Jeremy L. Berg

Happy All Saints’ Eve!

Keri and I were traveling through the hills of Slovakia on October 31, 2018. We found lodging in a cute B&B that shared our name. After a good meal, we went out for an evening walk around the quaint village. We didn’t find kids in costumes roaming the streets. Instead, we found a church with a large cemetery lit up with all kinds of lights and candles, and decorated as for a garden party. There was no music, no festive atmosphere, just a quiet sea of flickering lights dancing and illuminating flowers on every grave. 

People came and went quietly, respectfully, and if I’m not mistaken, with a bit of resurrection defiance on their faces. It was a living picture of the truth that “the light (of resurrection) shines in the darkness and the darkness (of death) cannot overcome it” (John 1:5). I wonder how soul-soothing it was for family members who came after work to decorate the graves of their loved ones? Did they feel the presence of the Light of the World as they lit candles? I’m sure they shared stories and shed some tears in hopeful anticipation for the reunion to come. 

All Saints’ Eve is celebrated on October 31st, the night before All Saints’ Day, and is a time to honor all saints, known and unknown, in the Christian faith. God bless our friends at St. Martins and other churches still trying to honor the original meaning of All Hallows’ Eve that has become what we know as Halloween. I’m not in the least a scrooge protesting Halloween. I enthusiastically support kids in costumes and all the neighborhood interactions this night encourages. In the past, I have had strong words for Christians who give the Devil far too much credit and boycott Halloween as inherently demonic. 

That said, we have strayed far from the original meaning of All Hallows Eve, and I was happy to see our friends at St. Martin’s is having an All Saints’ Eve service this evening at 6:30pm. In a culture that tends to deny or ignore the ever present reality of death, we need moments set aside for facing our mortality, celebrating the Great Cloud of Witnesses, declaring the victory of Jesus over the grave, and anticipating the resurrection, the union of the church below with the church above. 

All Saints’ Eve serves as a reminder of the spiritual connection between the living and the dead. They are not “gone.” They are not even “dead” in the fullest sense. “To be absent from the body, is to be present with the Lord” (2 Cor. 5:8). They are either alive in Heaven, or asleep in God’s arms awaiting the Resurrection. And we on earth are bound together in Christ with those above. We have a mystical fellowship in the Spirit, in our common baptism, and around the eucharistic table. This is the dynamic reality of “the communion of saints” we confess in the Creed — a communion that transcends the mortal divide.

For this reason, our church has often set aside a Sunday around November 1 to remember our loved ones in glory. We typically have a table set up full of unlit candles and during Holy Communion invite worshipers to light a candle in memory of those who we miss. We remember that in some beautiful yet inexplicable sense, we fellowship with them around that eucharistic table in anticipation for the meal we will share together at the Wedding Feast of the Lamb to come. 

So, put on your costume. Carve a pumpkin. Indulge in one too many candy bars. Gather with neighbors around bonfires. But also consider visiting a cemetery or lighting a candle at home in remembrance of the saints and sinners above whom we love and miss and long to be united with when faith finally becomes sight. Amen. 

If you’re in the neighborhood, feel free to attend St. Martin’s service tonight at 6:30pm.