HUNTINGDON COLLEGE
November 1, 2024
By Rev. Rhett Butler
November 1st is All Saints Day. On this holy day, the Church offers thanks for the saints who have left us to be with the Lord, but also acknowledges the grief of our losses. The founder of Methodism, John Wesley, wrote in his journals that it is “a day that I peculiarly love.” All Saints Day is perhaps the only holy day that one could “peculiarly love.” It’s a paradoxical day of bittersweet rejoicing, of loss laced with gratitude, of longing to be with those we love but celebrating their ongoing lives in Christ. The paradoxical emotions of All Saints Day are difficult to parse and nearly impossible to untangle, but I’m not convinced that is necessary to do. Maybe that’s just the Southerner in me talking.
Southerners have the particular talent of offering brief charming phrases that say a whole lot in only a few words. I heard one of these phrases repeated over and over at my grandfather’s funeral in early summer, “Oh he was such a saint, he would give you the shirt off his back.” In calling Papa a saint, the mourners weren’t claiming he performed miracles or led a perfect life, but rather he was a bright light of compassion to those around him. In calling him a “saint”, Southern grief is saying that he was a helper, he was dependable, he was a pillar of his family and community, and he would give you the shirt off his back. It’s an expression that encapsulates the paradox of All Saints Day; he was so loved, and he will be missed, but we were blessed to have him.
Jesus speaks about what it means to be blessed in the Sermon on the Mount. Matthew 5:4 reads, “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.” Such a peculiar, seemingly paradoxical phrase from Christ; really, Jesus, am I blessed this All Saints Day because I am mourning the loss of a loved one? No, my friends, we are not blessed because we grieve, we are blessed because we worship a God who comforts the mourners. This All Saints Day, the greatest blessing we have is that God sees and knows our grief and offers us comfort. When my grandfather died, I received comfort from my Huntingdon family who rallied around me with cascades of casseroles. I received comfort from the presence of the Holy Spirit, and comfort from the good news that Death is not the end for Christians. That is what is means to be blessed in mourning: the Body of Christ drawing close when death has left us so very alone.
Let All Saints Day be a peculiar day that you come to love. We are complex creatures that can hold grief and hope in equal measure. There is no need to untangle the paradox, or, as my father says in that particularly peculiar Southern way: “Don’t make life too complicated, it’s complicated enough as it is. Be like a duck and let that water roll off your back.”
-Reverend Rhett Butler
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