Halloween’s a big deal for lots of people, children and adults alike. Trick-or-treating, costume parties, scary movies, haunted houses, it’s all part of the fun of that one night we can pretend to be someone else, maybe even someone not of this world.
I don’t think there’s anything evil about it, no matter how hard some people try to go there. Sure, some of its history is Celtic pagan traditions and the notion that this is a time when the veil between this world and the next is thin, but that’s all tied to our connection to the earth, seasons changing, fertility and life and death. We’re part of the earth and divine, after all.
It should be no surprise that christians decided to put All Saints Day on November 1st. That’s why the day before is called Halloween. It’s All Hallows (or All Saints) eve. The time of year when people are already remembering their ancestors is an especially good time to remember the ones that were saints. While the official saints of history get their own individual days, having a day to remember “the whole company of saints” is a good idea.
There’s more than one day, though. In some traditions, it’s Allhallowtide: All Hallow’s Eve, All Saints Day and then All Souls Day. The special day for saints is followed by a day to remember the ordinary folks who’ve died.
Hmm. So there’s saints and there’s the rest of us.
While I think we’ve always had the best of intentions when it comes to saints, I wonder if we haven’t made them something so special and unique that they’re unreachable, untouchable and certainly something unattainable. We want them to inspire us and be an example for us, but it seems, instead, that we’ve put them up on a pedestal, cast them in stone or stained glass, named churches after them and put them out of reach. We make them something we’re not and will never be. Just like Jesus, they’re out of our league.
But they’re not. They’re you and me. I think they’re just flawed and broken human beings who discovered they were perfect just as they are and, in discovering that, found their connection to both the divine spirit and the earth that’s in them. They found good. They found grace, kindness, compassion and love and - and here’s the important part - lived it. That’s what makes them an example to inspire, not an idol to worship. Just like Jesus.
We’re all created “good.” We’re all born with the divine spirit of life and from the earth. The same potential for sainthood is in all of us. When we find someone who is a good example of those saintly qualities being lived out - the qualities Jesus showed us - we need to see them from the perspective of how we can bring those qualities to our own life. We’re not trying to be something we’re not - them - we’re trying to be more of the good that’s in us, more of the connection to the divine and the earth that’s in all of us.
That’s what saints do. They make a connection that inspires good. And they don’t have to be on a pedestal or a throne, a mountain top or a seat of power. They could be someone you’ve just met or known forever, someone you pass on the street, someone you think you should avoid or someone you might not even notice. They could be you.
