Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory forever!

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

The Apostle, St. Peter, writing to the Diaspora in his First Epistle, uses the Old Testament imagery of ancient Israel now applied to the Church. He says,

But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people [His own special people], that ye should show forth the praises of Him Who hath called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. In times past ye were not a people, but are now the people of God; who had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy (Ex. 19:5-6; Dt. 7:6; Is. 43:20-21; 61:6; 66:21; Ho. 2:23; 1 Pe. 2:9-10).

The Apostle is abundantly clear: a change has occurred, a transformation from one thing to another – once, but now . . . . .

St. Paul also calls upon this imagery to declare this new reality of Pentecost: before Christ and after Christ, before the Cross, after the Cross; before Pentecost, after Pentecost. “And you He made alive,” says the Apostle,

who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath [death], just as the others. But God, Who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ . . . . (Ep. 2:1-5).

And, again, St. Paul drives home our new condition in Jesus Christ: “Do you not know,” he asks, “that the unrighteous will not inherit the Kingdom of God? Do not be deceived,” he exhorts,

Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the Kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the Name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God (1 Cr. 6:9-11).

Our Baptism and Chrismation, which is to say, our “washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, . . . poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour” has changed everything and continues to change everything (Ts. 3:3-7)!

With Jesus Christ and the coming of His Holy Spirit everything has been changed, transformed, made new – we are a new creation, a new creature of God’s own work (2 Cr. 5:17). This is the whole aim of Pentecost: to make sinners saints! This is not merely a change in status, that is, a new label slapped over the old one – old stock made “new” stock by the simple change of a label. But, it is a true and real change in us to us by the hand of God, just as surely as the bread and wine are changed by the Holy Spirit to be the Body and the Blood of Jesus Christ Himself (Epiclesis). In fact, just before the fracture of the consecrated Lamb, the priest announces this Truth: “The Holy Things are for the holy.” Only the holy, only the sanctified, may receive the Sanctified Things. Once we could not because of our unholiness, but now we may because of the mighty work of God on our behalf. Once we were dried out wineskins that would have ruptured with this new wine poured into us, but now the grace of God has softened us so that we might receive His fermenting Holy Spirit and be slowly transformed from the inside out (Mt. 9:15-17; Mk. 2:19-22; Lk. 5:34-39). This is the very work of the Holy Spirit begun on the Day of Pentecost and continues today and unto the ages of ages. St. Paul says as much. He commands us to “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God Who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.” And, the Apostle assures us that we can be “confident of this very thing, that He Who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the Day of Jesus Christ; . . . being filled with the fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God” (Pp. 1:6, 11; 2:12-13).

It is God’s intent to commune with us. This has always been His divine intention from the creation of Paradise there in Genesis: God and man, created in His image to be like God, in communion with one another and in perfect harmony of wills. This has been found in Jesus Christ – the Second Adam – and has been restored to us by His Incarnation, Death, and Resurrection, and made our own through the descent of the Holy Spirit! And, it is all here in the Church, the Body of Christ, His Bride, the Upper Room filled with the baptized faithful men, women, and children – all flesh infused with the Spirit of God in the divine and holy Mysteries of grace – the Sacraments of the Church. It is our heavenly Father’s desire and intent to join us to the ranks of those saints commemorated upon our walls, to unite us to this great cloud of witnesses who surround us with their unseen presence and who sustain us with their unceasing prayers (Hb. 11:33-12:2). For Sacred Scripture says to us:

But you have come to Mount Zion and to the City of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and Church of the firstborn who are registered in Heaven, to God the Judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect, to Jesus the Mediator of the New Covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel.

And, we are enjoined by that same Scripture, “See that you do not refuse Him Who speaks” (Hb. 12:22-25). For, “how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation” (Hb. 2:3)?

Beloved, you are God’s holy ones – His saints – in this time and in this place, as imperfect as we all are. God does not call us to sinlessness, but to the obedience of faith. Sinlessness will be ours on the other side of eternity. But, here, today, now, we are called to the obedience of faith – to follow Jesus exclusively and to be absolutely abandoned to Him, as the Holy Gospel shows us. The saints are saints for this reason alone: they all learned and practiced the obedience of faith that deepened and matured their humility. In short, saints are sinners who have learned to be humbled by repentance, and that gladly! That’s it. That’s the formula.

Through the prayers of all Thy saints, O Lord Jesus Christ our God, have mercy on us and save us. Amen.

Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory forever!

VIGIL PROPERS:        PROPERS:

Is. 43:9-14                          Hb. 11:33-12:2

WS 3:1-9                            Mt. 10:32-33, 37-38; 19:27-30

WS 5:15-6:3