HALLOWEEN OR THE ADORATION OF BAD SPIRITS (I)

October, 31st 2007. It is on the eve of All Saints’ Day. It is also Halloween according to a European pagan feast. During this day, many kids around the world are trying to act as the devil. It is also a best time for them to imitate, call, adore and celebrate the bad spirits.

On October 31st, we will see several kids dressing themselves up as a ghost with the bizarre clothes, going around the city, knocking on a door and asking small gifts. And people do not have to refuse. If so, our kids will curse them.

Moreover, the industries’ disguises are doing good deal: 5 billion dollars of turnover in USA in 1999 according to the National Retail Federation.

Should we stay in silence before these facts? How can we give way to the bad spirits in our world? We must not deal with the devil. He is there and every day, he wants to increase his power over Human Beings. John Paul II has spoken about him in his general audience in 1986. Here are some pieces:

“(…) As the evangelist Luke testifies, when the disciples returned to the Master full of joy at the fruits they had gathered in their first missionary attempt, Jesus utters a sentence that is highly evocative: "I saw Satan fall from heaven like lightning" (Lk 10:18). With these words, the Lord affirms that the proclamation of the Kingdom of God is always a victory over the devil, but at the same time he also reveals that the building up of the Kingdom is continuously exposed to the attacks of the spirit of evil.

(…) In the Old Testament, the narrative of the fail of man as related in the Book of Genesis, contains a reference to an attitude of antagonism which Satan wishes to communicate to man in order to lead him to sin (Gen 3:5). In the Book of Job too, we read that Satan seeks to generate rebellion in the person who is suffering (cf. Job 1:11; 2:5-7). In the Book of Wisdom (cf. Wis 2:24), Satan is presented as the artisan of death, which has entered man's history along with sin.

(…) In the Fourth Lateran Council (1215), the Church teaches that the devil (or Satan) and the other demons "were created good by God but have become evil by their own will".
It is clear that if God "does not forgive" the sin of the angels, this is because they remain in their sin, because they are eternally "in the chains" of the choice that they made at the beginning, rejecting God, against the truth of the supreme and definitive Good that is God himself...

HALLOWEEN OR THE ADORATION OF BAD SPIRITS (II)

(…) Satan wishes to destroy life lived in accordance with the truth, life in the fullness of good, the supernatural life of grace and love. The author of the Book of Wisdom writes: ". . .death has entered the world through the envy of the devil, and those who belong to him experience it" (Wis 2:24).

(…) In Sacred Scripture we find various indications of this influence on man and on the dispositions of his spirit (and of his body). In the Bible, Satan is called "the prince of the world" (cf Jn 12:31; 14:30; 16:11), and even "the god of this world" (2 Cor 4:4). We find many other names that describe his nefarious relationship with man: "Beelzebul" or "Belial", "unclean spirit": "tempter", "evil one" and even "Antichrist" (1 Jn 4:3). He is compared to a "lion" (1 Pet 5:8), to a "dragon" (in Revelation) and to a "serpent" (Gen 3). Very frequently, he is designated by the name "devil": from the Greek diaballein (hence diabolos), which means: to "cause destruction, to divide, to calumniate, to deceive". In truth, all this takes place from the beginning through the working of the evil spirit who is presented by Sacred Scripture as a person, while it is declared that he is not alone: "there are many of us" as the devils cry out to Jesus in the region of the Gerasenes (Mk 5:9)

(…) According to Sacred Scripture, and especially the New Testament, the dominion and the influence of Satan and of the other evil spirits embrace all the world.

(…) The action of Satan consists primarily in tempting men to evil, by influencing their imaginations and higher faculties, to turn them away from the law of God. Satan even tempts Jesus (cf. Lk 4:3-13), in the extreme attempt to thwart what is demanded by the economy of salvation, as this has been pre-ordained by God.

(…) The influence of the evil spirit can conceal itself in a more profound and effective way: it is in his "interests" to make himself unknown. Satan has the skill in the world to induce people to deny his existence in the name of rationalism and of every other system of thought which seeks all possible means to avoid recognizing his activity. This, however, does not signify the elimination of man's free will and responsibility, and even less the frustration of the saving action of Christ. It is, rather, a case of conflict between the dark powers of evil and the powers of redemption”. [i]

So, celebrating Halloween is contemplating the evil spirits. By doing so, these kids, encouraged by their parents, are allowing the devil to take place in their life. And parents should not to be surprise that sometimes their children have a nightmare. But, the big risk is that they can face in the future serious and unexplained psychological disturbances.

It is time to abandon Halloween and celebrate All the Saints, all our saints who take care of us and pray for us night and day.

[i] General audience, August 13th, 1986