Halloween: A Morning Meditation

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Halloween is my least favorite holiday.

It’s amazing how many people decorate their yards with goblins, ghouls, and monsters. In some cases, people are having fun; in others it seems like they’re literally trying to scare us! 

I for one get spooked, even disturbed, at how obsessed people have become with violence and the darker side of reality.

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At it’s core, Halloween reminds us that life can often be scary. 

For example, I can think of a young mother who was recently diagnosed with cancer, a young man who was nearly incinerated in a car accident, a young child who’s depressed.

Scary things – real things – that happen to us in life.

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But Paul reminds us in our first reading that nothing – no event, no person, no diagnosis, no demon can separate us from the love of Christ.

Rather, God stands ready to extend his loving help to anyone who calls upon his name. 

This is the mark of a true believer, as Saint Paul says, one who knows that in the end the victory is ours, for “we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us.”