All Saints Day
What do Halloween costumes, statues of saints, and visiting a cemetery have in common? Each can remind us of the transforming power of Jesus' resurrection. As we celebrate Halloween, All Saints Day, and All Souls Day, we reflect on how Christ frees us from fear, calls us to holiness, and gives us hope in the face of death.
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What do the following three things have in common? Little children dressed up in spooky costumes for Halloween, the statues of saints we have in our church, and visiting a cemetery?
At first glance, these three things might seem to have nothing in common. But I want to suggest that they share something very important. Each provides us with an opportunity to reflect on the power of the resurrection of Jesus and how it transforms our lives.
Today, we have the wonderful opportunity to celebrate All Saints Day together on a Sunday, something that does not happen very often. All Saints Day is part of a progression of three important days in the Christian calendar. Yesterday was Halloween, today is All Saints Day, and tomorrow is All Souls Day.
Each of these days invites us to consider a different way in which the resurrection of Christ makes a difference in our lives.
Let's begin with Halloween and those spooky costumes.
When I was a child, I loved Halloween. It was one of my favourite days of the year. What's not to love? You get dressed up, walk around the neighbourhood, see your friends, and come home with bags full of candy. It's wonderful!
Even today, I think there's something beautiful about walking through a neighbourhood on Halloween and seeing people coming together. Certainly, Halloween can become overly commercialized, but it also has Christian roots.
The very word Halloween comes from All Hallows' Eve, the evening before All Saints Day. The word hallow refers to someone who is holy, a saint. Halloween, therefore, is connected with the celebration of All Saints.
I think even some of the spooky costumes and decorations can help us reflect on something important about our faith.
Throughout history, people have been frightened by many things. We fear evil, mysterious powers, and especially death. But think about what happens when we see a little child dressed up as a skeleton or a ghost. Something that might ordinarily frighten us becomes almost comical. A little child dressed as a skeleton is not particularly terrifying. In fact, it's rather cute!
In a way, these costumes take away the power of the things that frighten us.
And this points toward something profound about the cross and resurrection of Jesus.
St. Paul reminds us that through his death and resurrection, Christ has conquered the powers of sin and death. These powers no longer have the final word over our lives. Because of Christ, we do not need to live in fear.
Yesterday, as I was walking around the neighbourhood, I even saw someone dressed up as an AI robot, the kind that might someday take over the world! Perhaps that's one of our modern fears. And, of course, there are real concerns about artificial intelligence that we need to take seriously. But seeing someone dressed up in this way also reminds us that we need to keep our fears in perspective.
For Christians, our ultimate confidence is in Christ. Through his resurrection, he has overcome sin, death, and the powers of evil.
Halloween, then, can be an opportunity not simply to collect candy, but also to remember that the resurrection of Jesus frees us from living in fear.
Today, on All Saints Day, we celebrate another way in which the resurrection transforms our lives. Through the grace of the risen Christ, we are called to become more like Jesus. We are called to become saints.
In today's Gospel, we heard the Beatitudes. These teachings of Jesus show us how we are called to live as his followers. In fact, we might say that the Beatitudes are a kind of self-portrait of Jesus himself.
Jesus was a peacemaker. He showed mercy. He cared for those who were suffering and those who were most in need. He was willing to give his life out of love for others.
The Beatitudes describe the life of Jesus, and they show us the kind of people we are called to become.
This is why the saints are so important for us.
In our church, we have statues of various saints. We know their names and something about their lives. Each followed Jesus in a particular way. Their example encourages us and shows us what it means to live the Gospel in different circumstances.
But today we celebrate not only the saints whose names we know. We celebrate all the saints, including the countless holy men and women whose names have been forgotten by history but who are now with God.
Our first reading from the Book of Revelation presents a beautiful vision of the saints gathered before God.
We hear about the 144,000 who are marked with the seal of God. This is a symbolic number, formed from twelve times twelve times one thousand. The number twelve recalls the twelve tribes of Israel and the twelve apostles, while the multiplication expresses completeness and fullness.
Then John sees a great multitude that no one can count, drawn from every nation, tribe, people, and language.
What a beautiful vision! The saints are not simply a small group of extraordinary individuals. They are an immense multitude of people who have been transformed by the grace of God.
I once heard a beautiful analogy about the saints. Saints are like windows.
Think about the beautiful stained-glass windows we have in our church. Each is different, with its own colours and design. Yet what makes them beautiful is the light that shines through them.
The saints are like this. Each saint is unique, but through their lives, the light and grace of God shine into the world.
And this is what we are all called to become.
Through the resurrection of Jesus and the gift of the Holy Spirit, we receive the grace to be transformed, to live the Beatitudes, and to become more and more like Christ.
All Saints Day, therefore, reminds us that holiness is not simply something we admire in others. It is something to which each of us is called.
Finally, tomorrow we celebrate All Souls Day.
All Souls Day reminds us of a third way in which the resurrection of Jesus changes our lives. Because Christ has risen from the dead, we have hope in the face of death, both our own death and the death of those we love.
On All Souls Day, we pray in a special way for our deceased family members and friends. We entrust them to God's mercy, confident in the promise of Christ that death is not the end and that we are called to share in his resurrection.
We have many beautiful traditions in the Church that help us remember those who have died and express our continued communion with them.
Here at St. Peter's, for example, we have our Book of Remembrance. At the entrance of the church, there are papers where people can write the names of their deceased relatives and friends. We place these names in our large Book of Remembrance, and throughout November, we pray in a special way for all those who have died.
Another important tradition is visiting cemeteries, especially on All Souls Day.
Tomorrow, we will celebrate a special Mass at noon, followed by a blessing at St. Peter's Cemetery at 1 p.m.
Even the word cemetery tells us something beautiful about our Christian hope. It comes from a Greek word meaning a sleeping place or resting place.
Think about that for a moment.
We often say that someone who has died is resting in peace. This expression reflects something fundamental about our faith. As Christians, we believe that those who have died are not forgotten or lost forever. We await the day when Christ will come again and raise the dead to new life.
A cemetery, therefore, is not simply a place of death. It is also a place of hope.
Another beautiful tradition that we have embraced more recently here at St. Peter's is the altar of the dead, which you can see in our parish hall.
This tradition is particularly popular in Latin America, especially in Mexico. Families create beautiful altars in their homes and in public places, displaying photographs and mementos of loved ones who have died.
These altars remind us of the love we continue to have for those who have gone before us. They also remind us that, through Christ's resurrection, we have the hope of seeing them again.
So, let's return to our original question.
What do little children in spooky Halloween costumes, statues of saints in our church, and visiting a cemetery have in common?
All three can remind us of the transforming power of the resurrection of Jesus.
Halloween can remind us that because Christ has conquered sin and death, we do not need to live in fear of the powers of evil.
All Saints Day reminds us that the risen Christ gives us the grace to become more like him, to live the Beatitudes, and to become saints ourselves.
And All Souls Day reminds us that because Jesus has risen from the dead, we have hope beyond death, both for ourselves and for those we love.
As we celebrate these three days together, let us remember the incredible difference that the resurrection of Jesus makes in our lives.
Because Christ is risen, we need not live in fear. Because Christ is risen, we can become saints. And because Christ is risen, death does not have the final word.
