When one looks back into Holy Scripture, one finds the first reference to “saints” in the Book of Deuteronomy (33:2). Here, Moses is about to go to his death. But before he does, he leaves God’s people with a blessing. “And he said, ‘The Lord came from Sinai, and rose up from Seir unto them; He shined forth from Mount Paran, and He came with ten thousands of saints: from His right hand went a fiery law for them.’” The Orthodox Study Bible says this about this particular passage:
The Lord Who appeared to Israel was the Son of God. He revealed Himself many times to the prophets throughout the Old Testament. Angels sometimes appeared with Him…
The OSB says “angels”, but the scriptural text says “saints”. And indeed, who (except for God) can say which of the heavenly beings might have accompanied the Lord in His interventions in the Old Testament!
The word used for saints in the OT is qodesh, a Jewish word that means holy, sanctified, dedicated, hallowed, consecrated.
Saints are mentioned many more times in Scripture. My small (not “exhaustive”) concordance lists at least nineteen times just in the Book of Psalms, and thirteen times in the Book of Revelation. But interestingly, the word is found only once in the Gospels, and that in Mat 27:52-53, after our Lord’s death and resurrection: “And the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose, and came out of the graves after His resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared to many.” The word used in the NT here is hagios, Greek meaning holy, sacred, pure, and again consecrated.
Why do saints play such a prominent role in Holy Scripture?
It is precisely because this is the state to which all of humanity is called! Saint Philaret of Moscow teaches, “Every Christian should find for himself the imperative and incentive to become holy. If you live without struggle and without hope of becoming holy, you are Christian in name only and not in essence. Without holiness, no one shall see the Lord, that is to say they will not attain eternal blessedness. It is a trustworthy saying that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners (1Tim 1:15). But we deceive ourselves if we think that we are saved while remaining sinners. Christ saves sinners by giving them the means to become saints.”
In commemorating All Saints on this day, our remembrance of these men, women and children favored by God is for two purposes. The first is to obviously give praise to those who have completed this life in triumph and found favor before the Lord. But equally important in our remembering these people is the idea that their lives are an example to us—they can and should be emulated to the extent that God gives us grace to do so. The hymnology of the day focuses on martyrdom, but that is not the only path to finding favor with God. St. Philaret’s admonishment to struggle means to wrestle with our sinful natures, to attempt to cleanse ourselves through prayer and fasting and repentance so that we might approach that state of holiness to which our Lord has called not only those who are part of the Church Triumphant and have achieved sainthood and received their crowns, but us as well!
May our Lord give us strength and wisdom to struggle against the things in this life which tear at us attempting to separate us from that Divine calling to seek a place near the Lord for all eternity, where we will one day be with those now recognized as saints as we pray for all our departed loved ones, “With the saints give rest….”
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