Festival of All Saints
Posted on November 1, 2023 by under
Scripture: Romans 14:4-12 (NKJV)
14:4 Who are you to judge another’s servant? To his own master he stands or falls. Indeed, he will be made to stand, for God is able to make him stand.
5 One person esteems one day above another; another esteems every day alike. Let each be fully convinced in his own mind. 6 He who observes the day, observes it to the Lord; and he who does not observe the day, to the Lord he does not observe it. He who eats, eats to the Lord, for he gives God thanks; and he who does not eat, to the Lord he does not eat, and gives God thanks. 7 For none of us lives to himself, and no one dies to himself. 8 For if we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord. Therefore, whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s. 9 For to this end Christ died and rose and lived again, that He might be Lord of both the dead and the living. 10 But why do you judge your brother? Or why do you show contempt for your brother? For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. 11 For it is written:
“As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to Me, and every tongue shall confess to God.”
12 So then each of us shall give account of himself to God.
Devotion
‘Saint’ literally means ‘holy one’, yet to be recognized as a saint in the Roman Church today very little thought is given to one’s holiness. Instead, it requires miracles, either while alive, or by miraculous happenings or appearances involving one’s grave or the parts of one’s deceased body. Such is the result of rooting righteousness in a person’s performance of good works! Jesus warns us against such thinking in St. Matthew 7:22–23.
The true status of ‘saint’, though, is conferred only by faith in Jesus’ payment on the cross for all mankind’s sin, and that faith is only by the grace of God given through the Gospel. Understanding that it is all by His gift, we understand today’s reading: it is about the strong and the weak in faith, and it instructs each to acknowledge that both stand purely by the grace of God. When one sees a brother do something that God has not given command against, but he believes it would lead to sin if he were doing it, he is not to condemn his brother for the sake of his own weakness. Nor is one who can safely engage in that activity to belittle his brother who cannot. Each is to see the other as seeking to glorify and give thanks to God by his actions.
Prayer: O Almighty God, Who hast knit together Thine elect in one communion and fellowship in the mystical Body of Thy Son, Christ our Lord: Grant us grace so to follow Thy blessed Saints in all virtuous and godly living, that we may come to those unspeakable joys which Thou hast prepared for those who unfeignedly love Thee; through Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, ever One God, world without end. Amen.
Collect for the Twenty-First Sunday after Trinity Sunday
Lord, we beseech Thee to keep Thy household, the Church, in continual godliness; that through Thy protection it may be free from all adversities, and devoutly given to serve Thee in good works, to the glory of Thy Name; through Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, ever One God, world without end. Amen.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
