June 6, 2002
Sermon by Bishop John Yazigi
Balamand
In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, one God, Amen.
Beloved, the church celebrates today the feast of All Saints.
There are reasons behind celebrating this feast on the first Sunday after Pentecost. In the past, we joyously proclaimed, "Christ is Risen," and we celebrated the Lord's ascension to the bosom of His Father, whom He never left. We have witnessed the descent of the Holy Spirit. And now the church is celebrating the feast of all the saints in the whole world, from east to west and from north to south. The Church aims at revealing a truth to us, and I shall explain this you. After His Incarnation from the Virgin Mary, becoming fully human, being fully God as well, and after His crucifixion and His trampling down death by death, He rose from the dead and ascended to the Heavens, sending us the Holy Spirit, perfecting all this Divine Economy "for us."
This is what I want to explain to you: the Master of all, the Lord of Hosts, King of Kings, Creator and Lord of life and death, the Only Begotten Son came down becoming one of us, to be crucified and to rise from the dead, sending us the Holy Spirit. All this Divine Economy is made for us, for you and me and for every man. For this reason, the church fixed today, after all these events, the feast of All Saints; so that we remember that our sweet Lord has suffered all this to work in us, in every one of us. Today we remember all the saints that sacrificed their life to the Master, all those people who gave their life to God, and whose everlasting life was given to them by God. We call them saints and we remember them this first Sunday after Pentecost.
There is also another reason to remember the saints today. In Matins there is a hymn declaring that today we commemorate all the saints in the world, from east to west, and from south to north, and also the ones who shall enter into communion with them in the future.
This is a beautiful thing. We are called to be holy, to make all these salvific events working in us, as these saints permitted this to happen, and the Grace of God made the light of Christ to shine in and through them. This is an important subject, because when we speak of saints and holiness we are not talking about a personal matter, but of a life crucified for Christ.
Christianity is holiness; it is the love of God, and this love is the path to holiness. Whoever loves God seeks to perfect all righteousness, doing whatever is pleasing to God. This is our journey, filled with spiritual struggle, the path to holiness, as the Lord taught us: "Be holy as you Father is holy, and be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect."
This is our call and our path. We have to remember that Christianity is not just a beautiful theory, or a philosophical discourse. Christianity is life. We heard the Gospel passage of today: whoever confesses me in front of people, I will confess him in front of my Father in heaven. Our faith in the Lord is to live a life in Lord, to confess Him not just in words, but in deeds, in our life, so that people see our good works and glorify our Father in heaven. He is saying today: "whoever loves me, keep my commandments."
We are called to remember all what was done for us. When we say "for us" we mean each of the entire universe, including all human beings.
We who have been loved by God and called after His name are invited to open our life to Christ, allowing him in, so that the image of Christ in us shines. We are called to love him and confess him, and to throw away the old man and put on Christ being the new man who rose and trampled down death. At that time, we will be with the hosts of saints in the Kingdom of heaven, in the blessed paradise where the light of the Lord never sets, Him the ever-blessed and glorified, Amen.
