June 7th 2026: All Saints: Fr. Daniel York

In the name of the Father and of the Son and

of the Holy Spirit. Amen. As the entire outworking

of Great Lent, Pascha, the Ascension, and Pentecost,

today the Church commemorates, invokes, and celebrates

all the saints who have ever lived, the saints

who are universally known to us, but also those

who have been known only in their respective

communities, or even known only to God. Properly

speaking, today is the fullness of Pentecost.

The crucified, risen, ascended, and glorified

Jesus Christ pouring out his Holy Spirit upon

his apostles such that that same Spirit would

fill and inhabit all flesh. consecrate them as

his temples, and make them holy, that is, saints,

holy ones. In earlier times, this day was properly

marked out for the martyrs, those who witnessed

to the cross and bore in their bodies the very

marks of that cross as a weapon of love, Christ's

suffering, death, and subsequent glory. Thus,

why we heard last night from Isaiah the prophet,

you are all my witnesses, that is, you are all

my martyrs. Or this morning we hear from the

apostle of those who by faith conquered the world

by suffering graphically for Christ, of whom

the world was not worthy, who by faith conformed

their lives to Christ himself, who for the joy

set before him endured the cross. and despised

its shame to perfect our faith. The call of martyrdom

goes hand in hand with the call of Christ from

the Gospel reading this morning. Confess me before

men. Love me more than father, than mother, than

wife, than husband, than son, than daughter.

then lands, then property. It's not that you

don't love them, but I, only I, can be your supreme

love. Leave this world and your former life.

Take up your cross. Follow me. Deny yourself.

And you will receive a hundredfold. And you will

receive eternal life. and I will confess you

before my Father who is in heaven in the presence

of all the holy ones. As St. Paul puts it elsewhere,

this is the will of God, your sanctification,

that is, your sainthood, the outworking of the

life of the Holy Spirit in you to conform you

to the image of the Son of God. Jesus Christ,

crucified, risen, incorruptible, never to die

again. Through our death and martyrdom, this

is how we actualize our sainthood. That incorruptibility

of life and love in us. The will of God in Christ

Jesus for us is this, as St. Paul fleshes out

in that same letter. Rejoice always, pray without

ceasing, and give thanks. That is, be Eucharistic

in every circumstance. It's no wonder then that

joy is what animates Christ as he endures the

cross for us. For through the cross, joy comes

into all the world. We sing every Saturday night,

enabling us to rejoice through whatever adversity.

It's no wonder then that the apostle calls us

to fix our eyes on Christ. and confess him before

the world to behold him, even as the martyrs

did, as Saint Stephen the proto -martyr did,

for example, because his life had become a prayer

without ceasing, always in the presence of Christ,

Christ ever and always before him. It's no wonder

then that the texts this morning call us to give

our lives away, even the world. Property, homes,

lands, titles, riches, things important to us,

things that we hold on to dearly and are proud

of, even our families, or rather, to give them

away as we offer them up and transfigure them

in thanksgiving, in Eucharistic thanksgiving.

Eucharistio means thanksgiving to Christ, enabling

us to love him. first above all things, and only

then truly given the ability to be thankful for

what we have in this life, that it isn't something

we're entitled to or something that we have earned

or something that we are rewarded with, a nice

life, but it's been given to us to make us more

holy. Even though we might not bear the marks

of Christ graphically in our bodies, every aspect

of the Christian life is a kind of martyrdom,

a witness to our conformity to the crucified

life, enabled by the power of the resurrection

and actualized and perfected only in the life

of the Holy Spirit. When we are married, we hear

the martyr's song. We bear the crowns of king

and queen, situating us back in Genesis, in creation,

when God blesses male and female and beckons

them to take dominion, subdue creation, subdue

the world, become conquerors and be fruitful.

But how? Through the cross. They are made in

the image, the image even of the crucified one,

Jesus Christ, of the invisible God, through the

cross, through the crowns that the martyrs received,

through the husband dying to his own needs or

perhaps what he thinks he needs, to give life

to his wife, through the wife honoring, respecting,

and building up her husband rather than belittling

him and nitpicking him and criticizing him. And

of course, vice versa. These things go both ways.

to husband and to wife, back and forth. When

we add kids into the mix, what are we doing but

adding to our martyrdom, our death to this world,

especially now in a day and age when our society

would encourage us to forego having children?

Even in our own county, it is weird to walk around

this county with three kids. You get weird looks.

Our own society would encourage us to forgo having

children because they get in the way of our careers.

And they add stress to our lives. But that's

the whole point, as the Lord puts it. Let go

of properties, lands, titles, jobs, careers,

ambitions, and die. Learn to die. And instead

witness to the power. Of the cross and the resurrection.

Working in your life. Father Lawrence emailed

around that sub stack yesterday. A worthwhile

read on a number of levels. But it comports well

with the gospel reading. That when we leave former

lives behind. Or families or whatever. We are

united. To a new family here. It's here in this

parish. Among these people. That we confess Christ

before men. First. Our spiritual family in Christ.

A family where people might bother us. Irritate

us. Annoy us. Ask too much of us. Mess up our

priorities. And yet this is where the Lord has

placed us. The people he gave to us so that we

might not be orphans, so that we might not be

widows alone in this world, even if we're not

married or we don't have kids or we have had

kids, but they're out of the house and it sometimes

feels like they've forgotten us. This is who

we're giving, these people. who are becoming

saints, who the apostle himself can call saints.

Think of the letter to the Corinthians. Think

of the letter to the Galatians, the Ephesians,

the Colossians, to the saints. They are not on

the walls yet at that point. In fact, there are

so many things wrong with the churches in Corinth.

And yet, the apostle says what? Saints, holy

ones. consecrated, sanctified, the saints in

Santa Rosa at St. Seraphim. This is who we're

given so that we might become saints also with

them, sanctified, made holy with one another

through one another's lives, through one another's

prayers, through all of us jagged and messed

up rocks who get thrown in a rock tumbler together

and the button gets turned on and over time,

we get smoothed out. That is the hope of glory,

Christ formed in us. Finally, all the saints

are given to us as a cloud of witnesses, a nephos,

martiron, a cloud of martyrs, humans like us

who have borne the marks of Christ. in their

own lives and bodies, and are not dead, since

God isn't the God of the dead, but the God of

the living. As we look to Jesus, as we fix our

eyes on him, our life and our salvation, look

around. Seriously, look around. Look at all these

saints. Look at all these saints who surround

us, who through faith have conquered kingdoms,

stopped the mouths of lions, were made strong

out of weakness, their weakness, suffered mocking,

were destitute, afflicted, mistreated. Some even

suffered brutal death. The world was not worthy

of them. We enter into their life. We enter into

their prayers, the very prayers we pray. They

are not our own. They are given to us, handed

over to us in tradition, in the life of the Holy

Spirit. We enter into their prayers that they

pray evermore in the midst of Father, Son, and

Holy Spirit. The world was not worthy of them.

And yet the Apostle states very plainly that

apart from us, they should not be made perfect.

Their faith that Christ completes isn't complete

apart from us, which means, of course, the converse

is also true, that apart from them, our faith

that Christ completes remains incomplete, that

our faith is and will be perfected by their prayers.

by their presence in our life. They are our friends,

our families, our mothers, our brothers, our

fathers, our sisters, for some of us perhaps,

even our children, who are cheering us on, beckoning

us forward to set our minds on the things above.

To fix our eyes on Christ. So then let's ask

for their prayers. Let's draw near to them as

we draw near to Christ. Let's ask for their help.

Let's emulate their example in the earthly way

that we can. For we are not them and they are

not us. But we can ask. We can ask for help.

Because the prayer of the righteous person, the

Holy One, has great power in its working. Through

the prayers of all the saints known to us and

only known to God, Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy

on us. Amen.