All Saints 2025

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and

of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Congratulate all the

fathers on this Father's Day. Godfathers. I congratulate

the newly baptized Carver Stephen and his family,

and Gabriel as his sponsor today. I congratulate

all the graduates. eighth grade to ninth grade,

from college and from high school. The graduates

have completed a long period of study. Now I

hope they look ahead to what they have learned

and to use that, hopefully, for the support of

their family, for the support of their church,

for the support of the society they live in.

In the church, we too have completed a course

of study. We began this course of study some

time ago, actually 19 weeks ago, and there were

certain goals in mind, which today we see in

front of us on this feast day of all saints.

So I congratulate all of you on your saint day

as well. We began that course, as I said, way

back. I think it was 19 weeks ago before Lent

with the Sunday of the parable of the publican,

the tax collector, and the Pharisee. Each week

led us deeper and deeper into knowledge of who

we are, who Christ is, the meaning of repentance,

prayer, our salvation. Now, some of us might

have missed some of those Sundays. Some of us

maybe did not have the time or the opportunity

to meditate during the week and implement those

lessons in our life. Some of us, like me, neglected

to do that. The goal's given to us, but we get

to do it next year. You know, Lent's going to

come again. The NFL and Major League Baseball

did not come up with spring training. The church

did. So we do it again in order to deepen our

relationship with Christ. So this is the Feast

of All Saints today. It brings us, Pentecost

does, brings us the fruit. If we receive the

Spirit, as I mentioned last week, the fruit of

the Spirit is saints. It's saints, logically.

And theologically, today is a Sunday of all saints,

mostly martyrs, of course, because they are most

like Christ. They witness, they stand testimony,

they put their life on the line. They trust in

the Lord and the resurrection so absolutely and

completely. It's the martyrs that are most like

Christ. But there's men, there's women, there's

husbands, there's wives. There's children. Many,

many, many children saints. Every kind. In other

words, today we commemorate all saints from the

beginning of time up to this present day. Saints

that are known to us. The ones we have on the

walls and the ones you hear about in the prayers.

And the many millions more, perhaps more millions,

that are unknown to us but known to God. So today's

celebration is an invitation to enter in with

them, to be surrounded by this great cloud of

witnesses, saints, says St. Paul in Hebrews,

and to enter into their number, like that song,

you know, when the saints come marching in, we

enter into their number. They are our brothers

and sisters too. And we're equipped to do that

by the Spirit. We're enabled to do that. And

we're invited to do that. Pursue peace with all

men, says the epistle to the Hebrews. And he

goes on and says, without holiness, no one will

see God. Without holiness, we shall not see the

Lord. The word saint and the word holy, the exact

same word. Agios Otheos, holy God. St. Demetrius,

Agius Demetrius. In English they sound different,

but they're the same. Without holiness, we shall

not see God. Holiness is not something extra

added on to special people. It's what happens

when you are united to Christ. We know what we

need to do, but we're lazy. We know what we need

to do because we've had 19 weeks of teaching,

of liturgies, of sermons, of hymns, of commemorations.

We know what we need to do. Our problem is not

ignorance. Our problem is usually spiritual laziness,

spiritual flabbiness. So let's look at what are

the characteristics of the saints. You've heard

today, Hebrews. The saints in times past did

all these things. You heard that. And then we

heard. Before that, the Beatitudes. Those are

the characteristics of the saints. Following

the words of the Lord we heard in the Gospel

today, perhaps the most challenging thing you're

going to hear all week, the saints love no one

more than they love Christ. And they live for

his love. This Gospel reading, as I said, offers

us one of the hardest sayings of Christ in the

entire Gospel of Matthew. But the saints love

God first. And that love is so strong and so

dedicated and so faithful and so energized by

the Holy Spirit and real. It makes every other

love seem not like love. But what happens is

every other love becomes healthy and balanced.

Because if you put love of yourself first, you

turn yourself into an idol. If you put love of

your family first before God, you turn them into

idols. If you put love of your children before

God, you turn your child into your master, an

idol. If you put land or money or anything before

God, it becomes what you serve. And we are all

going to serve, says that theologian Bob Dylan,

somebody. So the saints place nothing and no

one above the one thing needful, Christ and the

fulfillment of the gospel precepts. The gospel

precepts, they know what they are. Let me give

you more characteristics. A saint has ongoing

repentance. It's not something that happens once.

Saint never blames anyone. Doesn't mean they

blame themselves for everything. They understand.

They're balanced. The saints never despair. The

saints know the boundless love of God and his

boundless mercy. The saints don't have envy.

They're not jealous. They have no resentments.

They do not grumble. Bitterness is all gone.

When I complain, when I grumble, when I act bitterly,

the Spirit of God cannot dwell in me. I've chased

him away. The saints don't have backup. The saints

suffer. They suffer in their spirit over the

suffering of others in the world. They suffer

over injustice. They don't have anger and fists.

They have tears, and they're on their knees.

They mourn for the troubles and sorrows and sufferings

of others. Brothers and sisters, let me submit

to you. That there is not one thing in that list

that each of us could try to attain. Not one

thing that's too difficult. Let us try to do

that. By prayer and repentance, the heart of

the saint expands in order to embrace everything.

That we cannot do yet. We're too immature. But

that's what the saints do. The saints leave all

the judgment into God's hands. They always forgive.

They will always love their enemies. And they

have love, but they also have the truth. They're

not confused about reality, about the meaning

of what it is to be a human, what it is to be

a man, what it is to be a woman. They have no

confusion about that because they know that God

has created us. They never harm anyone else in

the process. Of pursuing the truth. Maybe I can

summarize the characteristics of the saints.

With one thing. One thing. The saints put God

first. That's what they do. They put God first.

And all saints today. This feast is given to

us as an antidote. The portrait of a saint. The

understanding his or her life. The child of God.

Here is a portrait. Of me as I. could be as I

should be and I must be to acquire holiness.

And let me just digress for just a half a second.

Allow me to mention just in passing that part

of what the Lord God has given to us is a sacred

responsibility for the building up of the body

of Christ. To parents and to their friends, to

godfathers, to godmothers, to all of us is the

care, the spiritual nourishment, and the education

of our children to also become holy and to become

saints, to be living, joyful, loving temples

of the Holy Spirit. That can happen at home if

the home has that goal. It's not going to happen

in the seven hours a child spends at a public

school. Your influence has to be greater, which

means your prayers have to be deeper. Your repentance

has to be more ongoing. Your love of God has

to be more full. How quickly can a person become

holy? Let's ask that question. Because we think

this is impossible, but really, brothers and

sisters, they said, there's not one thing in

that list of characteristics that each of us

could try to acquire. But let's say we ask the

question, how quickly can you become holy? How

quickly can the grace of God enter your soul

and absolutely change you? Well, picture yourself

hanging on a cross. You spent your whole life

as a malefactor, as a thief. You're dying in

punishment. Your whole life has been worthless.

You've never got a good deal in your life, and

you've never done a good deed in your life. You've

never kept the law. You've never done anything.

You've never done anything good. But beside you

hangs someone who has just said, Father, forgive

them for they know not what they do. He prays

for those who hate him. You've got beside you

somebody who's clearly a servant of God, and

you decide to put your trust in him with absolute

conviction. Jesus, Jesus, remember me when you

come in your kingdom. You see, one can become

a saint that fast. Jesus, keep me in mind when

you come in your kingdom. And at that very second,

when the thief believed in Christ with absolute

conviction, because God's grace poured the Holy

Spirit into his heart, he was baptized in his

blood. The Lord is merciful. We have a church,

and we have a God. who is so merciful that the

thief next to Christ can be saved, there's hope

for the rest of us. But our time is short now.

We have to acquire these things because holiness

is not an extra item. Holiness is simply the

gift of the Holy Spirit living within you and

guiding you and comforting you and guiding you

unto all truth. And to our Lord, whom we must

thank. for all that he has done for us, to make

saints that we are surrounded with. To him be

glory, now and ever, to ages of ages.