In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit!
The fast-free week has come to an end, we have celebrated Pentecost – the Birthday of the Church – and today we commemorate all the Saints, that is, the fruit that this Church has brought, brings, and will bring until the end of the ages, as Christ Himself promised to the Apostle Peter: “And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it” (Mt.16:18).
The Church, being our Mother, gives birth to new souls in the Holy Spirit through Baptism, over and over again. However, not everyone becomes holy. Not everyone is saved unto eternal life. And if Christ said, “Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God” (Jn.3:3), then it is obvious that not everyone who is born “of water and of the Spirit” (Jn.3:5) will necessarily be saved. Just as one can be spiritually born, one can also spiritually die.
Eternal life begins here on earth. The Holy Spirit, dwelling in a person’s soul, gives it life. And on the contrary, as the St. Simeon the New Theologian says, if the Holy Spirit departs, the soul dies. So, who are the saints? They are those who, being born from above, have remained alive, preserved and multiplied the grace of the Holy Spirit, and have transitioned from this temporal life to eternal life, bypassing death. How did they achieve this? And why did others fail, to the extent that their dreadful fate is unthinkable without tears: having been enlightened in the Mystery of Baptism, they left the light and returned to mortal darkness, where they will remain forever?
In the Old Testament, God says to Israel, “And ye shall be holy unto Me: for I the LORD am holy, and have severed you from other people, that ye should be Mine” (Lev.20:26). These words reveal to us the meaning of holiness. The Saints are those who are set apart. And if the holiness of old Israel consisted of being set apart from other nations, then the holiness of Christians – the new Israel, which now encompasses all nations – consists of being set apart from the world. A true Christian is holy and is not a part of this world: “If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you” (Jn.15:19). Therefore, to the extent that we are separated from the world, we are disciples of Christ. And to that extent, we are holy.
Not everyone is given the opportunity to follow Christ as the Apostles did when we hear Peter’s words in today’s Gospel: “Behold, we have forsaken all, and followed Thee; what shall we have therefore?” (Mt.19:27). But that doesn’t mean that those of us living in the world are not obligated to separate ourselves from it. Whoever does not separate from the world will never be able to rise with Christ? Because this world is not rising with Him, this world will perish. And here it is important to understand what the world is being referred to. The Apostle John the Theologian explains it very simply: “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world” (1 Jn.2:15,16). In other words, the world represents passions. “The lust of the flesh” refers to bodily passions, while “the lust of the eyes and the pride of life” refers to passions of the soul. Therefore, this is what we need to separate ourselves from in order to preserve the life we have received from above through Holy Baptism. This is what we need to separate ourselves from so that the Holy Spirit does not depart from us — passions. We cannot come to the Church and be Christians here on Sundays and holidays, and then return home and continue to live in love for the world, its pleasures, entertainments, and concerns. “If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him” (1 Jn 2:15) means that if we love the world, then we have chosen death, and God is not in us. The Holy Spirit has left our soul.
So, here is the path to holiness and salvation — separate yourself from passions and acquire the Holy Spirit, who will grant you eternal life. How do we separate ourselves from passions? “Some passions,” writes the Venerable Maximus the Confessor, “pertain to the body, others to the soul. The first are occasioned by the body, the second by external objects. Love and self-control overcome both kinds, the first curbing the passions of the soul and the second those of the body” (First Century on Love, 64). Do you want to separate yourself from bodily passions? Practice self-control (abstinence). Do you want to separate yourself from soulful passions? Practice love for God and your neighbor.
Tomorrow begins the fast of St. Peter, dedicated to the Holy Apostles and their labors in preaching the Gospel. It is a wonderful time to practice self-control and love! Let us partake in their labors and carry the preaching of the Gospel at least to our own soul, so that it may be imbued with this good and new message: “Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Mt.3:2). In other words, let us change from love for the world to love for God. What if our soul hears it!? O Lord, help us, through the prayers of all Your saints! Amen.