Nov. 1 and Nov 2 mark the feasts of what I call the forgotten ones. Kids are too hungover from red # 7, whey and milk chocolate. Adults just don't care. But why should we care? Halloween's over, isn't it? Now it's time for Thanksgiving, oops, I mean "Turkey Day." The PC police might cite me for saying Thanksgiving because I'd be implying that there's someone to thank. Like, for instance, God.
Anyway, Nov. 1, of course is All Saints day. The business world "networks" and so does the Church. Only difference is the Church networks with dead people. (no, it's not the psychic friends network or the high school seance club). It's the extended network of heavenly helpers--people who died in Christ and so live forever with him. I like to think some of them are my personal friends. And who wouldn't want to have friends in high places?
As for Nov 2 (All souls day) we again affirm life after death. Only, the Church focuses instead on prayers for them, rather than from them. What's the difference? Well, the saints are sanctified, the souls are not (as best we can tell). Therefore, to forget them is to forefeit the power of grace that we can allow to work through our membership in the Body of Christ.
Now, Halloween and Hollywood would like you to forget these two important days. Ever notice what kids wear on Oct 31st? How many saints and real heros do you see at your door? (By the way...basketball players, power rangers and princesses don't count.). How often have movies depicted holiness as something we should strive for? Sometimes, it happens, but too often, heroes go for guts, glory, shooting guns, vengeance or something more glamorous.
When I see those movies, I just ask myself the question: what's easier, shooting your worse enemy or putting the gun down and walking away? Hollywood thinks the power and glory is in the former. The saints (and the baby Jesus) seem to insist on the latter. What say you?
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