All Saints Day

This is the day that the early church chose to commemorate all of those who went on to their reward in Heaven before us. This holiday is overshadowed by Halloween, the original pagan holiday of the harvest and the Autumn equinox, and is seldom celebrated in the United States these days. Most Christian holidays (holy days), other than Christmas and Easter, are basically forgotten in modern American culture. Even my calendar entry today talks about a custom in the Isle of Lewis, Scotland in the early 18th century, where the inhabitants brewed ale, made an offering to some forgotten Sea-God named Shony and then spent the rest of the evening drinking and dancing in the fields. The fact that these celebrations all began as a gathering at the parish church of St. Mulvay (I enclose a picture of the church building on the Isle of Lewis) doesn't really remove the pagan elements from the celebration.

[By the way, isn't that a striking edifice for worship?]

How far are we from that time when all the universe seemed to revolve around the harvest, whether it came from the soil or the sea? When our sustenance comes to us on a plate or in a plastic-wrapped package from the restaurants and super-markets in our community, how important is the earth and sea and sky, which ultimately provide the contents of the cans and packages and boxes on the grocery shelves or what is ladled onto our plates in the neighborhood restaurant?

In this world, the earth is what we grade away to build upon, the sea, a basin for the garbage and pollution we create and the sky a point of distraction, whether from rain or sun. In the modern world, we support rituals, like Halloween, which originally pointed to a larger universe and the forces behind that universe, but the elements of which are now seldom recognized. Instead, we pay lip service and throw money at these rituals in an offhand manner until we can get the children out of the house and we can then huddle together on the sofa in the cooler Autumn air and watch television until we trudge off in darkness to sleep fitfully in our beds, surrounded by the things we have bought. Little thinking or recognizing the source of those things. No contemplation of the ultimate source at all.

The days are shortening now and the light is fading. Pray for the saints that went before. Think on the source that created and sustains the universe in which we live. The yearning which draws us to the sea and leads us into the darkness are part of a recognition of a greater being which defies place and time and circumstance. Celebrate our connection to each other and to God. To the eternal.