30th Sunday in Ordinary Time

10-26-2025Weekly ReflectionFr. Abraham Orapankal, Pastor

Dear OLP Family,

Next weekend is important for us for various reasons. Friday is Halloween. Saturday is the Feast of All Saints. Sunday is All Souls Day.

First in this list is Halloween which some consider as a negative holiday, because it’s been turned into a commercial driven candy fest, which obviously isn’t healthy for our children (or for us parents who raid the candy bag!)

Some others oppose it for religious reasons, saying that it opens children to evil and is too frightening – although many church parking lots are used for “trunk or treat” for safety reasons! In any case, it is good to have some perspective that will help us look at it objectively.

It was in the year 835, that Pope Gregory IV designated November 1 as All Saints’ Day, or All Hallows’ Day (the term hallow means holy referring to saints). The night before was known as All Hallows’ Evening from which the term Halloween came.

"What is it like to be a Christian saint?" "It is like being a Halloween pumpkin. God picks you from the field, brings you in, and washes all the dirt off you. Then he cuts off the top and scoops out the yucky stuff. He removes the pulp of impurity and injustice and seeds of doubt, hate, and greed. Then He carves you a new smiling face and puts His light of holiness inside you to shine for the entire world to see." This is the Christian idea behind the carved pumpkins during the Halloween season.

All Saints Day is an opportunity for us to honor all those we know are good people gone ahead of us to heaven, even though they are not canonized as saints. Nevertheless we know that they lived a life of witnessing to the truth to the best of their ability and so we honor them as saintly men and women. We can include among them our grandparents or great parents and others who lived a life of faith and sacrifice, trying to pass on their faith to the next generation. And we try to follow their example in becoming holy people.

For us Catholics, Halloween, All Saints Day, All Souls Day and the whole of November are opportunities with two goals: first. to really think about, cherish and re-member our loved ones who are departed from earth; and second, to reflect on our own mortality and the meaning of death as a gateway to the next world.

Next Sunday is All Souls’ Day to remember all our departed ones. There are many in our parish who are grieving a dear one who passed into eternity this year. During our 12 noon Mass, we will remember them and thank God for their lives with us in a special way. A Scottish poet has written, “If I have done anything in life, it is because I was able to stand on the shoulders of my dad.” The memory of our near and dear ones is a reminder that we need to be grateful to them for their love and sacrifices because they have a big share in what we are today.

Eternal rest grant unto them O Lord, And let perpetual light shine upon them. May the souls of all the faithful departed through the mercy of God rest in peace, Amen.

Your brother in Christ.