Devotional for Halloween

Reflection for the Eve of All Saints:

“All the angels stood around the throne
and around the elders and the four living creatures”  (Revelation 7 NAB)

Were you to gather all the ghouls, angels, princesses, witches, wizards, saints, and demons that will wander the streets tonight in one place, you would not find a much spookier gathering than what is described in the book of Revelation. We read of saints, angels, and these four creatures all bowing down to worship God and “the Lamb”, by which we can understand Christ, our Lord and God. And those creatures would make a pretty terrifying costume. Here is how the Bible describes them:

                “There were four living creatures covered with eyes in front and in back. The first creature resembled a lion, the second was like a calf, the third had a face like that of a human being, and the fourth looked like an eagle in flight. The four living creatures, each of them with six wings, were covered with eyes inside and out. Day and night they do not stop exclaiming:
Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and who is, and who is to come.” Revelation 4.6-8

                There is a terrifying harmony that exists in heaven, as described by the prophet, between the ceaseless, vigilant praise of these creatures (who represent, perhaps, the four corners of the earth or the four gospels) the praise of the elders who fall on their faces and cast their crowns down before the Lord, and the praise of all the various angels to God. It’s a constant repetition of praise and elation before God, something that seems completely alien to our lives here on earth. It’s a timeless vision that touches us on a primordial level: we fear the permanence of God’s glory. We hear about it, and the normalcy and change that haunts our lives is shaken.

                If there’s something that I find particularly redeeming in Halloween, it’s precisely the “dreadful” aspects that are like this. Ghosts, vampires, haunted houses, witches, wizards: They all point to dark sources of power that stretch beyond our ordinary human life. They look to an immortal world of permanence, a world where symbols and signs have power and significance beyond themselves. It’s not too different from the terrifying scenes of the book of Revelation: here such symbols and signs come to life and proclaim that they are the fundamental reality of our existence. They point to a reality that reaches beyond this life and into eternity.

                Saints, in particular, are people who live for this kind of reality. They don’t content themselves with the ordinary life. This mortal life seems not to touch them. It’s like the song of the terrifying creatures of Revelation course through their veins. They are surrounded by miracles. In our Church, we believe that they are so permeated with heaven that even their mortal remains, their bones and dead flesh, are consecrated and given the power to heal and grant great favors. Even the ground they touch becomes holy with an otherworldly essence, and believers feel it when they venerate their graves.

                Let us take tonight to honor this power. Let’s take tonight to think of the spiritual realities that reach beyond what we normally experience. And let’s stand in awe of the saints who have allowed themselves to be so enraptured by the terrifying, awesome vision of God that they have been permitted to join the company of those four living creatures who worship Jesus Christ, the Lord of death and life.