Homily for the Sundal of All Saints
By Holy Hieromartyr Sergius Mechev
By Holy Hieromartyr Sergius Mechev
In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit!
On the first Sunday after Pentecost, the Holy Church commemorates all the saints, honoring the martyrs, the blessed, the venerable ascetics, and all the righteous who have shone forth throughout the ages.
If on the day of Holy Pentecost we celebrate the descent of the Holy Spirit, if we celebrate the day of the Church's foundation — for from that moment the life of the Church begins — then on the first Sunday after Pentecost the Holy Church continues this celebration of the Holy Spirit, for today she commemorates those who have constituted and continue to constitute the Body of the Church. She commemorates the true members of the Body of Christ, those who, while still alive and still upon the earth, acquired within themselves the Holy Spirit of God.
When our Lord Jesus Christ was on earth, He did not leave His disciples any written teaching. He came in order to create the Church as His own Body. “I will build My Church, and the gates of hades shall not prevail against it.” He came in order to give life to mankind: “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life.”
Christianity is not a dogma — we have made it into a dogma. Christianity is above all life. Therefore Christ was not here as a teacher, but as the One who first manifested the Kingdom of Heaven upon earth. And His Church follows the same path. She likewise is that which manifests the Kingdom of Heaven. She also is not a dogma but life. She lives first and teaches afterward; and if she teaches, she teaches through life.
When Christ departed from His disciples, when He left this earth in human form, He did not say to them, “Write down everything that I taught,” or, “Let Me write it down for you.” Rather, He said: “I will send you the Comforter, who will guide you into all truth.” He, the Comforter, “will bring all things to your remembrance”; He will make you remember everything.
Illumination by the Holy Spirit, life through Him and in Him — this is the life of the Church. Only insofar as the Holy Spirit lives within us and teaches us do we, brothers and sisters, belong to the Orthodox Catholic Church, and only insofar as this is true does Christian life and labor exist upon the earth.
When the Lord departed from us, He promised us the Holy Spirit, and the fulfillment of that promise took place on the Day of Holy Pentecost. The Holy Spirit descended upon the Apostles and first of all transformed their lives. They did not begin by teaching differently; rather, they first began to live differently, and only then, from that life, did they teach. We see this in the example of the Apostle Peter.
To the extent that we live and strive to acquire the Holy Spirit, to that extent we are members of the Body of Christ.
If we remember that the Gospel appeared much later than the Day of Holy Pentecost, that it was written only toward the end of the Apostles’ lives and after Christianity had already spread considerably, then it becomes clear how extraordinary was the illumination of the Holy Spirit among the first Christians. The Apostles preached on the Day of Pentecost, enlightened by Him. There was no need for books, for the grace of the Holy Spirit spoke through their mouths. According to Saint John Chrysostom, the written Gospel itself was a sign of decline. It appeared when the illumination of the Holy Spirit was no longer commensurate with those receiving it, when there occurred once again what had happened in the Old Testament, where after the Fall a written law became necessary, the Law of Moses.
In the patristic way we see above all the acquisition of the Holy Spirit of God. Every human being is an image of God, but a saint is one who has acquired the Holy Spirit within that image, and acquired Him first and foremost through life. Concerning this life, I wish today to tell you about the action of the Holy Spirit as it is manifested in a person who is making spiritual progress.
Here is what Saint Anthony the Great says:
“It is necessary, striving in harmony and equally for perfect purity, to undertake the labors of repentance both in soul and body. And when the mind is granted such grace that, without self-pity or indulgence, it enters into battle against the passions, then it receives the inspirations, guidance, and strengthening of the Spirit, through whose help it successfully begins to repel from the soul all impure assaults arising from the desires of the heart. This Spirit, united with the mind or spirit of man because of the latter’s determination to fulfill the commandments, directs him to drive away from the soul all passions, both those that come to it through the body and those which dwell within it independently of the body. He teaches him to keep the body in order from head to foot: the eyes, that they may look with purity; the ears, that they may hear what is good and not delight in gossip, slander, or reviling; the tongue, that it may speak after weighing every word and not permit anything impure or passionate to enter speech; the hands, that they may be moved only for prayer and for works of mercy and generosity; the stomach, that it may remain within proper limits in food and drink, taking only what is necessary to sustain the body and not allowing desire and love of pleasure to exceed that measure; the feet, that they may walk uprightly and according to the will of God, directing themselves toward the service of good works. Thus the entire body becomes accustomed to every good thing and, submitting to the authority of the Holy Spirit, is so transformed that it eventually becomes, to some degree, a participant in those properties of the spiritual body which it is to receive in the resurrection of the righteous” (Philokalia 1:20).
The Holy Spirit is life, and above all He gives us life. If our bodily senses are often what prevent us from entering upon the true path, then the Holy Spirit enables us to keep the body in order, so that a person gradually begins to repel from the soul every impure assault. This purification is not only for the soul, but extends also to the body. The body itself is purified and raised up toward the soul.
This is what faith in Christ gives us above all. We must walk not only the path of struggle against the passions, but also the path of acquiring the gifts of the Holy Spirit. As we ourselves seek within this purification the image of God, the Holy Spirit also leads us to likeness with God. He is that power which, as Saint Makarios the Great says, gives us new spiritual senses:
“Our Lord Jesus Christ came in order to change, transform, and renew human nature, and to recreate this soul, which through transgression had been cast down by the passions, by mingling it with the Divine Spirit. He came to make those who believe in Him a new mind, a new soul, new eyes, a new hearing, a new spiritual tongue — in a word, new people” (Philokalia 1:58).
Everything proceeds not from dogma but from life. One may know the Gospel magnificently and yet possess nothing of what the Holy Fathers speak about. But the saints of God became new people while still here on earth. “Whoever does and teaches them shall be called great in the Kingdom of Heaven...”
The saints did not teach us merely with words. They showed us. They gave us their very lives. Only within one’s own soul is the Kingdom of God revealed through the gradual acquisition of the gifts of the Holy Spirit.
And so today we have gathered to honor the true members of the Body of Christ, those who here on earth built the Kingdom of God and who here, and not somewhere in another world, acquired the gifts of the Holy Spirit. There have been, and there are, many servants pleasing to God in this world, and we have the great joy of knowing and glorifying only some of them. The Holy Church glorifies them not for their teaching, but for their lives. Indeed, she glorifies not even them themselves, but through them the Holy Spirit. Today she tells us that the Lord did not promise us the Comforter in vain, that there have been and there will continue to be people who seek to acquire Him within themselves, and that these are the very ones upon whom the Church stands — the true members of the Body of Christ. It is to them, and not to us, that the promise applies that the gates of hades shall not prevail against them, they who upon the Blood of the Lord have built His Church through their ascetic struggles and their love.
If this is so, and if we must learn from someone how to interpret and understand Holy Scripture, then it is to them that we shall go. For they acquired the Holy Spirit through their lives, and the Lord Jesus Christ said that He, the Holy Spirit, would guide us into all truth.
This feast is the feast of Christ’s disciples and saints, a feast in which we glorify the great and greatest teachers of the Church, the Fathers of the Ecumenical Synods who revealed to us the truths of the Orthodox faith, those who acquired the Holy Spirit in their souls. If every human being is an image of God, then a saint is one who has acquired the likeness of God through the acquisition of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.
