Be Not Afraid of the Night

We culturally know October 31st as Halloween. The word comes to us by combining and shortening “Hallows” and “Eve.” We normally think of this day as being filled with spooky things, candy, dressing up as characters, and trick-or-treating. However, this day is a Christian day that begins a three-day cycle (also known as a triduum) called Allhallowtide.

Allhallowtide consists of All Hallows’ Eve (Oct. 31), All Saints’ Day (Nov. 1), and All Souls’ Day (Nov. 2). Each of these days celebrates the victory of Jesus Christ within the Church.

The life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ defeated Satan, redeemed us from sin, and secured our future resurrection when Christ returns at His Second Coming. This great victory of God also does something within us. The Holy Ghost makes us into “living stones” (1 Peter 2:5). He makes us fit to be the very temple of Almighty God by transforming us after the likeness of the Lord Jesus Christ. We call this work sanctification, which comes from the Latin word sanctus, meaning “holy.” The Spirit of God works to make us holy like Himself.

Allhallowtide is about celebrating the sanctification in the lives of all Christians. God works to make us holy, that is, He works to transform us into saints! Every human being has been created by God to become a saint in and through Jesus Christ our Lord. So we celebrate God’s great work throughout time in His Church, praying that God would continue to work within us so that we might join all the saints in heavenly glory when we pass from this life.

The cultural aspects of modern American Halloween deals in scary things. Spiders, ghouls, goblins, and graveyards stem from the fact that this holy day in the Church celebrates those who have passed from this life in the true faith of the Church. The Church does not celebrate death itself; we celebrate that Christ has conquered death, so that we do not need to fear anything that goes “bump in the night.”

Christians can thumb their noses at death because of the hope we have in Jesus. This is a hope that when we pass from this world, we will, in the words of the Liturgy, join “with Angels and Archangels, and with all the company of heaven” to “laud and magnify” God’s glorious Name. It is the hope that in the resurrection, every graveyard will be empty when Jesus Christ returns in power and glory. The Holy Scriptures give us words to hold fast: “Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?” (1 Cor. 15:54b–55).

So let us celebrate Allhallowtide. Let us celebrate with worship, feasting, games, candy, and children in wholesome costumes—not because we are macabre or because “that’s just what people do,” but because Jesus has raised mankind up into glory with Himself and given us the precious promise that we will live forever with Him in the New Heavens and the New Earth.

Come, Lord Jesus.

Devotional Prayer

"O ALMIGHTY God, who hast knit together thine elect in one communion and fellowship, in the mystical body of thy Son Christ our Lord; Grant us grace so to follow thy blessed Saints in all virtuous and godly living, that we may come to those unspeakable joys which thou hast prepared for those who unfeignedly love thee; through the same thy Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen."

The Epistle Reading: Revelation 7:2-17

The Gospel Reading: St. Matthew 5:1-12

— Fr. Brian Oldfield is the rector of Saint Paul's Anglican Church & School in Melbourne. Find more information about Saint Paul's online at saintpaulsmelbourne.org or on Facebook @saintpaulsmelbourne.