First Sunday after Pentecost Fr. Nicholas Carr

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

of the Holy Spirit. Glory to Jesus Christ. Well,

this Sunday we celebrate All Saints Day. All

the saints that have come before us. And we know

many of them. We also know that our mind can't

fully fathom the number of names of saints that

have come before. And there are even those...

who are unknown. They were faithful to God throughout

their lives over the past centuries, millennia,

and God knows who they are. We don't know their

names, but we will one day when we're in eternity,

and we celebrate all those who have come before

us, all the saints who have lived. We recognize

them this day, and we honor them. what makes

them saints and how did God transform them and

sanctify them? This can be instructive to you

and to me. Archbishop Andre of Novo de Vivo says

this of today's gospel reading. All the saints

being remembered today followed the example of

Christ and all of them in their time in their

circumstances of life, fulfilled God's commandment

of love of God and neighbor. And loving God leads

to us loving our neighbor because God loves us

all. He loves everything about each one of us.

He loves us all deeply. And so when we learn

to love God, That love flows through us to others

around us. When we truly love God, we will show

it through our actions to others. There are,

from today's Gospel reading, three things are

given to us that every saint must do. One is

from Matthew 10, verse 32. Whosoever therefore

Matthew 10:32

shall confess me before men, him I will confess

also before my Father who is in heaven. Perhaps

you have been in a circumstance where you are

a Christian amongst people who don't have a Christian

worldview. They have strong worldviews that are

different, maybe opposed, maybe not, to Christianity.

But there's this thing that we can do, which

is like being a chameleon, you know, where you

change your colors to match where you are. Some

people have called this thing, when in Rome,

do as the Romans, right? I would call that the

Rome syndrome. And there can be circumstances

where that's fine. If perhaps it's something

very simple like a sports team, everybody there

likes this team, and maybe you don't really,

but you just kind of don't say anything, and

you let them believe that you like that team

too. And that's not so bad. But when it comes

to our Christian faith, when it comes to us identifying

with our Lord and God and Savior Jesus Christ,

It is a much different thing, and we need to

be careful not to fall into the Rome syndrome.

We need to remember these words of our Lord,

to confess him before the world. Now, that doesn't

mean you go out and shout at people. You know,

there are many that can actually turn people

away from God by being way too boisterous about

their faith. But it does mean that... if someone

were to ask you, are you a Christian? That we

would say, yes, yes, I followed the Lord Jesus

Christ. And we would not try to be a chameleon

in such a circumstance. The second verse is Matthew

10, 37. He that loveth father and mother more

than me is not worthy of me. and he that loveth

son and daughter more than me is not worthy of

me. What this really means is love God above

all else. It does not mean that loving your family

is something to be avoided. Of course, we love

our parents, our children, our family. They are

valuable to us. We love them. And that is the

point of this whole thing, that we love God even

more than that, that he is first. Saint Tikhon

of Zedonks says this, The true lover of God disdains

the world and all that is in the world and strives

toward God, his most beloved. He counts honor,

glory, riches, and all the comforts of this world,

which the sons of this age seek, as nothing.

For him only God, the uncreated and most beloved

good, suffices. In him alone he finds perfect

honor, glory, riches, and comfort. So the first

one was to confess God before the world. The

second, to love God above all else. And the third,

Matthew 10, 38. And he that taketh not his cross

and followeth after me is not worthy of me to

take the cross. We have repented of our past

sins and we've begun the journey on the narrow

road of salvation and we walk with God and we

follow his commandments and we watch as God sanctifies

us. But that sanctification, that being made

holy, sometimes requires some suffering. Are

we willing to pick up our cross and follow Christ?

Jesus bore the cross for us because of his love.

and he calls us to love others as well, and sometimes

that is quite a cross. Be willing to suffer in

order to grow, in order to change, in order to

be sanctified. And when we are doing these things,

confessing Christ, loving God above all else,

being willing to suffer, and to endure, and then

loving others because of God's love for us. Then

we are moving on that narrow path to heaven.

Saint Tikhon of Zedonk says this, The root and

beginning of love for neighbor is love of God.

Whoever truly loves God without fail also loves

his neighbor. Without doubt, God loves every

man, his beloved. Let us therefore love one another.

as God has loved us. In my home, there is a plant.

It is next to a window. It is not in front of

the window. It is next to the window. And I've

noticed over time that as it's grown, it first

grew straight, but then the stalk turned and

it actually bent instead of going up sideways

and turned around and faced the light, because

that plant knows where to collect the sunlight.

Well, we are to be like that plant when we seek

God's light, when we seek God's truth. If we

truly love God, the stock of our life is going

to go wherever God's light is, and we're going

to then receive his strength, his love. we are

going to put the God's presence in our life first

in order that we might learn and be sanctified

and be made holy. And just as that plant seeking

the light, the sunshine, then flowers forth,

so we, when we seek the Holy Spirit and seek

God's will, and want what God wants for us. And

when we do that, then just as a plant blossoms

forth, our life will have blossoms coming forth

that will bless our neighbors around us. Glory

to Jesus Christ.