All Saints of North America

Bishop Seraphim : Homily
“Follow Me”
2nd Sunday after Pentecost
(All Saints of North America)
10 June, 2007
Romans 2:10-16 ; Matthew 4:18-23


In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

Today is the second Sunday after Pentecost. Every year on this Sunday we are keeping the memory of all the local saints throughout the world. Thus in Ukraine it is All Saints of Ukraine today ; or in Romania, it is All Saints of Romania ; or in Russia or Georgia, or Greece or wherever. Today, in North America, we are keeping the memory of All Saints of North America. One of the many interesting things about our Church history (which is only a little over 200 years old in North America) is that there are, in fact, many officially and unofficially recognised saints amongst us. They began already to appear in our midst from the earliest days. We have martyrs amongst us from those days in North America. We have holy people, men and women, who have served Christ with all their hearts throughout their lives. That we can have about ten saints (already recognised and on the calendar) after 200 years is an indication that we do have potential for holiness in Christ in North America. It is also an indication that the Lord knows that we, especially in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, would need the support of the early saints.

In the Gospel reading today, we hear the call of the apostles. Jesus comes to the apostles, each one personally, and says : “‘Follow Me’”. Would any one of us meeting a person who would say : “Follow me”, just leave everything and do that ? Not too likely. But then, the sort of Person that Jesus is makes a difference because He is not merely an ordinary sort of person. He is the Son of God. We can notice that everywhere He went about preaching and teaching, as the Apostle Matthew says today, He was also healing the diseases of people.

To encounter Christ personally is different from encountering other people. When we encounter Christ face-to-face, we encounter the Love of God that has taken on flesh. When we encounter Jesus Christ, we encounter the Love of God Himself. It is this personal, face-to-face encounter in Christ with God Himself that would enable the apostles when He said to them : “‘Follow Me’”, to do precisely that. Their hearts would have overflowed instantly with love, confidence and trust in their Saviour. They understood that the love that was pouring out of this Man was such that they could not live without it. Therefore, they left everything and followed Him. He did not send letters of invitation. He did not do any sort of promotion programme ahead of time. This is important for us to remember. There were no warm-up mail-outs or anything like that. There was simply the personal encounter face-to-face with the Love of God.

No matter how well-educated we are, and no matter how informed we are about everything theologically, scientifically, and every other way, our understanding of the Orthodox Christian way boils down to loving Jesus Christ. The essence of our life is being able to respond with confidence in love to the love of God. In this love, we are enabled in some way, just as when our Saviour says to the Apostle Peter : “‘Simon, son of Jonah, do you love Me?’” to answer along with him : “‘Yes, Lord; You know that I love You’” (John 21:16). This has been the case since the days of the apostles.

The love of God reveals itself not only in the Divine Liturgy as we gather as the Church today. It is not only revealed in the sacred Scriptures (although in both cases God’s love does reveal itself), but this love is also revealed in the human beings who are baptised into His Body. We bear the title “Christian” that directly and specifically identifies us with Him. Thus we try to live a life that is in harmony with Him. This is the way love always operates. If we love someone, we want to be pleasing to that someone. We want to be living in harmony with that someone. People who are married will certainly understand that. People who live in any sort of a family as children also have to understand that. We love each other. We try to be pleasing to each other. We try to imitate each other. When it comes to the relationship with Christ, whose love is greater by far than any human love, and whose love sustains us, gives us hope, gives us life, we instinctively want to try to live a life that is pleasing to Him : a life that is in harmony with Him and His love. That is how the Orthodox Church lives, and always has lived. It is the response of love to the love of Christ.

All our lives, everything about our lives, should reflect Christ and His love. That is why in Orthodox families we start every morning traditionally with giving thanks that we woke up this day to glorify Christ. We make the sign of the Cross on everything that we are going to do this day. We say : “Good morning” to the Lord. We bring His blessing with the visible sign of the Cross on everything that we are doing during the day : things that we begin ; every time we travel ; every time we send our children off, and when we bring them back. Everything is in the context of invoking Christ’s loving blessing on our whole lives.

This is our way. This is what inspired people who settled in this part of Alberta ninety years ago (a little bit more actually) to establish this Temple here in this place. It was because of their love for Jesus Christ and the priority that He had in their lives. This Temple, and many other Temples like it from the same period were established for the same reason. People wanted to have a place to gather together to worship their Saviour, Jesus Christ, to be refreshed by Him, and to be enabled to continue to invoke His blessing on their lives. Of course, He did give it. The fact that this Temple is still being used by descendants and other people who have joined this community ninety years later is a testimony to the love of the founders for Jesus Christ, and to the priority that He has in their lives. The joy and the love that they planted ninety years ago remains to this day here in this parish, in this Temple, in this community, and similarly in the other churches in this area.

In the 21st century in Canada, we have a very difficult time living in the same spirit as the people who established this community because we are so distracted by material things and material cares of every sort, and by our so-called intellectual advancements. In fact, if we look at human history, human beings have not learned much of anything. We have not changed in thousands and thousands of years, and we continue to make the same mistakes over and over and over again. Now, in the 21st century, we allow ourselves to be so distracted that our society seems to have forgotten Christ altogether. We put Christ on the back burner of our lives (if He is there at all). When we have come to this point in our existence, we are in danger, great danger.

It would indeed be very helpful and fruitful that we all take an inventory of our lives, and make certain that Christ and His love are truly in the front of every detail of our lives. Without His blessing, without His love, we cannot live a productive life ; we cannot live a life that gives life, that multiplies life. Without His love we are lost. We are where we are today because we are the product of the love of Christ of all those who have gone before us. For us who are living in this age of probably the greatest temptation that human beings have ever faced in any manner, it is extremely important that we keep our eyes on Christ, and on Him alone. We must allow ourselves to be nourished by His love, and to nourish each other in His love, support each other in His love, strengthen each other in His love, so that we will all together be able not only to survive, but to live truly creative, constructive, helpful, joyful lives in the midst of this terrible rat-race that we have fallen into.

Brothers and sisters, it is a serious thing when we say that we love the Saviour. It is a serious thing when He says the same to us. It is a truly serious thing for us to live in that love. He has given us such a great gift. He continues to pour out this great gift upon us all the time. Let us be faithful to those who have gone before us : our parents, our grandparents, and all our ancestors who are still praying for us. In harmony with them, and faithful with them in their love for Christ, let us ask them to redouble their prayers for us. In that way we will have the strength to be even half like them in our imitation of Christ, in our obedience to His love, in our zeal to be like Him. We will have the strength to share with joy His life-giving love to all those around us, and help to save our society and our planet, which can only be saved by conformity to His life-giving love. Let us glorify this same Saviour now every day of our lives wherever we go, glorifying Him together with the unoriginate Father, and the all-holy, good, and life-giving Spirit, now, and ever, and unto the ages of ages.