All Sinners

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/110125.cfm

I believe that deep down, the spectacle that Halloween has become is because it gives us a chance to laugh at the scary things. As we will see, there are positive and negative elements to this.

We are secretly reassured by scary movies because they are only movies. We can keep them in our TVs. We can turn them off. We enjoy dressing up in scary garb, because we KNOW its just a costume. Sometimes we might feel that it even establishes our bravery to some extent when we expose ourselves to the 'worst scare' and don't flinch - like at a haunted house. By engaging in this we do two things: we mock the evil and scary so that it takes the real scare out of it, making it a caricature of what might really be scary - people who do evil things, evil spirits, etc., AND we practice bravery, even if it comes in the form of not being too darn concerned. This second element is a shadow of what the saints did.

The saints, both those recognized in name by the Church, and the many, many, many more recognized by God who sees all, were people who strived to face and overcome real evil. Most of them failed. Maybe early in their lives, maybe on and off in their lives. How do I know they failed? Because every human, other than Jesus and His Blessed Mother does. There are no sinless saints. So if you have thought - I can't be a saint, I'm a sinner - you couldn't be more wrong. Sinner 101 is a pre-requisite for majoring in sainthood. Recognizing our sinfulness and facing it is an absolute requirement. There is no other theme that you will see resonating through the writings of the saints more clearly and more often that this. So don't take this the wrong way, but you are off to a GREAT START.

So if we are to face evil, how do we do that? Do we look to the example of heroes in movies, who summon up great moxie, or discover a deep secret weakness of the enemy, or rely on an inborn superpower? Do we team up with others to outnumber and outsmart the enemy? No ... and yes! By ourselves, we are helpless to defend against temptation and the influence of evil spirits (a real thing). When Jesus explains that it is harder for camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to get into heaven, His disciples say: "then who can be saved?" He says NO-ONE. Then Jesus adds the qualifier: “For human beings this is impossible, but for God all things are possible.”

Overcoming evil and temptation will require some moxie on our part (the gifts of the Holy Spirit, particularly courage), it will require us to discover the weakness of the enemy (the Sacraments) and us relying on our in-born (since baptism) superpower - God's forgiveness. The beatitudes, featured in today's Gospel describe what a life looks like that is built around these things, all these ways in which God is with us each day. The beatitudes are a description of the lives of saints.

These saints are joined with us as well. With them at our side, we will outnumber the enemy and outsmart the enemy not by being 'smart' ourselves but by relying on the one who is. Our prayers to God are joined to the prayers of the untold numbers of saints in heaven, who are looking down, cheering us on at all times. When we know this and remind ourselves of it frequently, we can face the temptations and evils of this world with the same kind of attitude that we have toward the scary stuff at Halloween. When we march down the street, we don't have to fear because when the Saints go marchin' in, we know Jesus will be the victor.