Graveyard Halloween

Just finished the rough draft. Apologies for grammatical goofs.

GRAVEYARD HALLOWEEN SERVICE, A.D. 2015 B
Death is Merely the Beginning

7:00 p.m. @ St. Peter’s Cemetery

The community gathers at the cemetery gate and processes along six stations in a cruciform path, with readings and reflections at each point of the Cross. We begin with the song “Soul Cake”.

Graveyard Gate: Introduction

May the Lord be with you. Good evening, and happy Halloween. Welcome to our graveyard.

Christianity was born amongst graves, from Jesus bursting forth from the spiced tomb on that glorious Easter Sunday to the Masses offered deep in the catacombs beneath the streets of Rome. For centuries, simply professing belief in the Risen Christ was a crime punishable by death, as it still is, lamentably, throughout the Middle East and Communist regimes today. To confess Christ is to be crucified with Christ.

And so Christianity has always been a faith of martyrs, of heroic self-sacrifice. The Book of Revelation teaches us that the blood of martyrs is mixed at the base of the heavenly altar with the very Blood of the Lamb. The bones of those who died for the faith in our early centuries were cherished as great treasures and holy relics. The bodies of the martyrs were treated with high honor as a way of proclaiming to the world that those who die in Christ live on forever with Him—and that one day they shall rise again in the flesh, just as Christ Himself is Risen.

Yet Christians do not seek to die but to live lives of repentance, of thanksgiving towards God, and of service to our fellow man. One need not perish violently to inherit the promise of Resurrection. One need only trust the promise of Christ. Someday these bones buried here will rise. Someday we will rise as well.

Opening Prayer

Let us pray.

Lord Jesus Christ, unjustly put to death, amidst the darkness we cry to You. By Your death You have broken death’s back, and by Your Resurrection You have opened the Kingdom of God to all who call upon Your Name. Grant that in this place of earthly death we may rejoice in the promise of everlasting life.

In the Name of the Father and of the +Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Station I: Ars Moriendi

Wisdom 1:12-15

Do not invite death by the error of your life,
or bring on destruction by the works of your hands;
because God did not make death,
and he does not delight in the death of the living.
For he created all things so that they might exist;
the generative forces of the world are wholesome,
and there is no destructive poison in them,
and the dominion of Hades is not on earth.
For righteousness is immortal. 

We have become shielded from death. Our elders spend their twilight years in assisted living facilities. Our dead are cared for by professional morticians. Advertising tells us lies, promising eternal youth, eternal beauty, if only we buy the proper cream, pop the proper pill. It was not always so. For most of our history, and for most of humanity across the globe today, death is not something alien but rather intimate. Death occurs in the home, and is viewed not as some inexplicable tragedy but as the culmination of a good life.

We call this tradition the ars moriendi, the art of dying well. In this understanding, aging is an opportunity for grandparents and great-grandparents to share their wisdom with their families, for adult children to return the kindness and care lavished upon them by their mothers and fathers, and for the young to be exposed to the natural course of human life.

God did not create death—at least not death as we conceive of it—but for the faithful death need not be a frightening specter. Death is but the final task, the last enemy to be defeated. Christ has marched this path before us and conquered, broking the spine of death. When we die at peace, confident in the mercy of God and thankful for the gift of life, there will still be mourning. There will still be suffering. But greater than these are faith, hope, and love.

Let us pray.

O Almighty God, I give You my body and soul for time and eternity. Forgive me all the sins that I have ever committed. I am sorry, I love You, I believe that Your divine Son became man and died for my sins. I believe that there are three persons in one God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. I trust in You, Lord Jesus, to save me. I want Your blessed Mother Mary to pray for me now and at the hour of my death. I ask the prayers of my guardian angel and saints, and especially of my patron saint. Lord Jesus, grant me eternal salvation that I may be with You forever in the eternal bliss of my heavenly home.

In the Name of the Father and of the +Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Station II: Particular Judgment

Hebrews 9:24-28

For Christ did not enter a sanctuary made by human hands, a mere copy of the true one, but He entered into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf.  Nor was it to offer Himself again and again, as the high priest enters the Holy Place year after year with blood that is not his own; for then He would have had to suffer again and again since the foundation of the world. But as it is, He has appeared once for all at the end of the age to remove sin by the sacrifice of himself. And just as it is appointed for mortals to die once, and after that the judgment, so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin, but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.

At the moment of death, our souls face particular judgment.

That sounds frightening indeed, but we must be clear by what we mean here. God is not some arbitrary tribunal who weighs our hearts upon scales or thrusts His thumb down like a condemning Caesar. God is Truth, and when we die we bathe in the light of pure Truth. There is no more physicality to veil us from His presence. As Christ promised, everything we are and everything we have done will at last be seen clearly. We will not be judged by our merits or sins, for Christ has clothed us with His own infinite righteousness.

Those who love truly God will be drawn by grace into His infinite light, purified like gold with all our dross burned away. But those who do not truly love God, who prefer lies to truth, who prefer self-worship to true worship, will flee from God’s presence into the Abyss prepared for the devil and his angels. God always chooses us; it is not His will that even one soul be lost. Yet God is love, and love cannot be forced upon an unwilling partner. If we go rise to Heaven, it is because God saves us and in that we rejoice. If we fall to hell, it is because we have damned ourselves.

A woman distraught at the prospect of God’s judgment once implored St. Augustine as to how she might know whether she would be counted amongst the elect. “If you wish it,” Augustine told her gently, “then it is already so.”

Let us pray.

O my Jesus, forgive us our sins. Save us from the fires of hell. Lead all souls to Heaven, especially those most in need of Thy mercy.

In the Name of the Father and of the +Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Station III: Purgatory and Ghosts?

1 Corinthians 3:11-15

For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. If anyone builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, their work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each person’s work. If what has been built survives, the builder will receive a reward. If it is burned up, the builder will suffer loss but yet will be saved—even though only as one escaping through the flames.

The souls of those who die in God’s mercy and live on with God in Heaven we call saints. Revelation tells us that they offer up our prayers to God like priests offering up bowls of incense. Thus Christians have from ancient times asked heavenly saints to pray for us before God’s throne, for, as St James writes in his epistle, “The prayer of a righteous man availeth much.”

But what of those souls who truly love God but die still struggling with the ravages of sin? What of those who have a bit more dross than gold for God to purify? There is an ancient tradition amongst Christians of every stripe that some souls, while truly saved, are best served by undergoing a time of preparation and purification before entering the full glory of God’s presence. This state of preparation goes by many names, the most famous being Purgatory. Some theologians have described Purgatory harshly, as burning with the same fires as hell. Others have described it gently, as “the Schoolhouse” of Heaven’s antechamber.

As saints in Heaven pray for us, so we may pray for the speedy healing of souls in Purgatory—if indeed we believe in such a place. This is the distinction between All Saints and All Souls. On the former, those who have died pray for us; on the latter we pray for those who have died. Perhaps most interestingly on this night of Halloween, however, is the understanding that some souls may spend their period of purgation here on earth. These souls we commonly call ghosts, bound for a time to work out whatever unfinished business they may have on earth before going towards the light. Not only do Christians believe in angels and demons—we believe in ghosts as well.

Let us pray.

Eternal Father, I offer You the most precious Blood of Thy divine Son, Jesus, in union with the Masses said throughout the world today, for all the Holy Souls in Purgatory, for sinners everywhere, for sinners in the universal Church, for those in my own home and family.

In the Name of the Father and of the +Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Station IV: Resurrection and General Judgment

John 5:25-29

Very truly, I tell you, the hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. For just as the Father has life in himself, so He has granted the Son also to have life in Himself; and He has given Him authority to execute judgment, because He is the Son of Man. Do not be astonished at this; for the hour is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice and will come out—those who have done good, to the Resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the Resurrection of condemnation.

The Four Last Things are death, judgment, Heaven and hell. The good go up, the bad go down, and we live on spiritually forever. End of story, right?

I’m afraid not. The most scandalous claim of Christianity is not the immortality of the soul—for it has proven easy even for pagans to believe in an ephemeral, invisible afterlife—but of the Resurrection of the dead. God created the world good: light and darkness, sea and sky, earth and trees, sun and moon, fish and foul, male and female. Moreover, in the Incarnation of Jesus Christ, God has come to us in the flesh in order to redeem not just our souls but our flesh as well. God loves the physical along with the spiritual, and He will by no means abandon the physical world.

At the end of the age, when Christ comes again in glory, all souls shall be reunited with their bodies. We shall no longer know sickness or injury, disease or age. We shall be like the Risen Christ, with our souls in perfect control of our bodies. The Church Fathers describe humanity after the Resurrection in terms fit for superheroes or the gods of myth. Then shall Heaven descend to earth, and together they shall become the New Heaven and the New Earth, where God will dwell again amongst humankind.

But how shall the dead be raised, and bodies long since dismembered reintegrated? The ins and outs are not given unto us, but I do rather like one particular Jewish legend that speaks of the “luz bone”—an infinitesimally small part of you, traditionally associated with a bit of neck vertebra, but just as easily conceived as a single strand of DNA—that never decays. This tiny remainder, perhaps too small to be seen, shall serve as the seed from which your newly risen body shall grow.

Let us pray.

O Risen Lord, be our resurrection and life. Be the resurrection and the life for us and all whom you have made. Be the resurrection and the life for anyone anywhere who knows suffering and death in any form, and for Creation itself, which groans in travail. Be the resurrection and the life in the life we share and the fellowship we enjoy, that filled anew with the wonder of your love and the power of your grace, we may go forth to proclaim your resurrection life to a world in the grip of death and yet on the verge of redemption, a redemption promised by you and assured by what occurred on the first Easter morn.

In the Name of the Father and of the +Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Station V: Apokatastasis

Ephesians 1:5-10

He destined us for adoption as his children through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace that he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace that he lavished on us. With all wisdom and insight he has made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure that he set forth in Christ, as a plan for the fullness of time, to gather up all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.

Dare we hope that all men be saved?

At the end of the age, at the fulfilment of all things, Christ will be all in all. For those who love God with all their heart and all their mind and all their strength, everywhere they look will be Heaven. But for those who hate and fear God, everywhere they look will be hell—for in those days there can be no escape from Truth. This is Doomsday, the final judgment.

But how final is it? Many have found it hard to believe that God’s will, which is for all men to be saved, could be thwarted throughout eternity. Is there truly no hope for the damned? Will they never turn towards grace and be forgiven their many sins? From the earliest days of the faith, many of the Church Fathers have hoped for the Apokatastasis, the final Restoration of all things in Jesus Christ. Then would the fires of hell be extinguished, and perhaps even Satan himself might be saved.

The Church has no authority to preach universal salvation. Denying the reality of hell does no one any good, and endangers many souls. Yet we are not the Judge of the living and the dead. Christ is. And He Himself has proclaimed that He has come not to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him. It is the right of every Christian to hope and pray for the salvation of all. And we have faith that in the final reckoning God is good and just and merciful and loving. Christ alone is Judge of the living and the dead. And in this comfort we rejoice.

Let us pray.

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.

In the Name of the Father and of the +Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Station VI: The Breastplate of St. Patrick

I arise today

Through a mighty strength, the invocation of the Trinity,

Through the belief in the threeness,

Through confession of the oneness

Of the Creator of Creation.

I arise today

Through the strength of Christ's birth with his baptism,

Through the strength of his crucifixion with his burial,

Through the strength of his resurrection with his ascension,

Through the strength of his descent for the judgment of Doom.

I arise today

Through the strength of the love of Cherubim,

In obedience of angels,

In the service of archangels,

In hope of resurrection to meet with reward,

In prayers of patriarchs, In predictions of prophets,

In preaching of apostles, In faith of confessors,

In innocence of holy virgins, In deeds of righteous men.

I arise today

Through the strength of heaven:

Light of sun, Radiance of moon,

Splendor of fire, Speed of lightning,

Swiftness of wind, Depth of sea,

Stability of earth, Firmness of rock.

I arise today

Through God's strength to pilot me:

God’s might to uphold me, God’s wisdom to guide me,

God’s eye to look before me, God’s ear to hear me,

God’s word to speak for me,

God’s hand to guard me,

God’s way to lie before me,

God’s shield to protect me,

God’s host to save me

From snares of devils, From temptations of vices,

From everyone who shall wish me ill,

Afar and anear, Alone and in multitude.

I summon today all these powers between me and those evils,

Against every cruel merciless power

that may oppose my body and soul,

Against incantations of false prophets,

Against black laws of pagandom

Against false laws of heretics, Against craft of idolatry,

Against spells of witches and smiths and wizards,

Against every knowledge that corrupts man’s body and soul.

Christ to shield me today

Against poison, against burning,

Against drowning, against wounding,

So that there may come to me abundance of reward.

Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me,

Christ in me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me,

Christ on my right, Christ on my left,

Christ when I lie down, Christ when I sit down, Christ when I arise,

Christ in the heart of every man who thinks of me,

Christ in the mouth of everyone who speaks of me,

Christ in every eye that sees me,

Christ in every ear that hears me.

I arise today

Through a mighty strength, the invocation of the Trinity,

Through belief in the threeness, Through confession of the oneness,

Of the Creator of Creation. Amen.

Go in peace. Serve the Lord.

Thanks be to God.