First Sunday after Pentecost. All Saints Sunday, Tone 8; The Holy Priest-Martyr Theodotus of Ancyra (284-305)
Hebrews 11:33-12:2; Matthew 10:32-33, 37-38; 19:27-30
Read Hebrews 11:33-12:2
How often have you heard the expression: “Well…I’m no saint?” I’ve heard it several times, usually just before someone tries to excuse some poor behaviour. And yet, ironically, if we were saints we’d be the first to confess our sinfulness!
The truth of the matter is that we ARE already saints and at the same time we still in the process of becoming saints. It’s an “already” and “not yet” situation. We know that the word is used by St. Paul in his epistles to relate to the Christian believers of his churches, and when we pray in the liturgy “having remembered all the saints again and again in peace” we are referring to the litanies we have just prayed for the needs of all the faithful. We are saints in that we are Baptised, Christmated and Eucharisted and we are on the road to glorification with Christ through our life of living out those baptismal promises in our daily lives.
A great Christian writer talks about the need to “aim high” in the Christian life. Trying to live a God pleasing life is like shooting and arrow or throwing a spear at a far-away target. You have to overshoot or you’ll hit the ground. In aiming above the target the arc will pull your arrow down and it will go where you intend. It’s the same with heaven and holiness. Aim for a good life here on this earth and you’ll will miss heaven. Aim for heaven and holiness and you’ll will get this world thrown in as well. The saints are living proof of this. They are constantly “hungering and thirsting for righteousness” and they show through their joy that Christ’s promise is true: “they are satisfied.”
Christ loves us enough to not only suffer and die for us but to send His Holy Spirit for us to become saints, “little Christs” and to continue His work on earth. Let us love Him by embracing and living out this amazing vocation wholeheartedly!