All Saints Day
Written by Suzanne Choi
First Day in Heaven* by Amy Jones
Our culture sure does a literal bang-up job of co-opting Church holidays and twisting and morphing them into things almost unrecognizable, doesn’t it? Christmas, once known as Christ Mass, has essentially become a day of homage to materialism. My family of origin was atheist, but we unwaveringly (and unaware), celebrated Jesus’ incarnation with gusto every December 25, with no thought of Him whatsoever. We were just too focused on the decorations, food, and gifts to ponder any actual meaning. Easter has been reduced to pastel colors and to symbols more reminiscent of an ancient pagan spring equinox celebration than the unprecedented and fully effectual resurrection from the dead (!) of the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. And All Saints’ Day is no different. How many Americans even know about this wonderful holiday? And yet how many more know of its incognito predecessor the day before: Halloween?
Don’t get me wrong. I’m not necessarily a Halloween-hater. I took my sons trick-or-treating in our neighborhood when they were little, to gather a few sweet treats. From ages 2-5, they actually kept wearing the exact same Walmart costumes, such that they began to mentally conceive of October 31 as “the day when we dress up like ninjas.” (On a limited income, I first bought those costumes on the big side, and they fit the boys a little better each year.) 😉 And I fully support our church’s yearly Pumpkin Patch, as a way to serve and engage with the community as well as fundraise for our church and for missional causes important to our congregation.
That said, I also understand the viewpoint of families who choose not to celebrate Halloween at all. I remember when my kids were in middle school, and I took them into one of those pop-up Spirit Halloween shops. I really regretted going in, both on an individual level and as I witnessed, with chagrin, my kids’ excited delight. Halloween can be a time of year when people consciously tolerate (and even revere) wickedness and gore, to which I say, no, thank you!
But the even more major issue I have with Halloween, as it is celebrated in our culture today, is that it completely overshadows the beautiful holiday which it was originally meant to highlight and usher in! Just as Christmas Eve is not designed to be the main deal itself, but rather to set the stage with anticipation for the actual big event on Christmas Day, so it is with Halloween. Halloween, or All Hallows’ Eve, was originally instituted as the first of the three days of Allhallowtide, comprising All Hallows’ Eve (October 31), All Saints’ Day (November 1), and All Souls’ Day (November 2). These beautiful Holy Days were meant to serve as invitations to us to ponder the lives of faithful people from throughout time (past, present, and future), from all over the world, and from every station and in every stage of life. They are days to remember -- to reflect upon and esteem the saints.
At this point in time, our brothers and sisters of Latin American heritage often do a better job of celebrating this season than we do, with their Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) festivities and customs. Although those commemorations can sometimes take on dark overtones, like Halloween, I was just talking to a Mexican-American friend of mine yesterday, named Marisol, who said she was going to visit her family this week to celebrate and remember their deceased loved ones together. In particular, they plan to visit the burial location of her beloved mom. Marisol told me that many Mexican cemeteries essentially become party zones on Día de los Muertos, with people bringing barbecues and picnics, setting up areas near gravesites to eat and enjoy a time of honoring and recollecting the lives of those who have passed away. How appropriately they are taking to heart the intended spirit of this season!
At some periods in church history, All Saints’ Day (Nov 1) was reserved as a time to commemorate specifically those “saints whose work and witness affected the history of the larger church body,” including people whose sainthood had been officially recognized by the Church and/or who had been martyred. Then the next day, All Souls’ Day (Nov 2) was a time to remember all the departed in Christ. Many churches today, however, combine the Allhallowtide celebrations into one big day on November 1. This is one way of acknowledging the “sainthood of all believers,” as did the Apostle Paul in his letters to the churches of the New Testament era. (See, e.g., Eph 1:1, 3:18; I Cor. 1:2.)
I think All Saints’ Day is therefore my favorite of all the holidays. It is a chance to reflect on and appreciate the lives of those who have gone before us. “It is a remembrance of all the saints — the known and unknown, the canonized and the ‘blessed nobodies,’ the deceased and the living, who serve as our companions and models in the journey of faith and in the body of Christ.” One time, when my kids were in elementary school, Living Faith gave people an opportunity to purchase hymnals (for the use of the congregation) in memory of someone. With deep gratitude, I bought hymnals in loving memory of my kids’ Great-Great-Aunt Dot and my dear Grandma Hazel. I told my son David of the opportunity, and he also used his own piggy bank money to buy a memorial hymnal, in remembrance of the great abolitionist, Frederick Douglass, whom he had been learning about in school and who was indeed a man of radical personal faith in Christ.
On this All Saints’ Day, as a simple person who, by the grace of God, is seeking (albeit often haltingly) to follow Jesus in my own time, my mind goes to other women throughout history, who have lived on this earth in their times and have also tried to understand what it means to be a part of God’s family. I think of:
Hannah of the Old Testament, who cried so much during her personal prayers in the temple that the priest wrongly assumed she must be inebriated. But God saw her heart and heard her prayer. “And God began making the necessary arrangements in response to what she had asked” (I Sam. 1:19b).
Lydia, the seller of purple cloth in the book of Acts, who embraced the gospel preached by Paul and then used some of her entrepreneurial gifting to become instrumental in establishing what became a model church at Philippi.
Abigail Adams -- the esteemed wife of the second POTUS, John Adams -- whose autobiography I am currently reading. Although an avowedly imperfect person, Abigail was nonetheless profoundly formed by her faith. Her and John’s call to one another as parents, through many crises and heartaches, was “Let us have ambition enough to keep our simplicity, our frugality, and our integrity, and transmit these virtues as the fairest of inheritance to our children.” Amen!
My childhood hero, Harriet Tubman, whose faith made her fearless. Her sustaining prayer was, “I'm going to hold steady on you, and you've got to see me through.” She not only famously led scores of slaves to freedom personally, via the underground railroad, but she also helped indirectly free hundreds more, as she was the first woman to lead an armed expedition for the Union Army in the American Civil War.
The 19th century missionary to Korea whose grave I saw years ago in Seoul. Her gravestone was inscribed with the poignant words, “She did what she could.” (We unfortunately often use this phrase to mean: she tried, but really didn’t do much. Jesus used it so very differently in Mark 14:8, when he said it to honor a woman who had come to worship at his feet in ways that no one else around her was even attempting. I think that “doing what we can” might actually be the biggest possible call on our lives.)
Mother Theresa, a Catholic nun, who taught in a small convent school in rural India until her mid-30s, when God gave her a vision to serve the poorest of the poor in the metropolis of Calcutta (modern day Kolkata). Her global ministry started on the day that she saw a man lying and dying in the middle of the road and she made the decision to simply kneel down to try to meet his needs.
The dear women in our church who have died in recent years. I think particularly of Jane Fesler, Theresa Warner, Heather Oldson, Linda Ahlborn. They all impacted my life (and maybe yours) in their own unique ways.
My mentors, who are mostly still living on this earth, but whose examples and love act as models and inspiration to me. They gently remind me to never complacently “settle” but rather keep seeking the “what’s next” – whatever God still has for me and wills to do in and through me in my limited time here.
The millions of women of faith whose names have been lost to history but who are recognized and valued by God. Their passing was surely a loss to those that loved them and to the communities they served. We will get to meet them someday, by the grace of God, and maybe they will even become our friends!
And Happy All Saints’ Day to you, dear LFAC members, men and women alike! I am glad to have this day set aside to honor you as well. In particular, I would like to mention one special saint among us, whose birthday it happens to be today (and every November 1) – our pastor, Father Peter Smith. He is a blessing to us, individually and as a congregation, isn’t he? Praise God that He has favored us by guiding Peter to live out these years of his sainthood in our midst, as our rector!
A Collect for All Saints’ Day (BCP 2019, p. 633)
Almighty God, you have knit together your elect in one communion and fellowship in the mystical body of your Son Christ our Lord: Give us grace so to follow your blessed saints in all virtuous and godly living, that we may come to those ineffable joys that you have prepared for those who truly love you; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, in glory everlasting. Amen.
Questions for Reflections:
Whose memory or life do you honor today on All Saints’ Day?
Is there anyone with whom you could share for a few minutes about one of these particular saints and why they are meaningful to you?
How can you also celebrate today the present saints that surround you still?
We will all die, and we know not when. What is the legacy of “living faith” that you are seeking to leave behind for those who come after you, both known and unknown?
Sources:
https://biblehub.com
https://anglicancompass.com/all-souls-day-a-rookie-anglican-guide-to-the-commemoration-of-the-faithful-departed/
https://anglicancompass.com/all-saints-day-a-rookie-anglican-guide/
https://christchurchcranbrook.org/2020/10/29/whats-the-difference-between-all-souls-and-all-saints-day/
https://www.cnn.com/2021/11/01/world/all-saints-day-2021-trnd/index.html
http://lectionarypage.net/LesserFF/Nov/AllFaith.html
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Halloween
https://www.dioceseofnewark.org/sites/default/files/resources/LiturgicalResources-AllSaintsAllSouls.pdf
*Versions of the First Day in Heaven Painting are available on Etsy and can be customized for men, women, boys, or girls, with varying shades of skin color and hair color/style. The artist, Amy Jones, will even customize it based on photographs that you can send to her.