Heb 11:33-12:2

Last week we celebrated the feast of All Saints and today we repeat that
feast, but in a more personal manner by celebrating the feast of All
Saints of Russia and North America. Last week was a global celebration
of the saints while this week we focus more on our own spiritual
heritage – those saints who were shaped by, and in turn, shaped the life
of the Church which we share. One of the common aspects of these
celebrations is that we read the same scriptures for both feasts – an
indication of how they are linked together. In the epistle to the
Hebrews, the Apostle Paul paints a beautiful verbal picture of the choir
of the saints, reminding us of the lives and spiritual labors of those
who have gone before us. He then says a remarkable thing about the
relationship between the saints and ourselves: “And these all, having
obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise: God
having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should
not be made perfect ….Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with
so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the
sin which doth so easily beset us, …” (Heb 11:39 – 12:1). The saints,
having completed their own struggles in this life do not immediately
enter into their reward, but rather they are waiting for us so that we
might all obtain that reward together. This is only fitting for we are
not separated from one another, we are not just a mob of individuals all
trying to get to a common destination – but we are united to one another
in one body – the Body of Christ. We are linked together just as the
parts of the body are joined and where one part of the body goes, the
rest goes with it. Until the whole body is ready to enter into the
Kingdom of Heaven then the rest of the body waits. The saints are
waiting for us.

But the saints do not wait idly. They encourage us; they pray for us;
they strengthen us, they intercede for us with God in order to help us
toward this goal. They do not abandon us, nor do they ignore us, nor are
they idle spectators patiently waiting – but they are our friends, our
helpers, our co-strugglers in the Christian life, our elder brothers and
sisters. Consider how great is their love for us – the love of Christ
which burns in them and which they hope to nurture in us. Their love for
us is the example for us for how we should manifest the love of God in
our own lives. At the end of his life, St Seraphim, told his followers
that they should come to him and tell him, as though he were alive, all
about themselves. “And I, wretched Seraphim, shall hear you, and
intercede for you with God.” This exemplifies the relationship of the
saints to us – that we should come to them and speak with them as though
they were alive (for they are indeed alive in Christ) and by the grace
of God they will hear us and they will intercede for us before God.

Compare this to how we sometimes act towards our brothers. Sometimes we
are open to those among our friends and brethren who come to us and pour
out their sorrows and sins and we pray for them. However, sometimes,
when it is inconvenient for us or uncomfortable for us, we try to cut
them off. Sometimes we see someone who is in pain in their lives and
because it reminds us of our own sins, we shut them out rather than
reach out to them. How can we do this – we are of one body. Can the hand
say to the foot, “Don’t bother me, we have nothing to do with one
another,” or the arm say to the head, “Oh just keep your aches to
yourself and let me get along with my own business.” How can we who are
joined to one another and who are part of the same body of Christ turn
our backs on our brethren and cut them off?

I know this is indeed the natural inclination that we all have – I know
that I have this inclination to shut out people who are inconvenient or
whom I have judged to be fools and let them suffer the consequences of
their foolishness on their own. I know that I am tempted to shut out and
ignore people who by their own suffering remind me that I too am a
sinner and suffer from the effects of my own sins. I am indeed just such
a wretch myself. It is against this self-centeredness and selfishness
that the love of God works in me. My own love is tainted by these
selfish impulses – but God’s love transcends them and impels me, like
our Lord Himself, to not only forgive and pray for those who harm me,
with whom I disagree, who annoy me, who make my life miserable – but to
sacrifice myself for them, just as our Lord Jesus Christ sacrificed
Himself for the Jews who judged Him, the soldiers who tortured Him, the
people who jeered Him and for me as well.

The saints, as they await us and as they see our foolishness, do not
reject us, do not turn away from us, but they reach out to us and pray
for us and help us whenever we call out to them. Imagine how we offend
them and cause them sorrow. They are joined to us and waiting for us and
we do everything in our power to offend them and to hinder the work of
Christ in us. They know and experience the healing power of the love of
God – and then they see how we deny that power and reject the work of
that love in our own lives. How they must despair that we will ever join
them and be ready to enter with them into our common reward. But no
matter how inconvenient we are to them, no matter how much we sin, no
matter how foolish we are – they do not turn away from us, they do not
shut us out, but they continue to pray for us and intercede for us with God.

So many times we are tempted to cut off our brother, to judge him
because he is annoying or inconvenient or doesn’t live as we think he
should. We see him through the filter of our own selfishness. What we do
not see is his suffering, his pain, his despair, his need – because to
see these things in him is to admit that they also exist in ourselves.
But this is just what the saints demonstrate to us – to set aside our
own selfishness, to replace our self-centeredness with the self
sacrificing love of God and to reach out to our brother, to embrace him,
to help him, to pray for him, to encourage him. My brother is part of my
salvation – just as the saints are waiting for us to enter into their
reward, so I am waiting for my brother and he is waiting for me. How can
I cut off my own arm or my own foot? If I do this, then I cut off myself
from the Body of Christ. The barriers that I raise against my brother
also cut me off from the saints – they cut me off from Christ Himself.
How can I be saved without my brother, how can the love of God fill me
if I turn it away when it is inconvenient or contradicts my own
selfishness. We who are many – separated by our own selfishness – are
made one – united together in one Body by the love of God and we are
saved together.

Brothers and sisters – let us remember that we are part of the One Body
of Christ, that we are united to one another and to the saints. Let us
imitate them as they shine with the light of Christ and are filled with
the love of God. At the Paschal service, and indeed throughout the whole
of the Paschal season, we sing this hymn, “Let us embrace each other!
Let us call “Brothers” even those that hate us, and forgive all…” The
saints, by their own lives and by their love for us even now demonstrate
the fulfillment of this Paschal hymn. Let us imitate them as they have
imitated Christ and do the same. Let us embrace each other – Let us call
one another “brother” – Let forgive one another and be joined to one
another that we might enter into the Kingdom of God together.

Archpriest David Moser
St Seraphim of Sarov Orthodox Church (ROCOR)
Homilies: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/propoved/
Website: http://stseraphimboise.org