Minister’s Column
Today is All Souls Day, also known as Samhain. Last Sunday we celebrated and honored those who have died--especially the members of our Fellowship who died over the past year, but other loved ones as well—with a ritual of both letting go and of welcoming in. I’m still reflecting about the importance of this.
I am thinking that our mainstream American culture does not welcome and honor dead ancestors and loved ones. Some of us may have a practice of visiting the grave of a loved one regularly, or some other ritual of connection with the dead, but I think that most of us do not. Therefore when I learn about the cultural practice of Dia de Los Muertos—a picnic at the gravesite featuring the dead relative’s favorite foods; an altar with photographs of the deceased—I conclude that this is a more healthy approach. In other words, while mainstream American culture minimizes and avoids any connection with death or with the dead, to welcome and acknowledge the dead seems more healthy.
In the American practice of Halloween I see a shallow version of acknowledging the dead. We see skeletons and gravestones in people’s yards. We see people dressed up as undead monsters (mummies, zombies, grim reapers)—alongside costumes from video games or this year’s most popular costume: Barbie. I’m saying that there is a mention of death in our American Halloween—but there is no invitation to engage in a healthy way with our ancestors.
Perhaps the Christian practice of All Souls Day has got it right (at least partially). Christians on this day pray for the souls of the departed, in order to help them get from purgatory to heaven. The living, in other words, help the dead get to their rightful place. The rightful place of the dead in our lives—the memories of the departed ones whom we miss and love—is as ancestors, as the wise voice that we can listen to. We need to help the dead get to that place. We have to let them go in order to connect with them in the right way: not as scary ghosts and monsters, but as members of the human family. May this day with its cultural reminders of death offer us a way toward making that connection.
PRAYER:
At this season of changing weather, of dropping leaves, of shorter days, may we welcome the truth: that the cycle of life and death flows with the cycle of the seasons. May we be in harmony with that flow.
May we welcome the dead into our lives on this day: the unknown ancestors and the dearly missed loved ones. May we make a proper place for them in our homes, on our altars, in our lives. May the wisdom and love of the dead bless us as we bless them.
Amen.
Rev. Drew Frantz
November 1, 2023