Saints and Souls

 Today we celebrate All Saints and All Souls despite them occurring on two different days. In combining them we perhaps come to the realisation that both of them are integrally linked in that our Saints are or where the lived life of someone's past "soul", so to speak. So why do we make an effort to separate them out in our calendar of events within the church. For those of a greater Catholic persuasion All Souls is a day for not only remembering those that have died but is also part of the theology around the concept of purgatory. Thus for many this is a day when the souls of those who have died are prayed for so that they may move through the fires of purgatory to life in Christ. In thinking about it in this manner we are, I feel, denigrating our life in Christ and suggesting that we are not accepted into the presence of Christ. This is perhaps a difficult concept to believe or even attempt to celebrate.

Both days are part of Allhallowtide, which includes All Hallows Eve, now commercially celebrated as Halloween. We can perhaps be better of conceptualising this time as part of our yearly cycle that celebrates life and death, rather than any one specific aspect. By beginning on the eve of All Saints we begin the process of making holy, hallowing, ourselves for the days to come. This understanding has been overtaken by a misconception of the Samhain festival and the turning of the seasons. The beginning of winter was a time when the barrier between the dead and living was believed to be thinned thus allowing for a crossover. It was a time of great reverence and fear so preparations where made to hallow the days ahead. Death is part of life and we celebrate those that are deemed to be celebrated in the Christian life on All Saints day. The traditional Catholic understanding is that these were those that went straight to God's presence. For us today we celebrate these as the many that stand before the throne of God singing praises. Many of them known and of particular regard for us, here in Cairns, is St Margaret of Scotland. For others it is saints who have been recognised by the church universal in one way or another. 

A celebration of life and death

Whilst we remember the famous in All Saints we must not forget that we all will come face to face with our God. In knowing our closeness to God's presence through Christ's presence in our hearts we need to set time aside to focus our prayers and hallowing of those who have died in God's presence even if they are not well known. The saints of our lives and who are known to us in the commonality of life. In remembering them we need also to remember those whom we have excluded in some form or another. In doing this we are actually bringing to the fore all those who are part and parcel of the body of Christ. We cannot just lay claim to those who have died who are family and friends but also those who have died who are part of the body of Christ. In hallowing them we are hallowing the whole body. We are preparing ourselves for the Christic presence in our lives as we acknowledged the presence of Christ in those who have died.

The twenty third psalm tells us of the presence of God in our lives leading us onward even in the face of our mortality and death. It is in the acceptance of this presence that we find the comfort of the Spirit in our hearts and minds during the greatest trials of our lives. In remembering those who have died before us we remember that we are in the constant presence of God leading us in the world should we allow that presence into our hearts even in the presence of our own mortality and death. Let us than Hallow the season and make ourselves holy to God by giving thanks for the Saints and those souls who have died before us as they show us the way forward and that we are not forgotten in God's eyes.