RBWords - Volume 26 - Number 10: October 2013
Something to Think About
Halloween is upon us but the pumpkins are sharing space
with the reindeer more and more. People
may get the idea that the jolly figure in the sleigh is just one more trick or
treat person! More serious thought could
direct us to something like the “Communion of Saints,” since “Halloween” is a
derivation from the eve of All Hallows – the feast of All Saints! This is followed by All Souls! In short, we will be celebrating the
existence of a great many people who have gone before us in faith.
Perhaps we can bring all of this under the title of the
call to holiness that the Second Vatican Council emphasized as a result of our
baptism! This call is not to something
that is measurable, as if anyone can claim to be holier than someone else. Read Luke 18:9-14 [the Pharisee and the Tax
Collector] if you start feeling like that!
Rather the call to holiness is the invitation to take our baptism
seriously. We are identified with Christ
and are commissioned to carry on his ministry.
The saints are folks who took their baptismal calling seriously. On November 7, we Dominicans have our own All
Saints Day when we commemorate our Dominican brothers and sisters whose lives
challenge us to be faithful to the way of life that St. Dominic founded nearly
800 years ago. November 3rd
is the feast of one of those Dominicans:
St. Martin De Porres – the patron of our Southern Dominican Province, to
which I belong. Another date, November
15th, is the feast of St. Albert the Great, the medieval
scientist/philosopher, the patron of the Midwestern Dominican Province which I
first belonged to when I entered the order.
Thomas Aquinas, Rose of Lima, Catherine of Siena – and lots of others –
will be in the chorus on November 7th!
Then there is the “Who? Me?’ part of the call to
holiness. Yes, we are called to
that. That might scare us more than
Halloween, but we can rub shoulders with the best on All Saints Day and All
Souls Day. IT’S SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT
It Has Been Said
On All Saints Day, it is not just the saints of the church
that we should remember in our prayers, but all the foolish ones and wise ones,
the shy ones and overbearing ones, the broken ones and whole ones, the despots
and tosspots and crackpots of our lives who, one way or another, have been our
particular fathers and mothers and saints, and whom we loved without knowing we
loved them and by whom we were helped to whatever little we may have, or ever
hope to have, of some kind of seedy sainthood of our own.
From LISTENING TO YOUR LIFE – Daily Meditations with
Frederick Buechner