On this Sunday of All Saints we celebrate all the saints throughout the ages—the holy people of the Old Testament and of the New Testament, of earlier centuries and of today. The Epistle, from chapter 11 and the opening verses of chapter 12 of the book of Hebrews, sets before us “a great cloud of witnesses” of holy people who “surround us” and have put off all obstacles and sins so that we can “run with perseverance the race that is set before us.” St John Chrysostom points out, and I quote: “The memory of these saints establishes and recovers [our souls], which [have] been exhausted by ills, as a cloud that provides shade from the most flaming heat of the sun’s rays. [The Biblical passage] did not say ‘lifted on high above us,’ but [rather] ‘which is set around us,’ which creates for us a greater freedom from fear … [making it] easier, if we wish, to prevail over sin” concluded St John Chrysostom [Homily 28].

St John makes a very important point here about how we should see the saints. Yes, these saints are holy people, but their lives create for us, in St John’s phrase, “a greater freedom from fear, making it easier, if we wish to prevail over sin…  a cloud that provides shade for us” from the troubles of life. Furthermore, chapter 11, verse 40, of this epistle insists that all of these saints, and I quote, “should not be made complete without us” [Biblical translations from Orthodox scholar David Bentley Hart’s The New Testament: A Translation (Yale University Press, 2017)]. St John continues, citing the Book of Hebrews, chapter 12 verse 2, that we have just heard: “What is this [about Our Lord Jesus Christ as] ‘the originator and accomplisher of the faith’? That is to say,” reflects St John, “He has put the faith in us. He gave it from the beginning. Also, He said to His disciples, ‘Ye did not choose Me for yourselves, but I chose you for Myself (John 15.16)…. He [that is, Christ Himself] put the beginning into us, and He shall put on the finish,” concluded St John. 

So, St John Chrysostom is linking both his life and our lives to Christ Himself. St John is saying boldly that none of us—saints, Church Fathers or ourselves—chose Our Lord Jesus Christ, but He chose us, both in the beginning of our lives, throughout our lives and when we die. In support of this claim that Christ has chosen each one of us, however old or young we are now, whatever sins we have confessed, St John cites the words of St Paul in First Corinthians, chapter 13, verse 12 about how, and I quote, “For now we see in a mirror dimly in an enigma [that is, a big puzzle], but then face to face. Now I know in part; then [that is, when I die] I shall understand fully, even as I have been fully understood [by the Lord Jesus Christ].”

When we look at our own lives in a mirror we cannot always see ourselves honestly. At times, as St Paul phrases it, “we see dimly.” The writer and British campaigner Nicci Gerrard tells of a personal experience she had with a mirror. She writes: “Several years ago I was in a large department store, running late, looking for things I couldn’t find, hot and feeling … itchy and out of sorts. As I was hastening along an aisle, a woman came hastening towards me. She was quite a bit older than I was, scrawny [that is, unhealthy], and looking distressed and in a state of substantial disarray. As I drew closer, I saw her shirt was wrongly buttoned. I put up a hand to prevent her bumping into me, and she put up a hand as well, smiling anxiously back at me. I stopped. She stopped. We stared at each other with a kind of pity. And with a sudden rush of mortification [that is, shame and humiliation], I understood that she was me. I was looking at myself in a mirror. Usually, we prepare ourselves for our reflection. Here, I was caught unawares and my self-image shattered and lay in pieces around me. I stood face to face with the self others see. Was I that tired and shambolic [that is, totally disorganized and chaotic]? Was I that old? That woman in the mirror wasn’t me. It never is” [What Dementia Teaches Us about Love (Penguin, 2019), pp. 30-31].

That’s a powerful image of how we might see ourselves dimly in a mirror, isn’t it? However, in the third century, St Clement of Alexandria was rather more optimistic about how we can see ourselves in a mirror. He preached, and I quote: “We know ourselves by reflection, as in a mirror. We contemplate as far as we may, the creative cause [that is, God Himself] on the basis of the divine element in us” [Stromateis 1.94]. St Clement’s approach to a mirror in which we see ourselves in the image of the Lord takes us back to the opening verses of chapter 19 in the Old Testament Book of Leviticus, and I quote: “Now the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ‘Speak to all the congregation of the children of Israel and say to them, You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy.”  In the fourth century, St Leo the Great preached rather beautifully about the nature of holiness, and I quote: “[The Lord] Himself says, ‘Be holy, for I am holy,’ that is to say,” continued St Leo, “choose me [as Lord of your lives] and keep away from what displeases me. Do what I love; love what I do. If what I order seems difficult, come back to me who ordered it, so that from where the command was given help might be offered. I who furnished the desire [that is, your desire to be holy as I am holy] will not refuse support…. Let Me be your food and drink. None desire in vain what is Mine, for those who stretch out toward Me seek Me because I first sought them,” concluded St Leo [Sermon 94.2].

So, we come full circle. We can know and understand fully that the Lord Jesus Christ has chosen each of us and will support us when we ask for His help in the face of difficulties in our lives. At times, we may feel like St Peter and the apostles in chapter 19 of St Matthew’s Gospel that we have just heard and want to say to the Lord with St Peter: “‘Look: we gave up all things and followed you; what then will there be for us?’ And Jesus said to them, ‘Truly, I say to you, in the new world, when the Son of Man sits upon the throne of His glory, you who have followed me will yourselves sit also upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of   Israel. And everyone who gave up hous-es or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or fields for My Name’s sake will receive many times as much and will inherit life in that Age. But many who are first will be last, and the last first,’” con-cluded the Lord.

So there we are. We can each have faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and understand that all of us have been chosen by Him to be holy, as God Himself is holy in the Holy Trinity. Then, at a time He chooses, we shall join Him in heaven. We can each be confident that when we ask for help the Holy Trinity and the Mother of God and all the saints have the power and the ability to guide us into holiness and into heaven. Amen.