Dear Parishioners,

Our upcoming celebrations of Halloween (Oct. 31), All Saints’ Day (Nov. 1) and All Souls’ Day (Nov. 2) remind us of one the most fundamental aspects of our Christian faith – it rests on the belief in the supernatural. This belief is so fundamental that we may unknowingly take it for granted and think very little about it. Or perhaps our culture has tamed or domesticated religion (and its practices) to where we dismiss the notion of anything that is beyond the natural. There might also be the possibility that somewhere deep within our human psyche we fear the prospect of another world besides our own – a world that is unseen and over which we have little or no control. Rather than befriend this unseen reality, we may choose to trivialize it or pretend it does not exist, thereby freeing us from the need to interact with it.

But the faith we publicly profess each Sunday in the Nicene Creed, begins with the bold and unabashedly clear proclamation that we believe in one God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all things visible and invisible. Christianity is rooted in something (or someone) invisible – a Mystery that is gracious, loving and wise. The annual autumnal trilogy of Halloween, All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day surfaces our belief in this Mystery inviting us to lovingly embrace it no matter how fearful it may initially appear.

These 3 days also link us to some of humanity’s most universal primal instincts. For example, Halloween evolved from the Celtic lands of pre-Christian Europe that celebrated a festival called Samhain on November 1st. (The word Samhain, is Gaelic “November.”) Samhain marked the beginning of the winter season when herds and flocks were either slaughtered, because they could not be adequately cared for during these harshest months of the year, or else were relocated to places where some of them could be preserved for mating purposes in the spring. The extreme winter weather with its long dark nights and bone-chilling cold was a powerful reminder of human vulnerability. Such a reminder awakened the necessity of having recourse to a greater, more powerful reality, namely God, the Creator of all life. When missionaries carried the Christian faith to these Celtic lands, they were met with a religious receptivity that welcomed belief in the supernatural. It was as if the Celtic soil had been prepared for planting the seeds of Christianity. So rather than displace Samhain and other such “pagan” observances, the church baptized and incorporated them into its cycle of feasts and fasts. In this way, it showed respect for the cultural beliefs of the indigenous peoples and then transformed their already existing doctrines and customs into ritual proclamations of the Gospel.

On Samhain night, the Celts invoked the protection of their ancestors as they entered the daunting days of winter. In order to placate those ancestral spirits who might not be benign, they would place food outside their homes as peace offerings. This ritual got translated into the Trick or Treat custom that children eagerly adopted as they adorned themselves in costumes that resembled people who emerged from their graves. Far from being an evil or superstitious practice that this is sometimes accused of being, it gave people a pregnant opportunity to make visible those beings or realities that most frighten them, so that they could mock them in such a way as to bolster their own courage and demonstrate their unwavering conviction in the One who was greater than them all, namely God.

As the Christian church spread throughout Western Europe, its beliefs became more transformed and widely celebrated. Commemorating the ancestors got elevated to cultivating devotion to the saints – those people from all times and places who already stood in the full presence of God. Praying to these Holy Ones and recognizing their intercessory power allowed the Church on earth, sometimes called the “Church Militant,” to remain in communion with the Church in heaven, the “Church Triumphant.”

As for the faithful departed whose whereabouts were unknown, Christians prayerfully implored God’s mercy on their behalf that they might one day join the saints in heaven. The Church promoted the notion of Purgatory as a place, or state of being, in which the dead were being prepared to enter into the full presence of God. During the Middle Ages, a preoccupation with sin, death and the possibility of eternal loss, that we know as “Hell,” colored the religious imagination of the people causing unwarranted fear in a God who was perceived as a wrathful judge. The tympanum above the doorways of many a cathedral often portrayed Christ sitting in judgment separating the sheep and goats, i.e., the saints and the sinners. Martin Luther and the Protestant reformers jettisoned the concept of Purgatory and helped to temper some of the abusive practices in which people engaged for the purpose of freeing their loved ones from Purgatory.

Today we nurture a much healthier understanding referred to as “The Communion of Saints.” This communion incorporates the saints, the faithful departed and us, the living, in one united family that is held in God’s loving hands. This week as we enter into the 3 days of Halloween, All Saints’ and All Souls’ Day, let us do so joyfully and hopefully. The pumpkins that get carved and illuminated for October 31, might also remain enshrined on our porches for the following two days, unless ravenous squirrels and chipmunks have other plans for them. And let us re-commit ourselves to embracing that mysterious and supernatural dimension of life knowing that in the Divine Presence of God, yesterday, today and tomorrow are all one.

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