Sunday of All Saints: Matthew 10:32–33, 37–38, 19:27–30

The Gospel reading for the Sunday of All Saints highlights the essential mark of holiness: complete devotion to Christ. Its placement immediately after Pentecost is not accidental. The descent of the Holy Spirit is not simply a historical event, but gives birth within the Church to the fruits of grace, namely the Saints. The Saints are those who confessed Christ through word, through deeds, through sacrifice, and through patient endurance of the cross.

The Lord says: “Everyone therefore who acknowledges Me before men, I also will acknowledge before My Father in heaven.” The confession of Christ is not merely an outward declaration or a momentary expression of religiosity. It is the manifestation of a living relationship with His person. The believer is called to bear witness to Christ not only when this is easy and socially acceptable, but also when it comes at a cost. For this reason, the Church connects this passage with All Saints, because all the Saints—whether martyrs, monastics, hierarchs, or righteous ones—lived out this confession as a daily, and at times even bloody, martyrdom.

By contrast, the denial of Christ refers not only to an explicit rejection of Him, but also…