All Saints A 2008                             Mt:23:1-12; 5:1-12

 

The Church through the centuries has in her wisdom dedicated seasons and months to various mysteries and saints in order to focus our devotion

and deepen our faith.  It is a way of making sure we never lose sight of the central facts of the Faith - the Incarnation, Passion, Death, Resurrection, and Triumph of Our Lord.  I thought I would spend a little time on November, a pivotal transitional month in the calendar of the church year.

 

            From the earliest centuries, as the days grew ever shorter and darker - the leaves fall from the trees and all seems shrouded - the Church has her children focus on death and the life of the world to come. The month begins with the great feast of All Saints where we remember all those who, whether named or not, have lived and died for and in Our Lord, the blessed of Saint Matthew’s Beatitudes.  Children are often baptized on this day in the hope that they may follow lives of saintly grace -- as the beloved hymn says: "I mean to be one too!"

 

Anglicans do not formally canonize saints but in our calendar of saints we claim all those great heroes, now over 200.  (See pp 19-30 of the Prayer Book. – later). We name our churches and our children after them and ask for their prayers.  We add more at each General Convention and their lives are models for us all. Their prayers for us are invaluable.

 

           The very next day is the Commemoration of all faithful departed or All Souls Day. On this day, the faithful visited the cemeteries and shrines of their loved ones - and often cleaned them of the dying vegetation of the year and prayed for their souls.  Much like the sudden utter transformation of the church from the somber purple of Lent and empty bareness of Good Friday to the gleaming white glory of Easter.  In the great high churches on all souls day everything is shrouded, the flowers gone and the vestments and hangings are solemn black, the echoes of trimnph are gone and replaced by unaccompanied plainsong and the ancient texts of the Requiem.  It can be a life-changing moment.

 

In most small parish churches especially in Virginia we combine the two days and commemorate our departed loved ones as we also remember the saints. If All Saints occurs on a weekday, we move it to Sunday, as we do today. I suspect we lose something in the process.

 

In some strict protestant communities praying for the dead is anathema.  I have heard that in the Diocese of Virginia some clergy early in the last century refused to use prayers printed in the Prayer Book at funerals because it was a "vain and superstitious" idea that we could actually pray for and help the dead. Thankfully this extreme position has long disappeared in the life of the Episcopal Church - but we lose something by not observing All Souls Day on the next Sunday.  Most of us know the power of prayer and so we ask for the prayers of those we leave behind when we go from this world.  My experience at the bedsides of the dying is that last rites, the prayers for the dying, can be helpful to families and dying alike.

 

On the second Sunday of November the Church in the Western World has traditionally observed Remembrance Sunday.  We seem to acknowledge November 11 – Armistice now Veterans Day - with a national holiday and sales at the Malls.  On that second Sunday in November we can pray for a rededication of our National Life and remember before God the Fallen in its defense.  Before the Throne of Heaven all the Fallen of whatever conflict and whatever 'side', "shine like stars".

 

The third Sunday of November in the mother Church of England focused on the Harvest and on bringing in the Holy Souls to Heaven as God's own harvest - from which the idea of our own Thanksgiving Day may have come.

 

The last Sunday of November is the Feast of Christ the King.  In the stately rhythm of the Christian Year, everything leads to this day. On this day we hail our living Savior as the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, ­the Maker of all things, the Judge of all people. We pray that with the saints we too will go through the Golden Gates and cast down our crowns before the Throne in an eternity of wonder, love and praise.