So Paul, standing in
the middle of the Areopagus, said: “Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way
you are very religious. For as I passed
along, and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with
this inscription, “To an unknown god.”
What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you.” (Acts 17:22-23)
Halloween is past, Christmas is coming, and
not only are the geese getting fat but the doubters and mockers are getting
ready for another round of “demystifying” the Incarnation by pointing out (or
making up) connections to pagan holidays and practices . . . and then we’ll go
through it all again at Easter time.
Here in the time in between, I’d like to take a few moments to reflect
on the holiday (i.e., Holy Day) just past, and look forward to
those that are to come.
Good Cop, Bad Cop
First, a little background. Many, many years
ago, in the days of my neo-pagan youth, I recall reading that the Christians,
as they converted previously heathen peoples, intentionally built churches on
what had been pagan holy sites: the Church of Santa Maria Sopra Minerva in
Rome, for instance, built on the ruins of what was believed to have been a
temple of the Roman goddess of wisdom. In
the same way, countless churches were built adjacent to ancient circles and
standing stones in Northwestern Europe, including a whole series of churches
dedicated to St. Michael the Archangel, the scourge of Satan (the most famous
of these is Mont St. Michel, pictured above), which were situated on the hill
tops that were considered especially sacred by the pre-Christian inhabitants.
There was a
two-fold purpose to this practice, an ancient precursor to what we today call
the “Bad Cop, Good Cop” routine (wherein the suspect confesses to the Nice
Policeman, the Good Cop, hoping to earn his protection from the Mean Policeman,
or Bad Cop). On the one hand, we have a
concrete sign of the triumph of Christianity, a church built sometimes on the
very foundations of a previous pagan establishment, sending as clear a message
as one of those paintings of St. Michael with his foot on the Devil’s
neck. Consider also the very name of the
church of Santa Maria Sopra Minerva: “Holy Mary over Minerva”. The name does not simply tell us which
building previously occupied the site, it proclaims the victory of the Mother
of God over the pagan goddess. This is
the “Bad Cop” approach.
We can see the
“Good Cop” strategy in the passage from the Acts of the Apostles at the top of
the page. St. Paul commends the
Athenians for their religious devotion, which may well be an expression of a
real desire to find God, but directed toward false divinities. Rather than condemn the Athenians for
idolatry, he seeks to redirect them toward the True Lord. In much the same spirit, the Church seems to
have concluded that previously idolatrous peoples would accept conversion more
easily if they could worship the True God in the same places that they and
their ancestors had been accustomed to commune with the old gods. We can see this as an example of “Baptizing
the World”, of sanctifying what is good or neutral in the outside world,
and using it to build up the Kingdom of God.
And in cases such as this, how powerful must the effect have been when
the new Christians had a tangible sign, in the old familiar place, of the
Victory of Christ?
Trick or Treat?
We can see a
similar process at work in the case of many Holy Days. Not that the Church created them for the
purpose of replacing pagan festivals, as the naysayers claim: the Christian
feasts commemorate real events in Salvation History. Christian
feasts do tend, however, to subsume and Christianize some pagan practices,
which the Church often allows to happen.
Take Halloween, for example. A
couple of weeks ago the Catholic blogosphere was filled with commentary, some
arguing that Halloween is no more than a modern day pagan bacchanal, others
that it is at worst harmless fun, and still others explaining its Christian
source and purpose. One of the better
discussions is this one [here]
by Nathan Barontini. Of the “Four
Halloween Mistakes for Catholics to Avoid” Nathan’s mistake #1 is thinking that
“Halloween is ‘Pagan’ Rather than Christian.”
He points out that it is tied to the feast of All Saints established by
Pope Gregory III in the eight century in conjunction with the dedication of a
chapel to “All Saints” and not, as he says, “to compete with some Celtic pagan
feast.” Quite so. At the same time, one can make a case that
some pagan traditions did indeed attach themselves to the celebration of All
Hallows Eve, but here we see them serving a new master. As Mr. Barontini says (under the heading of
“Mistake # 3 – Make Halloween ‘No Fun’”:
The traditional ghouls, skeletons, vampires, and zombies all
speak to a simple post-Easter reality - Christ has conquered death. At Halloween we mock death, we laugh in
its face, proclaiming with St. Paul, "O death where is thy sting, O grave where is
thy victory?" (1 Cor 15:55).
In other
words, like Holy Mary Over Minerva, or St. Michael curb-stomping the Devil, our
celebrations on the eve of All Saints Day invoke images of death and corruption
in order to show Christ’s victory over the forces they represent.
Our Battle Is Not with Flesh And Blood
This is not to say that we should
disregard those Christians who warn about the demonic aspects of Halloween:
when Christ is out of the picture, all that’s left is death and corruption, and
the powers of darkness are left in possession of the field of battle. I have noticed over the past couple of
decades that, as the wider culture becomes less Christian, observances of
Halloween are becoming both more elaborate and more grotesque. And there is always a risk when we set out to
“Baptize the World” that, if we are not properly fortified and sustained by the
Faith and the Sacraments, the World may instead have its way with us. We should not, however, let the Devil have
the last word.
Our task is first to “put on the full armor of God” (see Ephesians
6:3-17) and then set out to reclaim Halloween for Christ, rather than
surrender it to the hosts of the Evil One.
It is good to bear all this in mind as we
approach the so-called “holiday season” (i.e., the Christmas Season). We will hear a chorus of claims that our
Feast of the Nativity is really “only” a thinly disguised form of the Roman
Saturnalia, or some Mithraic feast, or something similar (never mind that the Birth of
Jesus really happened, and these other things are based on fantasies). Even if it’s true (and most such claims are
highly debatable) that Christmas took it’s gift-giving from Saturnalia, or Christmas trees from some pagan Germanic Yule tradition, and so on, well,
so what? If these things ever did have pagan
origins, now they are in the service of Christ, who “will reign until he puts
all enemies under his feet” (1 Corinthians 15:25). So, be of good cheer, and when the time
comes, throw another Yule Log on the fire, because Christ is King.
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