will be saved, wherever he may be and in whatever conditions he lives. In the lives of the saints, everyone will find an example suitable for his way of life, an indication of the path to salvation. Here is the example of the farmer Philaret the Merciful, the example of the rich Abraham and Job. Let the poor look at the beggar Lazarus and the woodcutter from the island of Cyprus, who lived by daily labor and did not even have a roof over his head and yet praised God. Let the craftsman look at the seamstress - Saint Simeon of Verkhoturye, who performed works of mercy with his needle and sowed the word of God. Here is the gardener Konon. Here is a wandering singer, a flutist, whose feat is placed on a par with the feat of the great ascetic - the Venerable Paphnutios. Here is the shepherd Eucharius, here is the tanner Usmar and others. Here is a poor woman, Saint Tabitha, who also achieved a righteous life with her needle. Here are two women whose entire merit was that they, being daughters-in-law, maintained harmony and peace in family life. Here is Saint Nonna, who was saved by humbly bearing her lot as a married woman, and many other examples. That is why the Holy Apostle Paul says in today’s Epistle Reading: "Since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God" (Heb. 12:1–2). To Him from us, with the Father and the Holy Spirit, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.
Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.
