First Sunday after Pentecost. All Saints Sunday; Our Holy Father and Wonderworker Tychon of Amathus (408-50)
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Hebrews 11:33-12:2; Matthew 10:32-33, 37-38; 19:27-30
Love makes us do things. Regular things, heroic things, and even strange things. Our love for others leads us and drives us. Think about this for a moment. Recall how you or someone you know or someone you have heard about has witnessed to love for another. A mother searching in driving rain for a child that has wandered off. A father travelling half the world to bring home his son after a bicycling accident in the Alps. A young woman, decades ago, serving in the military overseas caring for the wounded and the dying and those still fighting in a horrible war. A son who sleeps on the floor by his father listening to ensure that he keeps breathing while recovering from during a serious illness. We could find as many examples as there are people on earth.
Today, we commemorate ALL the SAINTS who throughout the ages have borne witness to love—human love and Divine Love—that we love because He, the Lord, has first loved us (see 1 Jn 4:19). Many of the saints have borne witnessed to the love of the Lord simply in their day-to-day loving as husband and wife, as father and mother (e.g., Saints Anna and Joachim—September 9 and July 25; Saints Aquila and Priscila—July 14; Saints Justinian and Theodora —November 14). Others have borne witness to the Lord in declaring and defending Him as the Way, the Truth, and the Life (e.g., St. Maximus the Confessor—January 21). Others have witnessed to their love for the Lord (e.g., St. Stephen the First-Martyr and Protodeacon—December 27).
Discipleship of Jesus Christ is radical. It means not just following His teachings and way of life ideologically. It is not just something we ascent to in our minds and hearts. It means an engagement in our day to day lives, our everyday normal non-spectacular humdrum lives—to love Him by loving others in the very best way we can. It means to give it our all even in the menial task of doing dishes. As Patrick Coffin states, “Be a Saint. What else is there?”
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