Posts Tagged ‘all souls’

One with All the Saints

November 1, 2025

All Saints/All Souls – 2025

Luke 6:20-31

Marian Free

In the name of God without beginning or end, and in whose love we are united through love with all who have gone before us and with all who will come after. Amen.

I love this quote from Linda Hogan:

“Walking, I am listening to a deeper way. Suddenly all my ancestors are behind me. Be still, they say. Watch and listen. You are the result of the love of thousands.” (Dwellings)

Hogan reminds us that we are the result of all those who have come before us, those to whom we are related by blood, those whose lives have impacted upon our families in the past and in the present and those whose roles in history have shaped who we have become. We are never alone, but part of a great tapestry of saints and sinners.

Coming as they do on the heels of each other, the Feasts of All Saints and All Souls make me aware of how intimately we are connected with those who have gone before us. Threads of love, community and tradition, even our DNA bind us to past generations and, long after we are gone will link us to those who come after.

Our introduction to confession today quotes from the Book of Hebrews (12:1): “We are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses.” Our faith in the resurrection assures us that those who have preceded us are not gone forever but are in some way transformed, such that they live on.  We experience their presence through the warmth of the love they shared with us, through the impact they had on our lives and on the lives of those around us, through the memories of their place in our lives, through their heroic acts or through their acts of faithful living.

Within our Christian tradition, we are joined to all the Biblical figures that make up our scriptures.  We are inspired by their courage and heroism and shocked (yet strangely comforted) by their missteps and by their blatant failings.  Figures like Sarah and Abraham, Moses and Deborah, Isaiah and Huldah, Elizabeth and Zechariah, Joseph and Mary are as real to us as if they were here  present. Their stories have been told and retold in such a way that these and the many other people who populate our Bible are as vivid and vibrant in our imaginations as if they had never left us. When we need courage to step out in faith, we can look to Sarah who, without question, followed Abraham as he answered the call of a God whom he did not know. When faced with insurmountable odds, we can look to the boy David who knew that defeating the giant Goliath was not impossible.

We identify with the child Samuel who did not recognise the voice of God calling him in the night and we can wonder at the influence of Deborah – the only woman to be the judge of Israel. Mary’ surprise and timidity assure us that being in the presence of God is truly awesome and Peter’s impetuous ignorance reminds us that it’s OK to be truly human.

Though these characters lived centuries, even millennia ago, they seem to walk beside us as friends and guides, as people whose lives can inform our own, whose fears mirror our fears and whose courage spurs us on. They are so familiar that at times we find ourselves in conversation  –  “What would you have done Peter?” “Mary of Bethany, we’re you afraid of the backlash when you anointed Jesus’ feet?” “Paul, if only I had one fraction of your passion!”

“We are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses.” The story doesn’t end with the final words of the Book of Revelation. Throughout the centuries there have been thousands whose light has shone a little brighter, whose courage has been more costly or whose teaching has been so wise that we have given them a special place in our hearts and our histories – Joan of Arc, Francis of Assisi, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Mother Teresa and so many more – speak to us through the ages, reminding us of the costs and the rewards of following Jesus and urging us to try just a little bit more, to be braver, to be kinder, to confront injustice and to alleviate the suffering of the poor.

In our faith communities too the presence of those who have preceded us lingers on in the stories we tell of the past, the traditions we maintain in the present and even in the buildings which they strove so hard to provide. The faithful prayers which sustained them and our community continue exert an influence on our present.

All Saints is not a feast that celebrates those long dead, but a festival that rejoices in the unbroken ties that bind us  together, that recognises all those who continue to walk beside us and who unite with us in a great chain of witnesses. As we celebrate All Souls, we recall the ties of love and the bonds of memory that ensure that we are never separated from those who have gone before us.

This weekend as we celebrate All Hallow’s Eve, All Saints and All Souls Days we give thanks for all those whose lives and witness have contributed to our own lives and faith and to the life of the Church of which we are a part. In our turn we pray that we may  allow ourselves to be woven into the fabric of the faith such that we too become part of this wonderful ongoing story of God’s relationship with God’s people – a story that has no beginning and no end.

 

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Ghosties and ghouls – All Hallows

November 5, 2023

All Saint’s/All Soul’s – 2023
(Halloween)
Marian Free

In the name of God our Saviour and Deliverer. Amen.

If you can’t beat ‘‘em join ’em. That seems to have been the philosophy of Pope Gregory – well at least something like that. Pope Gregory the Great had been entranced by the fair blond children whom he saw at the slave market in Rome. When he asked who they were, he misheard “Angles “as “Angels”. The children had been brought from the land that we now call England to be sold to the highest bidder. Gregory determined to send missionaries to that land to convert its people to Christianity. For that purpose, he chose Augustine to lead a group of monks. Augustine’s task was not particularly onerous – Christianity had reached those Isles centuries before though it had only taken hold in places. Augustine had the further good fortune to land in Kent where the Queen, Bertha was already a Christian. Her husband, Ethelbert, gave the monks some land where they built a monastery and eventually Canterbury Cathedral.

Augustine wrote several letters to the Pope asking for advice. In one, he enquired what he should do about the sites that the Celts held to be sacred. Gregory replied: “what I have, upon mature deliberation of the affair of the English, determined upon, viz., that the temples of the idols in those nations ought not to be destroyed; but let the idols that are in them be destroyed; let holy water be made and sprinkled in the said temples, let altars be erected, and relics placed. For if those temples are well built, it is requisite that they be converted from the worship of devils to the service of the true God; that the nation, seeing that their temples are not destroyed …may the more familiarly resort to the places to which they are accustomed.” In other words, the Pope, understanding the meaning that such places held for the people of the land, encouraged Augustine to continue to use them, but to infuse them with Christian meaning – to rename the deity whom they worshipped in a place that they already held to be sacred. The Pope’s response – use them. Take advantage of the fact that they are already sacred and infuse them with Christian meaning. (In other words: if you can’t beat them join them.)

I recalled this story as I was reflecting on Halloween which falls on October. 31. Over the past week I have heard a number of reactions to the practice- most loudly ‘it’s American, it’s commercial”, ie we shouldn’t do it, it’s not part of our culture, it’s just a way for business to make money. Some are uncomfortable that the practice of Halloween – ghosts and witches, trick or treating – contradicts Christian beliefs and practices.

It is good to reflect on what it is about our faith that makes us distinct and what sets us apart from the world around us. It is also important to remember that almost from its inception, Christianity began to incorporate practices and traditions from other cultures into its own. Until the mid-fourth century, Jesus’ resurrection was celebrated every Sunday (as it still is). Around the time of the Council of Nicea (325), and the Christianization of the Roman Empire, it was determined that there should be a dedicated celebration and the Sunday after first full moon of the spring equinox (a time associated with rebirth and renewal) was deemed appropriate. The name “Easter” comes from Eostre, the goddess of spring and fertility. Christmas too is the appropriation of a pagan festival. The Romans originally celebrated the birthday of Mithra, the god of the unconquerable sun, on December 25.

The Pope’s advice to Augustine was wise, and it built on many precedents – it did not take much to associate resurrection with a festival new life or for the birth of Jesus to replace the birth of an unconquerable sun.

So where does that leave Halloween. Before there was a Christian festival – All Hallow’s Eve – there was the Celtic feast of Samhaim which marked the turn the seasons, between the lighter warmer half of the year and the darker, colder half. On this night, the Celts believed that the veil between this world and the next was so thin that the spirits of the dead (good and evil) could pass through. On this night, people burnt fires, wore disguises, and made sweet treats to deter, trick and appease the evil spirits so that they would cause no harm .

Over time, the Christians in the British Isles began to celebrate all the Saints on November the first – “All Hallow’s Day”. In the 9th Century Pope Gregory IV incorporated All Saints Day, followed by “All Soul’s Day” into the Christian Calendar. That the old traditions lingered long after the Christians took over the Celtic festival is clear in this prayer from an old Scottish litany: “From ghoulies and ghosties and long leggedie beasties, and things that go bump in the night. Good Lord deliver us.”

Instead of sitting in pious judgement on those who indulge in creating ghostly gardens, who dress up their children in ghoulish costumes to wander the streets and demand treats, we need to see Halloween for what it has become – a time to let down our hair, to indulge in some ridiculous fun and to build a sense of community in a world in which we are increasingly isolated.

We are no longer afraid that the dead will break through the veil to cause havoc in our world. Instead, over three days – All Hallow’s Eve, All Saints Day and All Souls Day, we are gifted with an opportunity to reflect and to give thanks for those whom we have loved and lost, to allow ourselves to be inspired by saints of great courage, and saints of humble prayer, to grieve, to rejoice and to commit ourselves once more to live lives of faithful service.

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In the company of saints

October 31, 2020

ALL SAINTS AND ALL SOULS – 2020

MATTHEW 5:1-12A

MARIAN FREE

In the name of God in whose loving care are the living and the dead. Amen.

‘Blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted.”

 The Beatitudes, one of the best-known New Testament passages, are a reminder of the upside-down world that Jesus preaches and which he encourages us to embrace. In a world that values success and happiness, Jesus promotes humility and sobriety and assures his followers that, contrary to popular opinion, grief and poverty are blessings[1]. Over and over again, Jesus contradicts commonly held values and aspirations. Through his choices and his actions, Jesus demonstrates that it is not necessarily those whom society values – the rich, the powerful and the healthy – who have precedence in the kingdom of God. It is the poor and the marginalised who are the focus of Jesus’ ministry – those who have nothing and who have no opportunity, those who by virtue of their disability, their poverty or their powerlessness demonstrate to the rest of us that it is possible to exist in this world and to have faith without the trappings that many of us find indispensable.

Luke’s version of the Beatitudes is even more stark than Matthew’s: 

“Blessed are you who are poor,

                        for yours is the kingdom of God. 

            “Blessed are you who are hungry now,

                        for you will be filled.

            “Blessed are you who weep now,

                        for you will laugh.”

Jesus knows, as we often do not, that absence makes presence even more special and that the acceptance of one’s current situation frees us from striving and stops us from thinking about what we do not have but rather of what we do have allowing us to live in the present and not in some imagined the future. He reminds too us that this life is only a part of the story. 

For many hundreds of thousands of people this has been a year of unbearable grief and loss, often compounded by the inability to visit a dying parent, or even to attend their funeral. Rituals that have existed since the beginning of human existence are forbidden or limited and those things that provide comfort and allow us to properly farewell those whom we love are being denied us. I cannot imagine the agony and anxiety which countless families have endured, and nor can I conceive the ways in which their grief might have been amplified by COVID restrictions.

The Feasts of All Saints and All Souls which fall on November 1st and 2nd respectively provide an opportunity, as best we can, to express our loss for the souls of the departed but also to affirm our confidence in the commonwealth of heaven and the belief that not even death can separate us from those whom we love. 

On All Saints day we honour the lives of all the faithful and on All Souls’ Day we give thanks for and pray for the departed. We do both in the company of other Christians throughout the world. This year, whether we are confined to our homes or able to worship with our faith communities, we can be both comforted and supported in our common prayer and in the knowledge that we are surrounded by “a cloud of witnesses”. As we remember before God those whom we grieve, we can be confident that we do so with countless others who have known loss and in fellowship with all the saints, both living and departed. We can take advantage of these two days to begin to make peace with our grief and lay to rest those whom we love despite the opportunities that we have been denied.

This year and next and for however long it takes, the feasts of All Saints and All Souls can be an occasion to fill the vacuum created by the COVID restrictions on caring for the dying and farewelling the dead. If we have not been able to say “farewell” in the way that we would have liked – with full churches, families and friends – let us say our farewells in a different but vastly greater community of saints – living and dead.

Remember too that the Beatitudes remind us that however difficult our current situation, stiving for that which is not possible will only lead to discontent and misery. The truly blessed are those who can acknowledge and sit with the present, accept things as they are and to place their trust in the God of time and history.

[1] I like to think that he doesn’t mean grinding poverty but rather the absence of excess, of the things that we don’t need.

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