“God is wonderful in His saints…” (Psalm 67:36)
INTERPRETATION: God is glorified… “seen” upon the charismatic “theosis” of His Saints…!
-What is a Saint of God…?
-He is, according to Charis, a “deified man”…!
Our most wonderful and infinitely admirable God becomes even more admirable... when He is "reflected" like the most brilliant Sun of Justice, upon the moral perfection that mortal beings... but also God-born beings achieve - with the power of His divine Grace: all His Saints!
Our infinite God is “the self-glorifying and self-admiring One”! [ 1 ] Not that He “glorifies” or “self-admires” arrogantly projecting Himself upon His creatures! For, how could He be proud, He… Who constitutes the “personification” of humility and the “definition” of meekness?! [ 2 ] Our humble and unproud God is indeed the “self-glorifying and self-admiring One”, because He inherently contains within His supremely perfect uncreated, self-existent and infinite nature, the supernatural attributes of All-Love… of All-Goodness… of All-Wisdom… and Omnipotence…! Attributes that make Him self-existent, self-good, self-wise, self-powerful, self-glorifying and unworthy… of both Angelic and human “miraculous” and “honorable” glorifications!
The All Saints (whose annual Feast we celebrate only in Orthodoxy - because this Great Feast is completely absent from Western “confessions”) have been characterized as… “inspired scriptures” (living books) of applied Evangelical perfection. To this perfection God called us [ 3 ] with the incarnation of His Son! Seeing a Saint, we see the Holy Gospel “alive” and experienced! Therefore, only in the Orthodox East, the All Saints are considered safe and unerring “guideposts” to Christ-Truth [ 4 ] because Evangelical perfection is “felt” in their holy life, and is understood as a “quality” humanly achievable -with God- and realizable, empirically confirmed!
"To the myriad systems of All Saints, together with the Apostles, Prophets, Hierarchs and Martyrs, the choirs of the Holy and Righteous, and the multitude of Holy Women, and with all those both anonymous and known, let us sing, shouting: glory to him who strengthened you, glory to him who was wondrous, glory to the Church who is kindled by you." (From the Hymnology of the Feast of All Saints)
INTERPRETATION: Let us sing the hymns of the numerous armies of the All Saints! Together with the Apostles, the Prophets, the Hierarchs and the Martyrs, the coalitions of the Saints and the Righteous, and the whole of the Holy Women, and with them all the anonymous and named Saints. Let us sing them with joy: Glory to Him - Christ - who strengthened you in your Martyrs... Glory to Him who made you everywhere admirable for your virtues... glory to Him who, through your own moral perfection and brilliance, illuminates the Church...
The world was flooded with endless Light… with angelic melodies… with supramundane fragrances… which “brought with them” (embodied upon them!) the “princesses” and “princesses” of the Kingdom of God, the All Saints, with their Feast gathering in our poor parish! All those throughout the centuries who “pleased God” (those who made Him kind and pleased and rested… with their humble, loving, pure and temperate lives)! The Saints of the “Triumphant Church” of Heaven [ 5 ] who descended to the “Military Church” of Earth, so that we might celebrate together! Like the... "Homeland Women" who, after becoming rich and achieving greatness far from their homeland... return to it, to spread their wealth...!
These countless heavenly armies of named and anonymous Christ-worshippers – Saints and Righteous of all periods of history [ 6 ] “flocked like eagles” (Matt. 24:28) adoringly and glorifyingly around Him… Whom they loved with all the strength of their being! [ 7 ] With His Blessing, they descended to earth where they lived, among us, to share with us their eternal “Victory” against the devil, death and corruption! May we always have their ambassadors to God – along with their undivided help and protection – in these “last years” that our Heavenly Father has blessed us to live…
The All Saints were not always, from their birth, so… perfect, glorious and spiritually rich. Many of them, when they lived on earth, were less… or even more sinful than us, spiritually “indebted”, ragged, poor, ignoble and needy…! But, with their brave repentance (as a wholehearted and humble disposition to return to God) and with their laborious works of repentance (as actions… evidence of this God-loving disposition of theirs) they managed to please Him! Thus, after He forgave them, He lovingly accepted them back into His Fatherly embrace, and enriched them with incorruptible and incomprehensible spiritual gifts…!
The Feast of All Saints marks the… cessation of the joy of Pentecost, and the beginning of the fast of the Holy Apostles, i.e. the period preceding the Feast of the Holy Disciples of Christ (June 29). Divine wisdom is well aware of the instability of our competitive will, which weakens and flails when it finds itself in extensive training inactivity, which brings about great psychophysical relaxation in us. Therefore, God considers it necessary to offer us, at regular intervals, opportunities for spiritual education, with the aim of high performance, so that we are always spiritually ready and worthy of fighting in every situation!
With the start of the “Spiritual Olympics” (the pan-Orthodox fasting sports…) proclaimed by our Orthodox Mother Church, it seeks our best possible psychophysical preparation for the coming Great Feast! At the same time, with our voluntary participation in the Fast of these holy days, although it seems that our body is worn out by fasting, the soul becomes much stronger… [ 8 ] balancing the great deficits of competitiveness, in our Spiritual arena! Our souls and bodies are deeply cleansed of all psychophysical “toxins”, while at the same time the need to exercise is served, and thus to remain in a state of “worthy” competitive readiness, in the midst of our “invisible war” against sin and passions…
The “Spiritual Olympics” of the Fast of the Holy Apostles will begin - together with the Saranta Liturgy of this period - on the Monday after All Saints’ Sunday, in all Orthodox environments of the Oecumenic, and will end on the day of the Apostolic Feast (June 29). Those of us who choose to “exercise” in Christ through fasting… (with awareness of the divine pleasure that results from this), let us willingly approach the stage of abstinence. And let us be certain that, like every sacrifice made for the Love of our Christ, the Fast will also accumulate within us immense spiritual wealth… with the blessing of God’s Grace!
REFERENCES-FOOTNOTES
[ 1 ] The characterization of God as a Being “self-glorifying and self-admiring” is attributed to the supremely brilliant light of the universe, Basil the Great (+379 AD).
[ 2 ] “Learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart… and you will find rest for your souls!” (Matt. 11:29)
INTERPRETATION: Know of Me Myself, that I am meek and humble of heart… and you will find rest for your souls, if you draw near to Me…
[ 3 ] “Be ye therefore perfect… even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect!” (Matt. 5:48)
INTERPRETATION: Be morally perfected (in love and humility) constantly, seeking to resemble your superperfect Heavenly Father!
[ 4 ] The “Christ-named” Truth is defined “self-definingly” by our Lord Himself, in His Holy Gospel, through a condensed self-confirmation: “I am the Way and the Truth and the Life” (John 14:6)!
[ 5 ] The participles “Armed” and “Triumphant” refer to the “Body” of the Church of Christ, as understood Orthodoxly, defining: a) as “Armed” the Church of Earth… which is still fighting evil… fighting against it! & b) as “Triumphant” the Church of Heaven… which has triumphed victoriously against Satan and his gang!
[ 6 ] The set of "Saints from all ages" also includes those who lived before the incarnation of God (the Birth of Christ), from the first creations onwards, but were retroactively incorporated into the "Body" of Christ, His "triumphant" Church, after the Lord's descent into Hades... and the 3-day proclamation there of His coming Kingdom... which snatched from the clutches of Satan all those "bound in Hades from all ages", and resurrected them with Him... with His glorious Resurrection from the dead.
[ 7 ] “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength…”! (Mark 12:30)
INTERPRETATION: To love the Lord your God with all your heart… and with all your soul… and with all your mind… and with all your will power…!
[ 8 ] “Even though our outward man is perishing, yet our inward man is being renewed day by day…” (2 Cor. 4:16)
INTERPRETATION: Although our outer man (the body) wears out and declines... our inner man (the soul), in contrast to the body, is constantly renewed and strengthened, moving towards its existential renovation...
