Halloween: a Christian Tradition

Has it occurred to you, why is that some people prefer a scary costume and people chanting scary groans during the time of Halloween? Why do people spend significant amount of money on this day? Where did it all begin? 

Halloween dates back to ancient Celtic period who lived 2000 years ago in the surrounding area of Ireland, the United Kingdom, and northern France. The Celtic festival was called Samhain and was celebrated to mark the new year on November 1. This marked the end of bright summer and harvest season and beginning of the dark, cold winter, a time associated with death. Celts believed that the boundary between the worlds of the living and the dead became blurred just before their new year. On the October 31, the Celts celebrated Samhain, when it was believed that the ghost of the dead returned to earth. 

To commemorate the event, the Celts built huge bonfires and burn the crops and sacrificed animals. People dressed typically as animals and attempted to tell the fortune of each other who are awaiting them long winter. Therefore, we can trace back the origins of Halloween to the Celts. 

On May 13, 609 A.D., Pope Boniface IV dedicated the Pantheon in Rome in honor of all Christian martyrs, and the Catholic feast of All Martyrs Day was established in the Western church. Pope Gregory III (731–741) later expanded the festival to include all saints as well as all martyrs, and moved the observance from May 13 to November 1. By the 9th century the influence of Christianity had spread into Celtic lands, where it gradually blended with and supplanted the older Celtic rites. In 1000 A.D., the church would make November 2 All Souls’ Day, a day to honor the dead. It is widely believed today that the church was attempting to replace the Celtic festival of the dead with a related, but church-sanctioned holiday. All Souls Day was celebrated similarly to Samhain, with big bonfires, parades, and dressing up in costumes as saints, angels and devils. The All Saints Day celebration was also called All-hallows or All-hallowmas (from Middle English Alholowmesse meaning All Saints’ Day) and the night before it, the traditional night of Samhain in the Celtic religion, began to be called All-hallows Eve and, eventually, Halloween.

In the second half of the nineteenth century, the Irish immigrants make this festival popular in America. Taking from Irish and English traditions, Americans began to dress up in costumes and go house to house asking for food or money, a practice that eventually became today’s “trick-or-treat” tradition. 

The American Halloween tradition of “trick-or-treating” probably dates back to the early All Souls’ Day parades in England. During the festivities, poor citizens would beg for food and families would give them pastries called “soul cakes” in return for their promise to pray for the family’s dead relatives. The distribution of soul cakes was encouraged by the church as a way to replace the ancient practice of leaving food and wine for roaming spirits. 

Halloween dressing in costume has European and Celtic origins. People were anxious and frightened of the long dark nights and cold winter. People dressed as ghosts in order to disguise from the ghosts visiting the earth.  On Halloween, to keep ghosts away from their houses, people would place bowls of food outside their homes to appease the ghosts and prevent them from attempting to enter.

Halloween needs to understood properly in order not to slide into superstition or public disorder. Its origins show us that this festival is celebrated for a reason and reason being cold and long winter nights. It has its significance to Christianity where in the people dressed as saints on all Saints Day to remember the holiness of the persons. Let us not be paranoid or overwhelm at Halloween festivities. Let us make this celebration to benefit someone as the Europeans did by giving "soul cake" to the poor. 

In sickness and in health… Together we become saints

There are a few people who make impressions in our lives and a few who  make a long lasting impressions, one such model couple who

made a deep impression in my life are the parents of St. Therese of Lisieux. Their commitment, love, complementarity, harmony, pragmatic faith and endurance in suffering are the key virtues that we can draw our inspiration. Saints Louis and Zelie Martin are the first married couple to ever be canonized together.

The couple had nine children, four of whom died in infancy. The remaining five, all girls, became nuns. The youngest, Therese, died of tuberculosis aged 24 in 1897 and was canonized in 1925.

Pope Francis praised the couples’ humble attitude towards others, which is evident in the way that they practiced service within the family, “creating day by day an environment of faith and love which nurtured the vocations of their daughters, among whom was Saint Therese of the Child Jesus.”

I had the privilege of interviewing a few couples for Catholic Television in view of Synod on family which is currently underway in the Vatican. Every couple expressed that marriage has to be based on love; a covenantal love that couples profess in the Sacrament of Marriage.

It is marvellous timing that Louis and Zelie are canonized during the Synod on the Family. It is also the reminder of the Second Vatican Council’s ‘universal call to holiness’, that is, the fact that married men and women, including singly men and women are just as holy as bishops, priests, sisters and brothers.

Louis and Zelie Martin had circuitous journey to marriage and family life. Louis wanted to be a priest and Zelie a woman religious. A number of circumstances prevented both of them from those paths, and this was a great disappointment to both of them. But in time, they found one another and married.

Louis and Zelie and their children were a family of prayer. They prayed every night before the statue of the Virgin of the Smile. Prayer was the key to their family life, which helped St. Therese to be the spiritual guru and a spiritual giant. Their four children out of nine died in infancy, the remaining five, all girls, became nuns. Zelie says of the deaths of her children, ‘when I closed the eyes of my dear children and prepared them for burial, I was indeed grief-stricken, but, thanks to God’s grace, I have always been resigned to His will. I do not regret the pains and sacrifices I underwent for them.”

This couple had a magnificent trust in God even in the situation of uncertainty and grief. Zelie writes about her faith in God, “When I think of what this good God, in whom I have put all my trust, and into whose hands I have resigned the care of my affairs, has done for me and for my husband, I cannot doubt that his Divine Providence watches over his children with a special care.” In their love for each other, in raising a large family with all its attendant worries and responsibilities, and in their love of God, shown when they were tried as models for any married man or woman living today. They are inspiration to many of our couples who grow through hardships of life; the tragedy of a young mother dying of cancer and leaving a large family, and the heartbreak of a dearly loved member of the family being in a mental institution, and the problem of caring for a sick and elderly relative.

I would like to conclude with the words of St. Therese about her parents, “God gave me a mother and father more worthy of heaven than of earth.”

Parents as the first Catechists

My address at the parents/catechists meeting at the parish. 

Dear Parents 

Good evening and you are all most welcome any time in this parish. I would like to take this opportunity to thank each one of your for your commitment to raise your children in the catholic faith. You have made every effort to bring your children in training them in the faith that you have received and most importantly you have manifested your faith to your children through your deeds and worthy living as Christians. Don't ever let go of the precious treasure of faith and always make sure your children also grow in the same faith. 

God has been ever showering his graces on you as parents. I know how hard it is to make time for prayer, mass, adoration and other spiritual activities in the family or at the church because of your commitment and a world of competition. It requires a great integrity of heart and mind in the fast moving world. 

Parents, you've promised to the Christ and his church to raise your children in the catholic faith at baptism. You've accepted the responsibility to train your children in the practice of the faith. You have promised to keep the light of faith burning brightly. It is important we renew and review those promises especially when we enroll our children in the catechetics. We all need to grow in our faith.  When the disciples could not heal the oh with demon, Jesus tell them, "because you've so little faith, if you had like that of the mustard seeds you can to this mountain move here and it will move." Dear parents Jesus points out to his disciples that they need to grow in their faith. And when we grow in our faith we can help others grow. Parents, you've grown in your faith, I think so, now your duty is to help your children to grow in their faith. Children learn from their parents.

Catechism of the Catholic Church in paragraph 2225 says, "Through the grace of the sacrament of marriage, parents receive the responsibility and privilege of evangelizing their children. Parents should initiate their children at an early age into the mysteries of the faith of which they are the "first heralds" for their children. They should associate them from their tenderest years with the life of the Church.34 A wholesome family life can foster interior dispositions that are a genuine preparation for a living faith and remain a support for it throughout one's life."

So you are the first catechists for your children and your family is the domestic church. Hence, parents see that your children learn the faith from you both in theory and practice, may be more in practice. 

Parents one such concrete practice is to pray. Prayer can bind families, a family that prays together stays together. Prayer is the window towards God and his mysteries. It is through prayer God manifests and reveals to us. Let us teach our children to pray. The catechism of the Catholic Church expresses in paragraph 2226. Family catechesis precedes, accompanies, and enriches other forms of instruction in the faith. Parents have the mission of teaching their children to pray and to discover their vocation as children of God.35 The parish is the Eucharistic community and the heart of the liturgical life of Christian families; it is a privileged place for the catechesis of children and parents.

Parents, the Eucharist has a utmost role to play in the life of a child. Today we do not see many young persons at the liturgy of the Eucharist. Why is that? Is the church only for adults? Many times parents tell me, "father please tell my children to come to church". Do you think they will listen to me if they do not listen to you. Do we as church and parents talk to them about the significance of the mass and prayer? Let us talk to them whilst they are small and when they grow up they will be strong in their understanding of the Eucharist and prayer. 

I would like to extend any form of support for the children and young people and any time. May gods blessings be always with you. 

Eucharistic community

It was an early church community experience to celebrate mass at the Sophia housing scheme. A plan to celebrate mass was fulfilled on Sunday last when Fr. Jerri with the help of Mr. Alfred Bhulai ventured in to this huge housing scheme. The mass celebrated in a small house sit-out; truly an experience of community among the most needy people of the area. There were about ten people, mostly home bound and elderly. They expressed the need to celebrate mass in their own community. They were grateful for the privilege of celebrating mass after a long. One of them expressed, 'God is truly present among us and he is coming to our homes in the form of communion.' 

The Sophia housing area was missions to Fr. Jerri in order to develop and  encourage catholic community. Hence, he with the help of St. Teresas parishioners is exploring different possibilities of establishing a catholic community. The Catholics expressed that there is need for that because some of them go to far away parishes or go denominations closer to their homes. 

There will be mass every third Sunday in the mint at 11 am in the scheme. It will be celebrated in homes of different people. People interested are asked to contact St. Teresas parish for more details. We ask your prayers for these people in the scheme. 

A Catholic Pastor Preacher

Introduction: The evangelisation is the key to every Christian. This evangelisation entails primarily proclamation of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. This must be our priority as the Church. There needs to be an explicit proclamation of Jesus Christ. The evangelisation is the task of the Church and since we make the Church we are called to be evangelisers in the world.

1.     Everyone proclaims the Gospel: The task to evangelize falls on everyone not merely the hierarchy. This task must begin in our Church. “Everyone must feel welcome and loved in the Church.” (114). Our Church is diverse; diverse in cultures, yet the Church must be a place of unity and love. “However defective we are, we have to go on being missionary” (121). Parents and children, both hold same good for evangelisation. Therefore, everyone is called to be evangelizers.

Question: What is my role in spreading the Gospel?

2.     Popular piety: Inculturated Gospel can help us to strengthen ourselves in God. Popular piety is one of the evangelizing power and “must not underestimate. We need to promote and strengthen it. Expressions of popular piety have much to teach us especially in the new evangelisation.

Question: Do I encourage popular devotions in my family or in my church community? 

3.     Homily, a heart to heart conversation: The Church is a communion of people. The Church has a relationship with every member of the community. Church is like a mother and faithful are like children, thence, the Church must speak the mother tongue to its children so that they understand. “The homily is the touchstone for judging a pastor’s closeness and ability to communicate to his people. The homily must be an intense and happy experience of the Spirit, a consoling encounter with God’s Word, a constant source of renewed growth” (135).

Question: Do you think your homilist talks to you heart?

4.     Keep silence and allow God to Speak: The preacher’s primary task is to synthesis that joins hearts together and not ideas or detached values. It is part of the liturgical celebration between God and His people. Therefore, a homily must be part of that dialogue not a lecture (138). “The preacher should radiate the qualities of closeness, warmth, simplicity and joy” (140). A homily is not speech or an extempore rather it is a heart to heart conversation (141). It is God who speaks through the homilist.

Question: Do your preacher has a heart to heart conversation with you?

5.     Homily must be prepared: “A preacher who does not prepare is not ‘spiritual’; he is dishonest and irresponsible with the gifts he has received” (145). The gifts that a priest received at the Sacrament of the Holy Orders to live and spread the Gospel. A preacher needs to spend time in to understand the words and convey it to the faithful. “Preparation must take time, interest, and undivided attention” (146). A preacher must follow in his life what he is preaching. “The clarity of the message must first resonate to the heart of the preacher, before this can happen to the people” (149).

Question: Do you think your preacher has spent enough time in reflecting, praying, and preparing his homily?

6.     Preach what people what to hear: It would not make any sense if a preacher preaches what people don’t want to hear. Hence, it becomes a monologue, a non heart to heart conversation. “Whoever preaches should first discover what message the people need to hear” (154). “A preacher should never respond to questions that nobody asks” (155).

Question: Do you hear from the preacher what you don’t want to hear?

7.     Speak people’s language: A preacher needs to use different techniques and images to convey the message effectively (158). “A preacher should avoid seminary language or professionalisms: they should use people’s language” (158). A preacher must understand the feeling and emotions among the faithful in order to preach effectively; a language of feelings and emotions of the people. “A preacher must always be positive, even when pointing out negative things” (159). Therefore, pulpit is not a place to point out to people their mistakes by excluding the preacher. A negative preacher will make his listeners negative people.

Question: Do you think your preacher understands your language: language of your feelings?

Conclusion: A homily must well up from the preacher’s heart and not from his head. A preacher must speak the language of the people and to heart to heart. Through the preacher God speaks to His people, hence, renewing the relationship with God. In order to be a good preacher, one has to listen before he preaches; listen to the word of God in silence and listen to the people of God. This way a preacher can speak to the heart of the faithful.

Our Nature and Creatures Our own Family: Pope Francis

This planet earth is our home away from our home. This home of ours is to be kept clean and liveable not only for ourselves but for the generations to come. The twelfth century St. Francis of Assisi acclaimed the planet and its entities as brother and sister. “Praised be you, my Lord, with all your creatures especially Brother Sun, who is beautiful and radiant splendour, Sister Moon and the stars, who are formed clear and precious and beautiful, Brother Wind, through air, cloudy and serene and every kind of weather, we get our sustenance for our living, Sister Water, which is useful and humble and precious and chaste, Brother Fire, from whom we get light and who is playful and robust and strong.”

Has it ever crossed your mind this wonderful way of expressing our love for the nature? If we did not, I think we can think about it now and treat our natural brothers and sisters as we treat our own biological siblings. Pope Francis in his encyclical (letter) “Laudato Si” (Praised to be to you) categorically warns the world addressing our nature and its creatures including human beings as sister. “This sister of ours cries out to us because we have inflicted harm on her by our irresponsible use and abuse of the goods with which God has endowed her. We have come to see ourselves as her lords and masters, entitled to plunder her at will.” Pope Francis.

Can we hear the groan of our sister nature which has been desecrated to the extent that we will be unable to live in our home nature because of the drastic climate change in the last few decades. It is significant to treat our nature as our own home. It is not fair to think the public land does not belong to me, hence, I can do whatever I like on that land. It is simple logic, as Pope says, if we consider nature and its creatures as our own family members, I am sure we will be caring for it by keeping it spruce and healthy. This way we can be happy to get the utmost from the ecosystem. We need to upkeep our ecosystem because we are mutually dependable. The life cycle needs every creature and each one us. Therefore, we have to keep our natural diversity alive by caring for it. Our nature home needs to keep clean just like our own home. We cannot live in the filth for a long time. By doing this we contribute significantly towards a healthy ecosystem. We have been trying our best in different ways to keep our nature alive by various means but as Pope says, we have to do some serious work and a serious debate as to how we can control global climate change. 

Fr. Jerry Melwin Dias SJ

Diocese of Georgetown

Desecration of my home: Pope Francis' encyclical on Environment

Introduction

Our home is a beautiful home that God created and intended to be a clean and liveable. We have exploited this home and desecrated the home with our selfish consumerist motives. We have inflicted violence on our own home members, i.e. other living creatures who are part of our lives. They groan with pain and we have not listened to their groaning. The earth we live, the air that we breathe, and the water we drink is a free gift from God. We have make use of them for our upkeep and not for our greed. Our ecosystem plays a significant role in our lives, for it keep a balance among the living creatures including human beings.

Desecration of our home

Our nature has to be treated like our home. We like to keep our home spruce and whatever is foreign to our home is cleansed. This way our family can remain healthy and happy. Nature is somewhat more than our own home; our homes can be fixed if something went wrong, but our nature cannot be fixed. Our nature is irreplaceable with its natural complications and beauty.

“Following a period of irrational confidence in progress and human abilities, some sectors of society are now adopting a more critical approach. We see increasing sensitivity to the environment and the need to protect nature, along with a growing concern, both genuine and distressing”.

Pollution is a major issue in every nation. We have a ‘throwaway culture’ that impacts our nature. Sometimes one might very well think that pollution would not affect us but it does affect the human beings in the longer run. Pollution can not only impact in poor health but it might contribute to the premature deaths and eventually contribute negatively towards human births. Our naïve understanding of throwaway culture is going to see our own demise. For example recycling can help control waste and garbage in the planet.

Is my home filthy?

There is ignorance on the part of the people when one thinks that if one person pollutes the atmosphere, what does that matter? It is an uninformed and misrepresented understanding of how we use our natural resources. Climate change and global warming can happen even if my car is carbon clean. Carbon dioxide contributes harmfully to climate change. Our planet might become a run down house, and not in living conditions. One might enjoy sitting in an air-conditioned room, but the other part of one’s air conditioning might be emitting heat and other gases which are detrimental to the nature. Hence, we might end up enjoying ourselves for a moment but we might have to feel the brunt in the longer run.

Poor countries have been on the receiving end in the climate change. Poorer countries sustain through agriculture. They are part of the ecosystem. For example, farming, fishing and forestry, and if this we manoeuvre this ecosystem, the sustenance of these poor people will in jeopardy. They will go hungry as it is already happening around the globe. Let us keep our home filth-free and liveable for our children.

Waters of life and death

We have been exploiting the nature with upmost vengeance, even to the extent of making this planet’s water poisonous. Water has been wasted and polluted so badly, it would be affect the water creature and would affect fishing. We have seen dirty and poisonous water is being diverted to our rivers and oceans, thinking that is not our own. The river and ocean is vast that it would not matter if we divert dirty water to it.

Fresh drinking water is a major issue and it must draw our attention before we go into red level. Polluted water can cause ecosystem to change drastically and cause health hazards. Have we ever experienced real shortage of water? It occurs to us when we have to economize water in our homes. Why do wait that to happen? Why not control before we go to red level? Let us stop wasting water and think of the people who crave for clean drinking water.

Human need for diverse natural resources

 It is significant to note the “life cycle” that we are part of. Every creature need every creature. As human being we need other species of creatures and other species of nature. “The loss of forests and woodlands entails the loss of species which may constitute extremely important resources in the future, not only for food but also for curing disease and other uses.”

It is a misconception that we do not need the nature and its beings. It is not fair to think that whenever I need I use and abuse the nature and its living beings for my benefit. So long as it benefits me, I use or even abuse. In this case we can see our own demise because we need each for our survival. We are already into red level when we take into account the extinction of the mammals and birds. This causes an imbalance in the ecosystem posing a serious danger to us. Most often our nature is exploited for our own selfish needs and further for our greed, in other words for our selfish commercial motives.

We need to safeguard our planet and its living creatures or else they will cause an imbalance in the ‘life cycle.’ It is important to note the work done by the environmentalist and other organisations to deploy measures to upkeep the natural beings. We have to keep our ecosystem up and running; first of all we need to understand our ecosystem, which works in conglomeration with others.

Mental Pollution

We are in an information world. This world has made us aware of our own existence as human person through technological advancements. This existence is proved only through information that is provided by the so-called Internet world. There is a mental pollution-taking place in our world. There is a breakdown of real and ideal society that our forefathers would have expected to see. We live in a virtual world; a world of Internet and a world social media.

Most times we might become well equipped to face the world if we have had enough data about anything, this is good in itself. But we know that dangers of hunting the data online. We have lost the interpersonal connection with each other. We should be concerned that, alongside the exciting possibilities offered by these media, a deep and melancholic dissatisfaction with interpersonal relations, or a harmful sense of isolation, can also arise.

Cry of the poor

There is an imbalance in the nature cause by our selfish motives. This is affected among the poor people. Over exploitation of the nature can cause not replaceable wipe away of resources which will in the end affect everyone us but most certainly poorest of the poor. For example, imbalance in the ecosystem can cause the fishes to extinct which will cause the poor fishermen to go bankrupt. Process of building urban cities can push the rural boundaries to the fringes and eventually rural beauty might turn into a wonderful coloured clad city. Hence, causing the real rural beauty to vanish in the thin air. “We have integrate questions of justice in debates on the environment, so as to hear both the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor.”

Food is an integral part of our nature. We need food for our sustenance. There is an inequality in food distribution. Gandhi said, “We have enough for our need not enough for our greed.” Hence, there is a consumerist approach to food, namely, when I don’t want food, I just dash in the bin. “We know that approximately a third of all food produced is discarded, and whenever food is thrown out it is as if it were stolen from the table of the poor.”

Conclusion

We as Church may not be able give our opinions alone, but needs to engage in dialogue with other experts to enhance our own home, the nature. Our home is in serious danger. There is someone trying to destroy our home without even our knowing. “If we scan the regions of our planet, we immediately see that humanity has disappointed God’s expectation.” We as Church and other organisational entities must scan every possible regions to stop abusing our nature and desecrating our home and home of many living creatures.