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. So in Ukraine, it’s All Saints of Ukraine today, or in Romania, it’s 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. The interesting thing about our history (which is only a little over two hundred years old in North America) is that there are, in fact, recognised saints amongst us. They began already to be amongst us from the earliest days. We have martyrs amongst us from the earliest 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 two hundred years is an indication that we do have potential in North America. It’s 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.

Today when 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 just an ordinary sort of guy. He is the Son of God. You 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 most other people. When you encounter Christ face-to-face, you encounter the love of God that has taken on flesh. When you encounter Jesus Christ, you encounter the love of God, Himself. It’s this personal, face to face encounter with God, Himself, in Christ that would enable those Apostles when He said to them: “Follow Me”, to do exactly that. Their hearts would have overflowed instantly with love, confidence, and trust in their Saviour. They knew that the love that was pouring out of this Man was such that they could not live without it. So they left everything, and followed Him. He did not send letters of invitation. He didn’t do any kind 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 just the personal encounter face-to-face with the love of God.

From the time of those Apostles (no matter how well educated we are, and no matter how informed we are about everything theologically, scientifically, and every other way), the Orthodox Christian way boils down to loving Jesus Christ, and being able in some way, when the Saviour says to the Apostle Peter: “Simon, do you love Me?” to answer along with him: “Yes, Lord, I love you. You know that I love You” (John 21:15). That is what our life is all about: being able to respond with confidence in love to the love of God. This love of God reveals itself not just in the Divine Liturgy as we are celebrating it amongst ourselves 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). It is also revealed in the human beings who are baptised into His Body, who bear His Name – “Christian”, who try to live a life that is in harmony with Him. This is the way love always operates. If you love someone, you want to be pleasing to that someone. You 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 automatically 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’s the response of love to the love of Christ.

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

This is our way. This is what provoked 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. And 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 their love 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 communities in this area.

In the twenty-first 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 our so-called intellectual advancements. In fact, if you look at human history, human beings have not learned anything. We haven’t changed in thousands and thousands of years and we continue to make the same mistakes over and over and over again. Now, in the twenty-first century, we allow ourselves to be so distracted that we forget Christ. 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 is important for all of us to take an inventory of our lives, and make certain that Christ really is in the front of everything about our lives, and His love is in the front of everything about 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 as the result of being the product of the love of Christ of all those who have gone before us. It is really important for us who are living in this age of probably the greatest temptation that human beings have ever faced in any manner, to 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 really 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 really 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. In harmony with those who have gone before us, with our parents, our grandparents, and all of our ancestors who are still praying for us, in harmony with them, and faithful to 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 His Father, who is from everlasting, and His all-holy, good, and life-giving Spirit, now, and ever and unto the ages of ages. Amen.

† Archdiocese of Canada - Orthodox Church in America