Keep "Hallow" in Halloween!

Now, that’s a bumper sticker I want to see, and I wouldn’t be shy about displaying it this time of year on the posterior of the family minivan, the anterior of which is lovingly adorned with the ubiquitous rearview mirror rosary, the middle of which is filled with any number of giggling be-costumed children, usually our own.  The secular culture –as well as many Catholics, it seems—has forgotten that All Hallows’ Eve is a night of merriment prior to the feast of All Saints/Hallows Day on November 1^st.  I think it’s time to start reminding ourselves and our children.  Ironically, worrying that Halloween was a “pagan” celebration is allowing it to turn into one.

Many local Christian cultures throughout the ages have gone door-to-door for treats on the eve of various Christian feasts, not only Halloween.  But it has been fashionable for some time to claim that Christianity placed the feast of All Saints on November 1^st in order to co-opt the Druidic celebration of Samhain, which involved dressing in costume and going door-to-door.  It is less fashionable to point out that there was no reason to do this because All Saints Day for the entire Church was declared by Pope Gregory sometime in the early 700s, three centuries after Ireland had already been thoroughly converted by Saint Patrick.  There was no need to sneak Christianity in the back door; it had long since been let in through the front.  But regardless of history, every Halloween, Catholic blogs are peppered here and there with comments likening the practice of trick-or-treating to cooperating with the pervasive “culture of death,” and/or reveling in pagan practices, and urging us to close our curtains and pretend we’re not home on this supposed evening of satanic worship.  I understand where the hand-wringing comes from; as Christians, we are called to do everything with Christ in view, and we wonder how He can fit into this oversexed and black picture painted for us by countless fly-by-night costume stores that sprout up every September.  I see a clue in one of my favorite hymns, which was just recently played at a colleague’s memorial service:

I danced on a Friday when the world turned black 
It's hard to dance with the devil on your back 
They buried my body, they thought I was gone 
But I am the dance, and the dance goes on 

Dance, dance, wherever you may be 
I am the lord of the dance, said he 
And I lead you all, wherever you may be 
And I lead you all in the dance, said he 

They cut me down and I leapt up high 
I am the life that will never, never die 
I'll live in you if you'll live in me 
I am the Lord of the dance, said he 

Christ is not just joy, He is absolute bliss, even dancing out of death.  And, all of the saints in the canon, whom we celebrate on November 1^st now live in this bliss as they followed our Lord's lead in the great dance.  Most importantly, these were just flawed, regular people like you and I!  Some of them were even more irascible than I can be.  (A FEW, my husband reminds me.)  Because Jesus died, rose and opened the gates to heaven, we can actually hope and strive to be there ourselves someday.  If that isn’t reason enough to laugh at sting-less death, to stick it in the devil’s eye, and to eat tons and tons of candy, I don’t know what is.

Are there certain practices of the secular version of our holiday we should not assimilate?  Sure.  When the choices your 7-year-old has for costumes at iParty are “Sexy Police Officer,” “Sexy Maid,” “Sexy Igor” (?), “Sexy Vampire,” and “Sexy Undertaker,” you might Catholically consider turning to an ancient Druidic practice after all:  Making Your Own Costume.  Some Catholic families dress up as saints for Halloween, which can be a helpful practice for tying the festivities of Hallows’ Eve in with the actual holiday it anticipates, All Saints Day.  But, as long as we don’t sink into the deeply disturbing macabre, a veneration of gore itself and the antithesis of true Hallows’ Eve, I also see nothing wrong with allowing children to dress up as ghosts and goblins and go “boo!” at each other in mockery of “all the evil spirits who prowl about the world seeking the ruin of souls” (Prayer to St. Michael).  As long as we dance the Lord’s dance they can’t touch us in the end.  Speaking of Saint Michael, even he mocks the devil by his very name, a rhetorical and almost sarcastic question as he closes the gates of hell on him, “Who is like God?”  Seriously, Satan?  You close the curtains and pretend you aren’t home.  More candy for us.

Top 15 Non-Catholic Songs That Are Catholic*

Even St. Jerome can't resist these beats.  Okay, maybe somewhere up there King David has to prod him into it a little.  Crack a smile, Jerry.

For a blur of time that may have been years, the audio atmosphere of my mini-van was composed alternately of talk radio punctuated by brief periods of silence on rare solo drives, or the cacophony of three small children with varying grasps of grammar and vocabulary belting out "I Want You Back" by the Jackson 5 (long story).  It was only on rare occasions I would scan through FM radio, most new songs being unfamiliar and undesirable territory that I'd simply skip past.  But, this year while driving alone I've found myself hanging out in the FM a bit more often, realizing in the middle of things that I'm singing some secular anthem as if it were a glorious hymn, wing-delivered by dove, because the song speaks to me of Jesus and the Church.  This would probably cause some of the artists --not to mention some fellow Catholics-- a shudder of horror on principle, on the songs not being intended that way.  But, I can't help myself.  If God wants to surprise me on Kiss 108 FM every now and then, who am I to tell Him to get back on my Gregorian chant CD where He belongs?  We should probably worry more about where we don't see God than where we do.

Before anyone readies the pillory, know that I don't mean to suggest these tunes are up there with Bach, or the lyrics are the Hound of Heaven, or that listening to the entire Billboard 100 is a mystical experience.  There are too many warped songs on the mainstream airwaves, and there is still an awful lot of skipping that goes on when I'm listening to the radio --too much for any passenger to stand!  I'm not endorsing any artists as role models or suggesting anyone watch their performances; I don't know enough about either and I'm not interested for the most part.  But I do know that amidst all the noise and unredeemable cheer-leading for the "culture of death" are some releases of the past couple years that discerning Catholics can reclaim from the rocky shallow end and toss out into the floating freedom of the daring deep if the spirit moves them.  Merry mischief-making!  If nothing else, at least it may turn your teen toward classical music as she tries to avoid being locked in a car with you dancing to her station.

*  This very list is also reason #3 on the Top Three Reasons I Will Never Make Church Choir.  (Reasons #1 and #2 are:  I sort of have a male's singing voice in a woman's body, and, also, I have the vocal range of a goose, respectively.  Runner-up for #3 is I can't read music.)  Incidentally,this list is also reason #1 why my own adult stepdaughter will not friend me on Facebook.

Top 15 Pop Songs of 2000-2014 That Didn't Mean to Be Catholic But Are

A Sky Full of Stars by Coldplay:  I wanted to dislike this song for its generic club track feel when I first heard it.  But, to my annoyance and then joy it quickly pulled me in with simple lyrics that crystallize absolute surrender in love to Christ who consumes us.  "'Cause you're a sky, 'cause you're a sky full of stars/ I wanna die in your arms/ 'Cause you get lighter the more it gets dark/ I'm gonna give you my heart/ I don't care, go on and tear me apart/ I don't care if you do/ 'Cause in a sky, in a sky full of stars/ I think I see you."

A Thousand Years by Christina Perri:  "How to be brave?/  How can I love when I'm afraid to fall?/  But watching you stand alone/ All of my doubt suddenly goes away somehow/ One step closer..."  This could be a sweet dialogue between Jesus and any one of us, a response to the gentle but unrelenting invitation to approach the Lord on the altar and be cleansed.  And, naturally, the song is equally beautiful as a love song between two souls meeting each other on their way to living their vocation of marriage.  As the Bible demonstrates, it's no accident that many songs which illuminate self-giving love between spouses and the indissoluble union that is a sacramental marriage also work perfectly as songs between ourselves and Christ.  Sing them to your spouse and to God; they are for both.

Babel by Mumford and Sons:  Look at the title.  "I know my weakness/ Know my voice/ And I believe in grace and choice."

Best Day of My Life by American Authors:  Maybe there are a few oddball lines, but the unleashed, rollicking laughter of the music and the tickling of the strings makes me want to burst out and swing around at least 3 kids and a couple monkeys.  I'm pretty sure Jesus felt like that frequently, though the Master of joy didn't need a ridiculous song to get there.  You know young St. Francis would totally roll down a grassy hill to this song.  How great is the refrain for receiving a sacrament, baptism, marriage, holy orders --or the Eucharist!  Isn't every day you receive the Eucharist the best day of your life?  Don't you want to dance up the aisle sometimes?  "This is gonna be the best day of my liiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiife/ My li-i-i-i-i-ife."

Hallelujah by Jeff Buckley:  Hmm.  Maybe this one was Catholic almost on purpose, considering all the Biblical allusions.  It's a piercing but, I think, potentially hopeful song in that the character is realizing, through painful experience, that love is not merely a feeling but a choice, or a series of daily choices.  No matter how broken you are, there is hope once you realize what love is Not and start turning yourself to what it Is:  laying down one's life for another (John 15:13).

Halo by Beyonce Knowles:  Truly fitting for that moment it dawns in you that not only was Jesus not a charlatan, he was also not simply a "good man" or "wise teacher" who lived over 2,000 years ago; rather, He's actually the living God incarnate who has come for YOU.  "Everywhere I'm looking now/ I'm surrounded by your embrace/ Baby, I can see your halo/ You know you're my saving grace."  It's so much more messy and thrilling than when we try to keep God at arm's length.  Listen to it while driving in the pouring rain if you can, and hear the thousands of knees falling to the ground.  "I pray it won't fade away" --This one line reminds me of what Tolkien says about the resurrection:  "There is no tale ever told that men would rather find was true, and none which so many skeptical men have accepted as true on its own merits."  It's too Good to be true, but it is True!  It can be very moving to wrest this song from the emptiness of the "throwaway culture" and offer Beyonce's beautiful voice to God who gave it to her and from Whom all beauty comes.

Happy by Pharrell Williams:  Easter!  Death, where is your sting?  "Here come bad news, talkin this and that/ Well, give me all you got and don't hold it back/ I should probably warn you I'll be just fine/ No offense to you, don't waste your time/ Cuz I'm happy"

I Will Wait by Mumford and Sons:  It's the best Advent song of the last, er, two years.  Also, the way I see it, it's a song that works as well for singing of sanctifying grace between spouses or as a prayer of the consecrated religious to the Lord.  It is a rousing and triumphant song for all the Church Militant, for anyone who puts God before himself, caught up in a Love so overcoming he has to pray for the strength for his heart to even bear it.  "Bow my head/ Keep my heart slow/ 'Cause I will wait/ I will wait for you!"

Little Talks by Of Monsters and Men:  This song is Pope Benedict's "dictatorship of relativism" in action, a couple virtually destroyed by living the lies of the world.  But, somewhere in the background is the Barque of Peter that just might save them.  "Though the truth may vary/ This ship will carry our bodies safe to shore."

Pompeii by Bastille:  In every age, at some time or another it feels like the world must be coming to an end, whether by natural disaster or war or schism or anything else we don't have control over.  But, despite the chorus's "How am I gonna be an optimist about this?" there's some strange hope in all of it.  Yes, remember to be an optimist.  And remember, too, that the world hasn't ended any of those times.  Yes, for the dead this world ended; but, we know that death is not the final word.  For those left behind?  Rebuild.  "Where do we begin?/ The rubble or our sins?"  Build up the kingdom.  Cherish that indestructible gem of a Church that holds fast in every era and emerges from the wreckage perhaps smaller at times, but always brighter and stronger.

Shake it Out by Florence + The Machine:  This could be the soundtrack for wrestling with starting on the path to conversion.  Wrestling and winning, then losing, then winning, losing... "It's hard to dance with the devil on your back, so shake him off."

Speed of Sound by Coldplay:  We are engulfed in mystery upon mystery.  Sometimes it is hard to quiet the mind and just be immersed.  "The sign that I couldn't read/ Or a light that I couldn't see/ Some things you have to believe/ But others are puzzles, puzzling me."  Other times we can get out of our own way enough to know things we can't explain.  "If you could see it then you'd understand."

Viva la Vida by Coldplay:  How Biblical:  A sham ruler of a sham kingdom not built on God's word is blindsided and left with nowhere else to turn but to Him.  See my previous post with more on this song.

You Are A Tourist by Death Cab for Cutie:  The name of the band should be an automatic disqualifier.  Who would have thought the Holy Spirit could be found in Death Cab for Cutie?  "When there's a burning in your heart/ An endless yearning in your heart/ Build it bigger than the sun/ Let it grow/ Let it grow/ When there's a burning in your heart/ Don't be alarmed."  Ready for an extreme sport?  Pentecost is S-C-A-R-Y.  Dive in!  No bungee cords allowed.

Boom Clap by Charli XCX:  This one is out of alphabetical order, you say?  Okay, maybe I hid it at the bottom of the list because I'm a bit embarrassed.  It's for the teeny bopper in all of us.  If the Lord doesn't make you go weak in the knees maybe you should visit Him more often.  If St. Augustine can "pant for [God]," then God can make my heart go "BOOM, CLAP," okay?  "Just tell me what to do/ I'll fall right into you."

You're welcome, screen-writers for Sister Act Three.