Dear Parishioners:
Many thousands of thanks for all who worked so hard on OKTOBERFEST. The Lord blessed us with a beautiful day and so many new people spent the day with us. We should have a preliminary report for you next week. So far the results look good.
Thanks to every parishioner who supported our Oktoberfest. Your support makes our CCE and school stronger programs.
Each year at this time we come upon the Halloween celebration. Should we? Ought we to eliminate it all together? Should we modify it? All sorts of questions arise from this day.
Halloween comes from an old pagan holiday, most probably originating from Celtic traditions. The celebration honored the fall harvest and the gods who made it possible. After the arrival of Christian missionaries, the celebration was "baptized". Missionaries regularly attempt to take what was/is good in a society and turn them into something we can use to teach and celebrate the Christian mysteries. (One example is the pagan tree we now call a Christmas tree.)
The missionaries tied this celebration to the feast of All Saints. Halloween is the very old word for All Hallows Eve. Hallows of course is the word for saints or holy ones. The saints chase the ghosts and goblins out of the Church. The evil was defeated by the holiness of Jesus.
We now have the situation of some who work very hard to worship the Prince of Lies, the Devil himself. This is their important holiday. It is very naive of us to think that the Devil is responsible for all the wrong in our lives. We should remember the words of Francis of Assisi, "And even the demons did not crucify Him, but you, together with them, have crucified Him, and crucify Him even now by delighting in vices and sins", (The Admonitions).
But even more naive, is a choice to assign the Devil into some sort of old fashioned explanation for evil. Satan is real. The teaching of the Scriptures could not be clearer. The consistent teaching of the Church has spoken of the real existence of the Satan. Satan does his very best to influence people today. There are people who gather in covens and worship the evil one.
We can see at least some of the effects of this attitude in incidents such as the murders in Pearl, Mississippi. I strongly urge all parents to throw away any such images in your homes, such as ouija boards, tarot cards, etc. They are symbols of the Devil and should not be in any Catholic home any more than you would allow your children to play with the symbols of Nazism.
I do not think we should cancel Halloween, but I do think we should be more careful about the costumes the children wear. I don't think they should wear devil's or witches outfits, or those whose image is of bloody murders (Freddy Kruger) or gory violence. Children have a great need to use their imaginations and creativity.
Halloween can be a time to teach them that Jesus has conquered death and evil. We can constantly refer to All Saints whenever we talk about Halloween. Growing up in the forties and fifties, I heard every year about the saints overcoming the demons. We can continue to teach this.
We can take on the attitude of the missionaries and use the pagan feasts to teach the truth of God's immense love for us all. The Devil never likes to be reminded that he is a loser. Let's remind him every day.
Fr. Bill
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