For All the Saints
Ah, my favorite hymn (even if it is a little "martial" in its rhythm): For all the saints, who from their labors rest...
This is a curious time of year, isn't it? A time for opening up the gates to the afterlife, and seeing what comes out! So we get Halloween on one day, and All Saints Day on the other.
There was a story on NPR to the effect that Halloween has become the fourth most celebrated holiday in our country, after Christmas, the Super Bowl, and New Years-- in that order! (Do you mean to tell me that more money is spent on Super Bowl Sunday than on New Years?) Anyway, as cultures go, it is curious group isn't it? And all occurring in the "dark" months of the year...
The NPR reporter mused on how the popularity of Halloween has increased over the years that he had been alive, and said that it is especially popular these days among college age folks. It has been said that Halloween's main spiritual function is to help us get over our fear of death by making fun of it, turning the whole prospect into "play." When I was in college, the prospect of dying young was real enough because the Vietnam War was not only taking us away to die, it was bringing soldiers to our campuses to shoot at us. I don't remember us taking death lightly, even at Halloween. But evidently our children want to, and I have to wonder why. Maybe they've seen the numbers about social security and have begun to wonder who is gonna help them pay for our retirements. Maybe they are hoping to get some help from zombies!
That's the thing about Halloween in this country: mostly, we display our fascination with the undead. There's all kinds of ways death is dealt with around the world, but in our culture, we favor denial, and we play with all kinds of ideas connected with immortality, be it of the soul or the body. As we've become more secular, we tend to prefer the "immortality" of the body, and vampires, witches, and zombies rule our imaginations. How this helps us actually die escapes me...
I much prefer the Mexican Dios de los Muertos (forgive, please, my poor Spanish), in which the dead are invited back for a day so that they might be appreciated--fed and feted in death as perhaps they were not in life. Of course, in this case, we only invite back the dead we know! I mean, we don't want a lot of unfamiliar spirits at our table, even on Dios de los Muertos. But I see the "point" in this sort of holiday. I mean, it makes transparent the "presence" of the next world, and maybe makes us more comfortable with it. Maybe we die more peacefully if we can have some sense that we will be invited back once a year to visit-- and to feast!
And maybe then the contrast between 10/31 an 11/1 is not as great. In our culture, the shift from Halloween to All Saints Day is like that between Hell and Heaven-- all darkness and ghoulishness one day, and light and beneficence the next. Maybe in this way, we still live with vestiges of the Platonic "three story" universe, even with its secular collapse over the last century or so. (Is it any wonder that ever since our Civil War introduced a level of carnage in conflict beyond imagination, but to which we have become adjusted in the name of "modern warfare," that our spiritual imaginations have correspondingly become more materialistic and secular? Talk about a level of horror to which even our collective religious imagination cannot rise...)
Anyway, on this All Saints Day, I want to celebrate the influence that certain saints personal to me have had on my life! This is meant to be a day for remembering that Good actually has been accomplished in this world, and that some of that Good has been visited upon each of us, quite outside of and apart from any capacities or qualities we might have had in ourselves. Good people have come into our lives-- and then gone. Good things have been wrought in us and Good has been brought out in us because of these saints.
Even more remarkably, most were "saints unawares"-- that is, they were just being themselves with us. And yet, the holy happened. And our lives were better for it.
On this All Saints Day, I honor the saints in my life, and I hope you will honor yours. May we all realize that we are forever blessed...
This is a curious time of year, isn't it? A time for opening up the gates to the afterlife, and seeing what comes out! So we get Halloween on one day, and All Saints Day on the other.
There was a story on NPR to the effect that Halloween has become the fourth most celebrated holiday in our country, after Christmas, the Super Bowl, and New Years-- in that order! (Do you mean to tell me that more money is spent on Super Bowl Sunday than on New Years?) Anyway, as cultures go, it is curious group isn't it? And all occurring in the "dark" months of the year...
The NPR reporter mused on how the popularity of Halloween has increased over the years that he had been alive, and said that it is especially popular these days among college age folks. It has been said that Halloween's main spiritual function is to help us get over our fear of death by making fun of it, turning the whole prospect into "play." When I was in college, the prospect of dying young was real enough because the Vietnam War was not only taking us away to die, it was bringing soldiers to our campuses to shoot at us. I don't remember us taking death lightly, even at Halloween. But evidently our children want to, and I have to wonder why. Maybe they've seen the numbers about social security and have begun to wonder who is gonna help them pay for our retirements. Maybe they are hoping to get some help from zombies!
That's the thing about Halloween in this country: mostly, we display our fascination with the undead. There's all kinds of ways death is dealt with around the world, but in our culture, we favor denial, and we play with all kinds of ideas connected with immortality, be it of the soul or the body. As we've become more secular, we tend to prefer the "immortality" of the body, and vampires, witches, and zombies rule our imaginations. How this helps us actually die escapes me...
I much prefer the Mexican Dios de los Muertos (forgive, please, my poor Spanish), in which the dead are invited back for a day so that they might be appreciated--fed and feted in death as perhaps they were not in life. Of course, in this case, we only invite back the dead we know! I mean, we don't want a lot of unfamiliar spirits at our table, even on Dios de los Muertos. But I see the "point" in this sort of holiday. I mean, it makes transparent the "presence" of the next world, and maybe makes us more comfortable with it. Maybe we die more peacefully if we can have some sense that we will be invited back once a year to visit-- and to feast!
And maybe then the contrast between 10/31 an 11/1 is not as great. In our culture, the shift from Halloween to All Saints Day is like that between Hell and Heaven-- all darkness and ghoulishness one day, and light and beneficence the next. Maybe in this way, we still live with vestiges of the Platonic "three story" universe, even with its secular collapse over the last century or so. (Is it any wonder that ever since our Civil War introduced a level of carnage in conflict beyond imagination, but to which we have become adjusted in the name of "modern warfare," that our spiritual imaginations have correspondingly become more materialistic and secular? Talk about a level of horror to which even our collective religious imagination cannot rise...)
Anyway, on this All Saints Day, I want to celebrate the influence that certain saints personal to me have had on my life! This is meant to be a day for remembering that Good actually has been accomplished in this world, and that some of that Good has been visited upon each of us, quite outside of and apart from any capacities or qualities we might have had in ourselves. Good people have come into our lives-- and then gone. Good things have been wrought in us and Good has been brought out in us because of these saints.
Even more remarkably, most were "saints unawares"-- that is, they were just being themselves with us. And yet, the holy happened. And our lives were better for it.
On this All Saints Day, I honor the saints in my life, and I hope you will honor yours. May we all realize that we are forever blessed...
posted by TRXTR | 9:20 AM
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