This weekend’s scripture reminds us why the cross is such a great symbol of Christianity. It has a vertical dimension and a horizontal dimension—making obvious what our religious mindset should be: Vertically, “you shall love the LORD, your God, with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength. Horizontally, “you shall love your neighbor as yourself.” We cannot separate our relationship to God from our relationship to one another.
Keep in mind that the term “love” in this context does not refer to a emotional, romantic attachment to God and people (although it could). Rather, “love” is the attachment one feels toward a group or person of their group via kinship, village, or factional ties of some kind. In short, Jesus is simply saying that all of our decision must be made in relationship to our commitment to God. What does GOD call me to think or do (relative to life’s activities). We do NOT place loyalty to a fad, or country, or hobby, or cultural trend, or political party before our loyalty to God.
One way we strengthen our sense of dependence upon and commitment to God is through what we call “Holy Days of Obligation.” If we were in Hawaii, the only such days are Immaculate Conception and Christmas whereas for the rest of the U.S., Catholics are “obliged” to attend mass on All Saints, Assumption, Ascension, and Solemnity of Mary.
This weekend, we are honoring All Saints, All Souls, and Halloween. Some Christian groups oppose anyone celebrating this latter holiday, but they might re-evaluate their position. Christian history is filled with missionaries building upon the religious traditions of different peoples (and not just stomping them into the ground in a culturally imperialistic way). And so it is with Halloween.
Once people of “the way” (Christianity) could gather legally, Roman temples were “converted” into Catholic churches, and German evergreens representing forest spirits became Christmas trees (representing green life in the midst of winter). Celtic and Roman festivals honored the dead at this time of year (as nature died with the onset of winter). Pomona, the Roman goddess who oversaw fruits and forests, was honored via costume wearing and “bobbing” for apples (the apple being her symbol).
Do you know anyone who “bobs’ for apples or who dresses up as a Celtic forest animal—and thinks of a Roman goddess or Druid spirit? These once “pagan” festivals have been thoroughly secularized. However, Catholic tradition preserved “Hallow” een by creating All Saints Day (“Hallow” referring to “saint” and “een” referring to “evening”). This festive Celtic day preceded what became All Saints Day celebrated since the 8th century. HOWEVER, over time a clarification was made by Church officials.
Since some virtuous people within Christian tradition were clearly perceived as attaining heaven, they were deservedly declared a “saint,” “canonized” and honored as a “saint” both on a feast day of their own during the year, and one, catch-all feast day called “All Saints.” Everyone else, who may or may not have led similarly virtuous lives, could be honored with a day of their own, viz., “All Souls” Day. This is why we celebrate all 3 special days this weekend—combining them into one.
Secular society has its own “saints” who we call American patriots, or war-heroes, or entertainers, or politicians—and recognized with statues and monuments like Mt. Rushmore or Washington Monument, or the thousands of other places where people can “worship” their memory. This is known as secular religion, and sometimes people conflate the two. Think of statues to Saddam Hussein that were torn down once he lost power, or those of Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin, and countless other “demi-gods” of one or another country whose regime took power and led their people into hell on earth.
We have sports Halls of Fame—with “saints” of basketball, football, baseball, and other athletics of every ilk. The Church is SUPPOSED to thoroughly research a person’s life and affirm that one or two miracles have taken place because of the person’s intercession. If some major wrongdoing was found within the life of some Hall of Fame candidate, their candidacy is dropped. Baseball aficionados, for example, debate if Pete Rose and Shoeless Joe Jackson will ever be admitted if charges for gambling on games is perceived as harmless.
But what does “sainthood” have to do with us ordinary folks today? Aren’t “saints” a kind of otherworldly person whose behavior was the opposite of our own (and even bizarre at times)? Maybe not. St. Theresa of Liseux, known as the “little flower,” was one of the most admired of all time within Christian history. She made this observation: “Our Lord does not come from Heaven every day to stay in a golden ciborium. He comes to find another Heaven, the Heaven of our mind and heart–is where he most loves to stay.”
We might think saintliness is for geeky folks who were out of it, socially, but I like what Gandalf, a “white magic” maker, said in the film Lord of the Rings: “Some believe it is only great power that can hold evil in check. But that is not what I have found. I have found that it is the small things– everyday deeds of ordinary folk that keep the darkness at bay. Small acts of kindness and love.” Whoever composed those lines (it was not the book’s Catholic author, Tolkien) certainly knew Catholic theology when writing the above.
May this folksy, down-to-earth poem be our attitude:
I sing a song of the saints of God Patient and brave and true, Who toiled and fought and lived and died For the Lord they loved and knew. And one was a doctor, and one was a queen And one was a shepherdess on the green. They were all of them saints of God — and I mean, God help me to be one, too. They loved their Lord so dear, so dear, And his love made them strong; And they followed the right, for Jesus’s sake, The whole of their good lives long. And one was a soldier, and one was a priest, And one was slain by a fierce wild beast: And there’s not any reason — no, not the least–Why I shouldn’t be one too. They lived not only in ages past, There are hundreds of thousands still The world is bright with the joyous saints Who want to do God’s will You can meet them in school, or in lanes, or at sea, In church, or in trains, or in shops, or at tea, For the saints of God are like you and me, And I mean to be one too.
May the life of Jesus influence our decisions on election day.