Sunday of All Saints

Title

Saints and Secrets

Outline

Sin thrives on secrecy.

In fact, secrets are usually destructive - and where they are necessary it is because there are other sinners out there who want to take advantage of them or perhaps because we want to surprise someone with our love

Purity of life thrives on having a single focus

We not only bat sin away as something that blocks us, but we also block distractions that can sometimes lead to sin, shooing them away as bothersome pests, like mosquitoes

Look at Hebrews

First we learn that people who have great holiness, great closeness to God, are marked by that holiness, that likeness to God.

They may also be marked by miracles which God gives to work his will in the world, but they also might be marked by great suffering, which God allows so that they share his suffering in the world. Either way it is his work and his suffering, not theirs. The holiest are free from such attachments and just want to be co-workers with God.

Second, we learn that these “witnesses” are watching as, as if we were running a race in a stadium. There are no secrets in that view. They can see what attachments we are keeping.

Now we are not to watch the “spectators” any more than one does in an athletic context, but Jesus, who has, to change the metaphor, broken the way through the forest or run a perfect race. The runner with unbroken focus on the goal is most likely to win.

Look at our Gospel

Jesus calls us to acknowledge him as our Lord - no secret faith, no secret sin that would shame our Lord - denial can be either a verbal denial or a lifestyle denial that rejects Jesus’ authority.

Jesus calls us to give up attachments, even to family. We now love them for him and not for us, as he loves, not for our benefit or even society’s benefit. And we do not let them get between us and him. This is not advice, but showing us reality, for otherwise we are worthy of him.

Jesus calls us to give up our attachment to our own lives. We now so identify with him that we would walk the Via Dolorosa with him in whatever way he wishes. We may, probably do, care for ourselves, but we care for ourselves out of love for Jesus.

There are no secrets in this, no real secrets, for Jesus knows, the saints know, we are totally visible to the spiritual world

Of course, there is also no secret to the rewards, the rewards in this life as God cares for us - often in the midst of suffering, the rewards in the transcendent life - for the Twelve it means high honor, rule, and for us it means some place in that rule. That is, we are given in actuality the place we were designed for in creation.

The saints have a message for us

There are no real secrets - everyone who matters can see everything, likely even our thoughts

The saints lived lives before God, loving God, and, with stumbles, breaking free from attachments and outright sins. They, at God’s direction, did spiritual feats, and they, at God’s call, suffered greatly. That is why they have been rewarded as they have. It is all a matter of open knowledge where they are, knowledge without judgment, for that is reserved to God alone.

We are called to live our lives before God, knowing that they eyes of all who are with God are upon us. We are creating our witness, creating our record. Those watching are not condemning us, but praying for us, crying for us, perhaps even being tasked with helping us. But the record is determining our real future, shaping us for the place we will occupy before God (or away from God if we make that choice)

Remember that there are no secrets. The saints know this. If we listen to them and to Jesus we know this. If we live knowing this, we will be more likely to become free from our sins and attachments so that our lives will be more like those of the saints, lives of honor and not of shame.

Readings

Byzantine Lectionary (Revised Julian) 6-27-2021: Sunday of All Saints

EPISTLE

Hebrews 11:33–12:2

33  who through faith conquered kingdoms, enforced justice, received promises, stopped the mouths of lions, 34  quenched raging fire, escaped the edge of the sword, won strength out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight. 35  Women received their dead by resurrection. Some were tortured, refusing to accept release, that they might rise again to a better life. 36 Others suffered mocking and scourging, and even chains and imprisonment. 37 They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were killed with the sword; they went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, illtreated—38 of whom the world was not worthy—wandering over deserts and mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth.

39 And all these, though well attested by their faith, did not receive what was promised, 40 since God had foreseen something better for us, that apart from us they should not be made perfect.

12 Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, 2  looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

Byzantine Lectionary (Revised Julian) 6-27-2021: Sunday of All Saints

GOSPEL

Matthew 10:32, 33, 37, 38, 19:27–30

32  So every one who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven;

33 but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven.

37  He who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and he who loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me;

38 and he who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.

27  Then Peter said in reply, “Behold, we have left everything and followed you. What then shall we have?” 28  Jesus said to them, “Truly, I say to you, in the new world, when the Son of man shall sit on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. 29 And every one who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands, for my name’s sake, will receive a hundredfold, and inherit eternal life. 30  But many that are first will be last, and the last first.

Notes

Byzantine Lectionary (Revised Julian) 6-27-2021: Sunday of All Saints

SUNDAY, JUNE 27, 2021 | DORMITION OF THE THEOTOKOS

SUNDAY OF ALL SAINTS

Bright Vestments

Matins Gospel Matthew 28:16–20

Epistle Hebrews 11:33–12:2

Gospel Matthew 10:32, 33, 37, 38, 19:27–30

Our Venerable Father Isaac, Monk in Dalmatia 374