Happy All Saints Eve and All Saints

[Thursday Afternoon] 

I've been more than busy lately, so the blog has received little attention. Just as well...it's mostly drivel anyway. I'm don't know why I continue. Perhaps I don't want to know. Vanity just might be involved. Maybe I'll give it a rest, now that I've achieved senior deacon status by reaching the 3/4 century mark. Rest is good, both physical and mental, but I think I just need a spiritual boost, some quiet time with our Lord -- no phones or iPads or laptops or blogs... Another retreat perhaps? We'll see.

But today I'm actually well rested. I'm awake and aware of my surroundings, having taken a rare short nap after an enjoyable morning at the Wildwood Soup Kitchen and a meeting of the parish Faith Formation team. In truth, my work at the soup kitchen really isn't all that tiring or taxing. Over the years I've recruited several other men to help out with the heavy lifting on Thursday, thus allowing me to spend my time supervising, leading our brief morning prayer, making preparations for meal deliveries to 200+ shut-ins, answering the phone, receiving donations, and schmoozing with the guests -- all fairly low-energy tasks. Dear Diane and her team of cooking assistants and servers do all the hard work, preparing and serving the meals. I go home and rest. Diane goes home and collapses. There's a difference.

So, here I am, taking it easy in my down-filled easy chair, but unable to shut off the flow of thoughts that remind me of other stuff I should be doing. I can sense Maddie, the wonder dog, stretched out and sleeping contentedly at my feet. Because on Thursdays she must remain here alone for as long as seven hours, when we return she meets us at the door with mixed emotions. Although she greets us joyfully -- wagging and licking, jumping and dancing -- she must still express her displeasure at having been left alone for so long. And so, she barks. She barks her angry bark just to let us know the queen is not amused. But now, having been reunited with her pack, fed, and walked, she is a happy dog and so she sleeps. She sleeps the sleep of an uncluttered mind and a clear conscience. Would that I could do the same.

My rest will be short-lived, however, since I will assist the pastor at the 6:00 p.m. Vigil Mass for the Solemnity of All Saints. It's also Halloween so we'll have to be especially careful driving out there in the real world, beyond the borders of The Villages. Many families with young children live near our church and the costumed youngsters will be out in force trick or treating in the dark. Halloween celebrators tends to avoid The Villages. In fact, in the 15 years we've lived here no one has ever come to our door on Halloween. Of course, we always buy some candy...just in case.

Just a guess, but I expect perhaps nine of ten people who take part in Halloween festivities don't know that it's name is a compression of All Hallows Eve, or the Eve of All Saint's Day, November 1. 
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[Friday Morning]

Well, my afternoon was interrupted yesterday by a series of phone calls that demanded attention and kept me from returning to this post. By the time Diane and I returned home from the Vigil Mass, I had to take Maddie for her evening stroll through the neighborhood. Dodging old folks in their golf carts ain't easy. But having survived our walk, Maddie and I were tired and it was getting late, so I eased my brain into standby mode and just watched what Diane and I call the LOS, or least objectionable show, on TV. For me this was the Thursday Night NFL game between the Forty-Niners and the Cardinals. I lasted until the end of the first half and then went to bed. 

And so, back to All Saints...a wonderful solemnity that has unfortunately been eclipsed in our society by a gross distortion of its Vigil called Halloween. I don't have a problem with children having some Halloween fun by dressing up in scary costumes and filling their bags with begged candy and other goodies. But are they aware that this strange activity evolved from the tradition of praying for and honoring the faithful departed? In some Christian cultures that involved visiting cemeteries and decorating the graves of relatives. I suppose the idea of dressing up as ghosts and witches and goblins was simply a manifestation of related superstitions that emerged over time. I'm no Halloween historian, so this is just a guess.

But all Saints Day, as we tend to call it, is so much more than the day after Halloween. It's a day to reflect on all saints, those few that the Church recognizes and the millions of others who now enjoy God's Presence. It's a day to thank God for the saints we have known, the saints who have touched our lives with their holiness, the saints who have helped us along our own journey to salvation. The Church by canonizing a saint does nothing for the saint, who is already with God. No, the Church canonizes saints for us, for she hopes to inspire us to strive for the holiness that is our true destiny. This is why we chant the beautiful and moving Litany of the Saints during the Church's most solemn liturgical celebrations. The Litany of the Saints is the roster of the Church's hall of fame, its family album, the names of those who form the core of that "great cloud of witnesses" so eloquently described in the Letter to the Hebrews [Heb 12:1]. 

An aging Jesuit, who taught me the New Testament when I was an ignorant 18-year-old, had spent years in a Communist Chinese prison. Once, while speaking of St. Peter, a man plagued by doubts and fears and so often lacking in faith, this saintly priest reminded us that "all saints are sinners, but not all sinners are saints."

The difference, he went on to tell us, is that the saints recognize, understand, and repent of their sinfulness because they accept the Father's gifts of grace, mercy, and forgiveness, and because they recognize the Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ. More than anything else, they desire union with Jesus Christ, and so they struggle mightily in the lifelong process of conversion to which we are all called. The others, he said, not only don't recognize the Son, but too often fail even to recognize their sinfulness for what it is. That, he believed, is an eternal sadness.

We are all called to be saints, to be one with Jesus Christ. But even now, in this life, we are united with the Communion of Saints and with Jesus in God's family, the Mystical Body of Christ, the People of God, the Church in heaven and on earth. In this way, you and I are truly a part of All Saints. By our baptism we were sanctified, made holy, deep down in grace. We're no longer banished, disaffected children, outside the family of God. No indeed, we're in! We're in God's family as adopted children of the Father, We're in God, all of us together, because we're in Jesus Christ.