This Halloween we had our usual share of trick-or-treaters at the parish rectory, knocking on the door and chanting in that sing-song way, “Trick or treat!” It’s amazing to me that Halloween is now the second most popular holiday for adults in the United States (Christmas is still the first). Yet, at the same time, Halloween is the one holiday where we don’t celebrate who we really are. Instead, we put on masks and go door to door begging for treats, we disguise ourselves in order to get something good.
In a sense, this is a metaphor for real life. How many of us disguise ourselves every day by putting on “masks” at home or at work in order to get what we think is good? How many of us wear “masks,” that is, behave or do things that we believe will make us feel affirmed and liked; powerful and in control; secure and safe? How many times do we get what we need by wearing masks?
If we are honest, it can be difficult to be ourselves. It can be hard to freely express your own opinion or thoughts for fear of what others might say or think. If you are in a restaurant and publicly pray over your food, some people may look at you as if they have seen a monster and, for some of us, that public shaming or disapproval is more frightening than anything we saw at our doors Halloween night.
The poet E.E. Cummings said it best, “To be nobody but yourself in a world that is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody but yourself — means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight — and never stop fighting.”
That’s why it’s great that the Church celebrates the Feast of All Saints right after Halloween. All Saints Day is really the feast of those who took their masks off and lived lives free of artificiality and pretense. All Saints Day celebrates the many different men and women over the centuries who became holy by taking the words of Saint Francis de Sales to heart, “Be who you are and be that well in order to give glory to God, the Master Craftsman whose masterpiece you are.”
We too can be saints. We too are called to follow Saint Francis de Sales’ teaching and become holy. We can live our lives without our masks. All we need to do is approach the door of God’s love every day, acknowledge our sinfulness and respond to God’s mercy and grace. This invites us to take our masks off, humbly knock at God’s door as we are, and lovingly accept God’s “treats” — the grace and love He offers daily to us.
May God be praised!
Father Michael Newman, OSFS
Pastor
Holy Family Parish
Adrian, MI
