Has the World Lost the Sense of the Sacred?
It’s Halloween once again, that time of the year when the whole world would celebrate all things spooky and otherworldly. Many people would even attend parties wearing unusual costumes and makeups. Some who may be more introverted may settle with watching horror movies at home.
My Personal Experience
As a Catholic who grew up in the Philippines, our family usually visited the cemetery at this time of the year. We’d then light the candles we bought and say some prayers for the dead. After a short visit, we’d eat out, have a little chat and then go our way home.
It’s usually a quiet time when people gather together and reunite with families and old friends to visit their departed loved ones. Masses are also offered for the souls of people who have died.
Why I Like Halloween
Despite the sorrow I feel from missing my family members who passed away, I can say that I like Halloween.
I like it because it’s that particular time when people remember that this life is not everything there is. It is in fact very short! There is another life we look forward to, that life where we can see our departed loved ones again.
It’s in the air. Even people who know nothing about my Catholic faith are somehow reminded about the spiritual world.
Our Sense of the Sacred
One thing, however, that bothers me lately is that this sense of the spiritual world seemed to be limited to the horrific and the frightening kind. When people think about the spiritual realm, they tend to equate it with ghosts or evil spirits roaming around.
Somehow, the world seems to have lost that sense of the sacred.
Think about the apparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mary to the saints. Think about the angels that some saints were able to communicate with.
The presence of the holy is something that also belongs to the spiritual world. That sense of purity, light, and beauty that can only come from a heart redeemed from the shadow of evil.
I can’t even imagine how the saints felt when they were in the presence of the holy. But St. Bernadette may give us a clue when she saw our Blessed Mother.
When a child asked whether the Blessed Mother was beautiful, she replied, “So beautiful...that once you have seen her, you would willingly die to see her again.”
Here is another account of our Blessed Mother from a vision of St. Anne Catherine Emmerich:
“Her beauty was great, but indescribable, for it was super-human—a mixture of majesty, sanctity, simplicity, and purity.”
Sanctity. Holiness. These are the things that the world must not forget.
Reclaiming Halloween
These days, I often see children involved in an activity called “trick-or-treat” where they dress up in scary costumes asking for candies and other treats.
In the past, however, the Philippines used to have a practice called “pangangaluluwa”. “Kaluluwa” means “soul” in Filipino. And the practice is like people dressing up as poor souls serenading from house to house, asking for alms. This should remind the faithful how the souls of our departed loved ones need our alms in the form of prayer.
I hope that we can reclaim that sense of holiness during this time of the year.
The spiritual world is not only something to be curious about or to be scared of. It also contains much beauty and light, a mysterious realm where incomparable happiness is reserved for those who would seek Him who is God of both this life and the next.
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