All Souls' Day isn't exactly the feast day of the Church Year that most protestants celebrate. In fact, at its heart, the day seems to smack of all the things the Protestant Reformation detested liturgically: Needlessly multiplying ecclesial calendrical celebrations outside what's in the Bible. If it's not out-right ancestor worship.
So, for starters, a little context.
The Feast of All Saints' on November 1st and of All Souls' on November 2nd are some of the most theologically pregnant days of the Church Year, just below Easter in my estimation. On this feast, the deaths we have grieved in the prior year are officially promoted, so to speak, into the list of names that make up our own personal litany of the saints. It is a good and joyful thing, always and everywhere, to remember Christ's resurrection and tell the good stories of the race faithfully run and resting from labors in God, hidden, in Christ, until he comes again in final victory, and we feast together in the Kingdom.
So while it looks like ancestor worship, it's not. It's a celebration of the Communio Sanctorum, the communion of the saints. It gives us the strongest community there is -- and moral living finds that necessary in our complex world. We need this day and its stories.
As St Augustine said, "Extra ecclesiam non sallus est" -- "Outside the Church there is no salvation". Or, as I translate it, "We can't do this alone". We need one another. And not even death stops that support, because death isn't the end of life. The communion of saints walk with us in this Kingdom.
But there's a dark side here, too.
Too often, Augustine is taken to mean, "Go to church or go to hell". "Believe and be saved" becomes "doubt and be damned". Ask the wrong questions and get in trouble.
All Souls' keeps us from making those simple leaps of bad logic.
Because today, no matter who they are or their location in the Church, we remember all those souls held by God in Christ. Run afoul of parish politics? We got you. Left because you were made to fell less loved by God? Fear not, the Gospel is your deliverance.
Because the Mystical Body of the Resurrected One bears scars, wounds, bruises, but still remains whole. That's what today is about. It's a day to remember all souls.
The feast of the faithful departed is a very good day to remember that the churches don't have franchise rights for marketing God's presence in this world. God comes to everyone like the light of the morning, a light we cannot comprehend, and a light we do not control. As November gives way to Advent, keep track of how often the coming of the Messiah is associated with the coming of light into our darkness.
Let us continue to hope and to watch for that light. And let us always remember that the communion of saints includes not only the famous saints and the not-so-famous saints, but also many of the "faithful departed" -- the many good and holy people who have walked away from this fallible human community we call "the church". And let us remember that the Lord does not keep track of what is done amiss, and the morning always comes.
So, for starters, a little context.
The Feast of All Saints' on November 1st and of All Souls' on November 2nd are some of the most theologically pregnant days of the Church Year, just below Easter in my estimation. On this feast, the deaths we have grieved in the prior year are officially promoted, so to speak, into the list of names that make up our own personal litany of the saints. It is a good and joyful thing, always and everywhere, to remember Christ's resurrection and tell the good stories of the race faithfully run and resting from labors in God, hidden, in Christ, until he comes again in final victory, and we feast together in the Kingdom.
So while it looks like ancestor worship, it's not. It's a celebration of the Communio Sanctorum, the communion of the saints. It gives us the strongest community there is -- and moral living finds that necessary in our complex world. We need this day and its stories.
As St Augustine said, "Extra ecclesiam non sallus est" -- "Outside the Church there is no salvation". Or, as I translate it, "We can't do this alone". We need one another. And not even death stops that support, because death isn't the end of life. The communion of saints walk with us in this Kingdom.
But there's a dark side here, too.
Too often, Augustine is taken to mean, "Go to church or go to hell". "Believe and be saved" becomes "doubt and be damned". Ask the wrong questions and get in trouble.
All Souls' keeps us from making those simple leaps of bad logic.
Because today, no matter who they are or their location in the Church, we remember all those souls held by God in Christ. Run afoul of parish politics? We got you. Left because you were made to fell less loved by God? Fear not, the Gospel is your deliverance.
Because the Mystical Body of the Resurrected One bears scars, wounds, bruises, but still remains whole. That's what today is about. It's a day to remember all souls.
The feast of the faithful departed is a very good day to remember that the churches don't have franchise rights for marketing God's presence in this world. God comes to everyone like the light of the morning, a light we cannot comprehend, and a light we do not control. As November gives way to Advent, keep track of how often the coming of the Messiah is associated with the coming of light into our darkness.
Let us continue to hope and to watch for that light. And let us always remember that the communion of saints includes not only the famous saints and the not-so-famous saints, but also many of the "faithful departed" -- the many good and holy people who have walked away from this fallible human community we call "the church". And let us remember that the Lord does not keep track of what is done amiss, and the morning always comes.