(Gustave Doré illustration from Dante’s Inferno)
Read:
‘What are human beings that you are mindful of them, mortals that you care for them?’ (Psalm 8:4)
Consider:
We are approaching All Saints’ Day. But first comes the evening before it: Halloween, or All Hallows’ Eve. Although its name is Christian, modern Halloween has become largely secular and increasingly prominent in popular culture.
It is often associated with the old belief that, on this night, the boundary between the living and the dead grew thin and spirits roamed the earth. Today, such ideas are more often the stuff of costumes, stories and entertainment.
In his poem The Dream of Gerontius, which Sir Edward Elgar later set to music, John Henry Newman includes a chorus of demons. These dispossessed spirits ask, “What’s a saint?” and answer their own question with scorn.
Elsewhere in the poem, the angel presents a very different vision: saints are “children of grace”, and the redeemed are drawn towards the holy presence of God. This is the opposite of the demons’ restless bitterness.
So, what is a saint?
Scripture declares that every human being is made in the image and likeness of God. This is stated in Genesis 1:26–27, reaffirmed in Genesis 5:1 and 9:6, and echoed in James 3:9. A saint is not uniquely the image of God, for that dignity belongs to every person. A saint is someone in whom God’s image is being renewed and God’s grace is becoming visible.
Sainthood is therefore not reserved for an exceptional few. In the New Testament, “saints” can mean all God’s people. God’s grace is freely offered to all, and through Jesus Christ redemption is offered to all and received by faith.
However we choose to respond to Halloween, let us keep sight of this: God’s redeeming love reaches out to all. We need not be ruled by fear of restless or tormented spirits, for our hope rests in Christ.
We are human beings, made in the image of God, and God cares for us—now and beyond death.
Pray:
Redeeming God, this Halloween, amid all the light-hearted entertainment, help me to remember that fear, restlessness and bitterness do not have the final word. Thank you that, through Jesus Christ, your redeeming love is real and reaches into the world in which I live. Help me to trust in that love and to reflect it in my daily life. For this hope I give you thanks, today and always. Amen.