All Saints 2020 Fr. Lawrence Margitich

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

of the Holy Spirit. Amen. I wish all of you a

happy and joyous Saint's Day. Today being All

Saints, it's your Saint Day today too. Think

with me for a minute. If I were to take, and

I did, music lessons or language lessons, then

with time and effort, I expect some results.

If I plant a fruit tree and care for it, I expect

in due course, at the right time of the year,

some fruit. If I exercise my body or run a race,

or for me something a little more reasonable

than running a race, like maybe fast, there's

an expectation coming from this investment. So

what result are we expecting now today? What

has been invested? What have we given? What's

the Lord given? What effort has been made? It's

all from Christ. The incarnation, the cross,

the tomb, the resurrection, the gift of the Holy

Spirit. God has done everything to gather us

together, to make us one, to bring him to himself,

to sanctify us, to wash us, to save us, to Destroy

death and sin and shame and those powers that

have control over us. Banished by Christ. And

the gift of the Holy Spirit from heaven. The

spirit of love. The spirit of unity. The spirit

of conciliarity. The spirit of goodness and truth.

So today, we see. What has been cultivated by

the Holy Spirit from Pentecost is saints. The

Holy Spirit makes us holy, makes people holy.

The word holy and the word saint in Greek, agios,

same word. Saint Demetrius, Holy Demetrius. Holy

God, Saint God. It doesn't sound right in English,

but it's the same word. And if we remember that,

then we know that the holiness comes from God.

No one could number the cloud of witnesses, the

great cloud of witnesses that surrounds us, saints

venerated by name in the church, and many more,

far more, who humbly treasured God in the hidden

depths of their heart, unknown to all. Preserved

from the praise of people. No service is written.

But the multitude, the majority of saints are

those that are not known from every walk of life,

every land, rich and poor, free and slave, men,

women, and children, beyond counting. But what

is a saint? What is a saint? A saint is a heavenly

human being. When I say heavenly, don't think

of clouds with some angels playing harps. Think

of this. Have you ever seen something that catches

fire and is completely consumed in the flames?

That's a saint. And that fire is God's love.

God's saints, says St. John of Damascus, of their

own free will, united themselves with God. received

him into the habitation of their heart. And having

thus received him through grace, they became

in their very nature like unto him. Saints are

like God. In them, God rests. God rests. The

incredible, inconceivable, uncircumscribable

God rests in the heart. of the person who loves

him. And St. John of Damascus says they become

treasures and the pure habitation, the pure home

of God. That's a saint. And we have been given

the same grace, the same Holy Spirit. We are

beneficiaries of the resurrection. We are joined

to Christ in holy baptism. What are we lacking

except resolve? Our Savior Jesus Christ speaks

of loving God so much, and this is what our resolve

needs to be, to love God so much. With such fire

in the heart that when he said, when Jesus said,

you heard today, he who loves father or mother

more than me is not worthy of me. He who loves

son or daughter more than me is not worthy of

me. When we hear that, we understand that the

real, proper, sacrificial, emotionally and psychologically,

healthy love for our family, our spouse, our

friends, is only possible if we love God first.

Because He gave them to us. This is the way of

the saints. And saints attract us. You heard

the Beatitudes. Blessed are the merciful. Blessed

are the peacemakers. Blessed are the pure in

heart. They attract us. Because people are attracted

by love and not condemnation. Saints don't condemn.

Condemnation does not liberate. It oppresses.

And the saints, when you are close to a person

who is sanctified, you feel liberated and free

and completely loved. Since they have unceasing

prayer. My Christ. they say to him constantly,

come into my heart, my Lord, my Jesus, my Christ,

come and dwell in me. And Christ comes and dwells

mystically in their hearts. It's very simple.

When you call someone dear to you, someone you

love, come to me. Doesn't that person come? Will

not Christ come when you call him? Whatever you

ask of me, I will give you. And we always say,

come and dwell in us. But the saint perhaps,

and we can attain this too, the saint says it

with her or his whole mind. He says it with her

or his whole heart. And Christ enters the heart.

And that person has picked up the cross. And

said no to the impulses and the passions of sin.

And turned away from that. Each Christian, we

are like sportsmen in an arena running to get

a prize. St. Paul says, keep the race. Keep going

on the race. Christ is the finisher of the race.

And each person, if you fall, you rise again.

And you keep running. Pentecost. Last week and

this week, it continues, revives our spirit,

our weariness, helps our burdens for one another,

for the world, our worries and cares. Then we

can bear whatever tempests of life, whatever

difficulties, pain and sorrow we have. And we

can be joyful too, because we know Christ loves

us. But let's understand again, Christian life,

the life in Christ, has an ascetic component.

It requires a struggle, not against other people,

but against ourselves first, before we can stand

for truth and say what is right and speak a prophetic

word from God. We have to oppose ourselves. He

who does not take up his cross and follow me

is not worthy of me. We have to cut sin from

our life. Let the old Adam die in us so that

we can be free and have that liberty and freedom

that the saint has. Then the impulses of selfishness.

We know where they come from and we turn away.

The laziness that may afflict us, we know where

that's coming from. Suggestions of the evil one

and just our own poor nature. And we turn away

the fear and anxiety, suggestions from the evil

one. We know that this is not from God, and we

turn away. This is what it means to pick up your

cross, deny yourself. And when our life has become

difficult, as it is now for everybody in all

kinds of ways, then we hold tightly to the cross

like the saints do, the cross that the Lord has

given each one of us. And we say to ourselves,

Wisdom, stand aright. And doubts and hesitations,

imaginings and anger and fear and thoughts about

what if there is no God, they will come to mind.

What if all this is stupid? We have only our

weakness. It's okay. We have only our weakness

to offer to the Lord. In our weakness, God's

grace is strong, and he acts. Then we say, like

the saint, my God, you exist. Send me your Holy

Spirit. Dwell in my heart. I wish all of us,

each one of us, to be a saint, to be the habitation

of God, as St. John of Damascus said. To unite

ourselves to God. To let him be in the habitation

of the heart. To be a heavenly human being. To

always seek to be with Christ. To live as St.

Justin the martyr and philosopher said in the

second century. He wrote this. To live in likeness

of God. To live in his truth. To live in his

chastity. And to live in his love for mankind.

And St. Silouan said something similar. St. Silouan,

who died in 1938 on Mount Athos, said something

similar. He said that the task of the Christian

is to expand our personal I so that I doesn't

just mean me. I, when we stand before God, not

only includes me, but all those who I love and

all those who love me. So that my I, as we grow

spiritually, our personal identity expands, so

that when we stand before God in prayer, we cannot

think of ourselves alone, but of everyone, our

wife, our husband, our children, our family,

our friends, our parish, our people, our nation,

those who love us, those who hate us. The saints

are those whose personal I expanded to embrace

the church, and the peoples, and the nation,

and everyone. Which is why people feel liberated

when they meet a saint. And every Christian is

called to be like that. You are called, we are

called to be saints. There's much more to say.

Another time. About how we become closer to the

saints. How we call upon them to help us in our

time of need. Especially now in our time of need.

For now, let's read the lives of saints every

day, every morning. And we'll speak of those

things another time. For now, as I end, I want

to recall for us that our parish is named the

protection of the Holy Virgin and the icon of

the protection. I'm placed out today. This is

an icon of all the saints. All gathered, lifting

up their hands. their hearts in prayer, with

the Theotokos at their head, asking for mercy

for the world, the protection of God, for the

love of God, for the transformation of sorrow

into joy, of suffering into good health, to ignorance

to understanding, godly understanding. This is

the unity of the world, the unity of the Church.

This is how we are. Don't ever forget you are

standing in line with these people and lifting

up your hands and you're saying, all saints of

God, pray to God for us.