All Hallowed Eve

It's Sunday the 29th as I write this, but Tuesday is "All Hallowed Eve"...something that perversely became "Halloween", but is really the evening before "All Saints Day". This day is a "holy" day in the Catholic Church...The Festival of All Saints and All Souls. Halloween was a day inherited from the Celts. Originally, before it was a Christian holy day, October 31st was a Celtic celebration wherein the Celts believed their departed family and friends returned to their homes to eat and drink. Being the harvest time, food was more plentiful, and some was left out on this evening for this purpose. Later, in England this tradition began on "Mischief Day" where kids would dress like goblins, ghosts, witches, etc. to be scary, then knocking at the doors of their neighbors, they would demand treats, or they'd do some sort or michievious "trick" on them. I have many fond memories of growing up in a small town going on an expedition for candy and treats on this day. In many ways it was a harmless day for kids to have fun.
The idea behind The Festival of All Saints comes from the medieval period. Pope Sixtus IV in 1484 established November 1, the Feast of All Saints. It was declared a holyday of obligation and given both a vigil (known today as "All Hallows' Eve" or "Hallowe'en") and an eight-day period or octave to celebrate the feast. By 1955, the octave of All Saints was removed.

For Protestants, All Saints Eve took on great meaning when Martin Luther, in 1517, posted his "95 Theses" to raise awareness of the abuse of indulgences being sold.
Luther had been ordained a priest ten years before and then became a professor of theology at a recently founded University of Wittenberg. He also served as priest of the Wittenberg parish. In the course of the next 8 years he studied and taught from Romans, Galatians and the Psalms and came to believe that humans are saved through the grace of God alone, (per solam fidem), and that a person could not be justified by "merits" of the church nor through works or religious observances. The sale of indulgences was simply the "straw that broke the camels back" in a growing list of disturbing acts of the church to Luther.
It should be noted, Luther had great reverence for the church and the leadership. He - naively - believed that once these abuses were brought out into the open the authorities would disavow the practices as incorrect and return the church to more sound practices. Well, we all know what happened. Instead the church leadership reacted with strong arm attempts to silence him. He went to Augsburg where he was told he would meet a Cardinal (Cajetan) and without conversation simply recant. That didn't work. Then he was summoned to a place in SW Germany called "Worms" (best pronounced 'Verms') where he was confronted with his writings and given an ultimatum - recant - or be excommunicated. I guess the Roman officials didn't understand German stubborness. Growing up in a German family, and thus sharing in those in those old European genes, I do. It's not enough to tell a German what to do...and above all else avoid telling them their wrong unless you have a lot of proof!

OK...my long winded recounting of the beginnings of the reformation are simply an attempt to say I continue to celebrate this eventful - but not very well known - holy day. I believe that the church and saint that loves Christ best is continually seeking to be "Re-formed". Our faith, and our fellowship together in the church needs to embrace the great need of "Formation". I don't decry the role of the institution as some want to do. Christ died for the Church - the whole thing. Yet, we, who make up the church, need to keep our Formation in Christ as the best way to bring about the kind of "Re-forming" of the church that will bring about unity, not division, and effectiveness in witnessing to Christ as the ultimate reality to a world in desparate need of reality.

So...Happy "All Hallowed Eve" All You Saints!