Homily Three for the Sunday of All Saints
By St. John of Kronstadt
By St. John of Kronstadt
"Be holy, for I am holy" (1 Peter 1:16).
Today is the Sunday of All Saints, that is, the Sunday dedicated to the remembrance and glorification of all the Holy Saints of God, and especially the Holy Martyrs for the faith of Christ, their ardent love for God and neighbor, their every patience, self-denial, abstinence, obedience to the faith, unwavering devotion to the Lord and the Holy Church, their strength and humility, simplicity and gentleness, their holiness and perfection. Here they were people like us, but by faith, love and zeal for God, patience and forcing themselves to every virtue, repentance and withdrawal from every sin and lawlessness, they pleased God and attained eternal peace and blessedness; and we are invited to follow them, praying day and night to God for the salvation of us all.
They seem to speak to us from heaven: "Behold, we have labored, by the grace of God, temporarily for God and our souls, and now we rejoice forever; we did not spare our much-suffering, corruptible flesh, we wore it out with fasting, labors, unceasing prayers, or we were oppressed and tormented in every way by unrighteous persecutors; now we are crowned with crowns of incorruption from the life-giving right hand of Christ God; we have hated the all-pervasive and all-destructive sin and have clung with all our hearts to God and His holy commandments, and by this we have become forever blessed."
Labor, then, zealously for God and your souls, despise your sinful flesh, which incites you to incessantly despise God's commandments, to love sin and despise virtue, to please the devil and resist God; compel her, the negligent and lazy, to fasting, prayer, patience, meekness, mercy and every virtue until the end of your life, which is not far off, but very near. Hate with all your soul every sin and love the truth of God, life-giving, eternal: and you will also eternally rest and rejoice.
Thus, brethren, the Holy Saints of God, of whom there is no number, call us to follow them to the heavenly fatherland, where the eternal Glory of God shines, where there is no unrighteousness, where life is without labor, sorrows and illnesses, but endless life. Let us follow, let us certainly follow them, with the help of God: so God commands. Come, He says, to Me all who labor in the struggle with sins and are burdened with iniquities, - come with fervent repentance and virtue: and I will give you rest; take my yoke, the yoke of my holy commandments, and learn from Me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls: for my yoke is easy and my burden is light (Matthew 11:28–30) – that is, not like the yoke and burden of your sins and passions, which are grievous, deceitful, fruitless and destructive. "Be holy, for I, the Lord your God, am holy" (Lev. 19:2). The Holy Apostle Paul tells us all: we have no abiding, i.e. permanent, city here, but we seek the future (Heb.13:14), whose Builder and Artist is God Himself.
So, let us try to follow the Saints, that is, to live virtuously, like them, each according to his own strength, and to flee carefully from every sin that lives and reigns in us, and seeks with hellish, sleepless malice and cunning to destroy our souls forever. Against the cunning of sin and its father the devil, let us also be wise and cautious; against its sleeplessness, let us also be sleepless in the struggle with it; against its stubbornness and constancy, let us also always be stubborn and constant in the struggle with it; let us, if necessary, stand guard day and night against evil sins and evil demons, who do not abandon a person with their intrigues even at night, but with various sleepy dreams compel him to work for sins even at this time: for even at night the same weaknesses and passions of the sinner act in his soul, to which he indulges when awake.
Let us strive with all our might for the salvation of ourselves and our neighbors; let us be diligent in every virtue: for this is why we were created by God, this is why we live in this world, for this we were baptized and anointed with the Holy Chrism, for this we were churched and became members of the Church of God, this Kingdom of God on earth, in order to do good deeds, in order to be a holy and chosen flock, God's portion, a royal priesthood, a sacred sanctuary, a holy nation, a renewed people. Otherwise, what benefit will there be to us from our baptism and the seal of the Holy Spirit, from the fact that we are members of the Church by name? What benefit is there in partaking of the Body and Blood of Christ if we neglect virtue and sin diligently every day? What use is our name as Orthodox Christians — blessed sons of God and children of the Church — if we surrender ourselves daily to every kind of lawlessness, envy, malice, self-love, pride, deceitfulness, indulgence, impurity, falsehood, trickery, and other sins? Our life must correspond with our name: "Those who belong to Christ," says the Apostle, "have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires" (Gal. 5:24); that is to say, true Christians must mortify every passion and every sin within themselves. You may say: it is very difficult to conquer oneself and to overcome all passions. There is no doubt: it is hard, not easy to break one’s sinful nature, but God, our Helper, is all-powerful; and from Him all divine powers for a holy life and piety are given to Christians in the Church (2 Pet. 1:3); with God, all things are possible; "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me," says the Apostle Paul (Phil. 4:13).
And all the Saints, whose memory we now celebrate and whose exploits we glorify, serve us as a wonderful example and encouragement to a holy, Christian life and to the struggle with sin: they were, as has already been said, people like us in everything, but by faith and love, diligence and labors in good deeds they conquered sin, the world and the ruler of the world and their passions and now eternally triumph. And among them were not only monks, but also lay people - married men and women, people of every rank, status, sex and age. And with them was the same devil, the tempter of sins, and the same sinful world with its temptations, the same people with their temptations. We cannot excuse ourselves from the holy life, saying that in the present time it is supposedly impossible to be saved, that supposedly times are not the same now as in the past, that people have now become like demons, only tempting to sin, and life has supposedly become completely different, not like before. No, friends, it is not true that it is impossible to be saved now: it is possible even now. The Lord Himself said to His disciples at His ascension into heaven, and with them to all of us: "Behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age" (Matt. 28:20). And since He is always with us, then we have nothing to fear: He will help us in everything; He will defeat our enemies, as the Almighty; He will raise us, He will save us; He will crown us, if we remain faithful to Him until death. Amen.
Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.
