As I get older and more senile, I am discovering gaps in my memory, which is a little unsettling. And it occurred to me that so many people are unsettled by the gaps in the year: the move from summer into autumn and winter, new year, mid-summer, mid-winter. The hour’s change in time which we experience today. When the seasons change not only can we expect colds and other ailments, but other uncertainties as well. What about more darkness, storms, and possible snow? Are we prepared for the coming winter? How is the Covid situation going to develop? Many customs survive that mark the crossing of these gaps and the negotiation of these uncertainties. The gaps need to be filled, the bridges need to be crossed, one part of the year has to be linked with the next, perhaps spirits need placating. In the face of such moments of uncertainty, fear and even threat, people often cope by making lots of noise, lighting bonfires, setting off fireworks, and dressing up, mimicking the spirits to frighten them off before they can frighten us on dark, winter nights.
According to the BBC Halloween is now the third most popular holiday season in England. Halloween transitions us from autumn into winter, and it continues to gather all sorts of little rituals to itself. The fact that here in the northern hemisphere we are moving from light into darkness makes this transition more alarming than most. In the Christian calendar we celebrate All Saints and All Souls during these days. The saints are the men and women who stand in the gaps of the year, who fill gaps, build bridges, keep things going. When I was a novice, I remember the Prior thanking a departing confrere from another house for ‘filling a gap’ when we needed a little extra help in Storrington. It seems there wasn’t much to say about his preaching or the other things he was involved in during his stay, his great contribution had simply been to fill a gap. It didn’t seem much at the time and was even amusing since the departing confrere was quite portly and was slowly eating us out of house and home. He had the habit of raiding the food in the fridge during the night. But perhaps filling a gap is a more profound, more important role than it seems at first.
Christ is the one who fills the most threatening of gaps. A new Moses, Our Lord stands in the breach (Ps 106:23; Amos 7:7) that alienates human beings most fundamentally from God. He is the Just One who stands in the gap on behalf of the people (Ezekiel 22:30; 13:5), the mediator who negotiates on their behalf, the one who secures the wall of the city. Crucified on a hill just outside the city wall, his body points in every direction. Christ is the still point of the turning world, the rejected stone that has become the foundation stone, the one who enters into the deepest darkness of the great gap of death and causes light to shine there. He stands at the gate, a crucified hero, the saviour of his people, the breach-mender.
Today we honour all those people, especially the ones who haven’t become famous, who have filled gaps with the love of Christ. We all know such people, not known perhaps to any other than our own relatives and friends. So already that is a lot of good people who in small, ordinary, but very important ways, have helped the poor, taught the ignorant, comforted the sorrowful, helped sinners to be reconciled, encouraged the downcast, forgave injuries, visited the sick and the imprisoned, and so on. These are all significant gaps which are filled by friendship and love. The saints are those who bring hope where there is despair, light where there is darkness, pardon where there is injury, and love where there is hatred.
The saints are those marked with the sign of the Cross, the sign of the just man standing in the gap. They are the poor in spirit and the pure in heart, hungering and thirsting for justice and peace. They weep with those who weep, and rejoice with those who rejoice, they show mercy, and they make peace. Understood in these ways there is nothing better we can say about those who have gone before us: the good and holy people we have known, who have filled the gaps with faith, hope and love.
May all the Saints pray for us.
Dum Tacet Clamat 