Halloween has been over for several weeks now, but to be honest with you, it feels as if it is a whole season this year rather than just a day.  It’s the one occasion of the year when we are actually given permission, indeed encouraged, to scare each other.  But it seems that this year, Halloween just keeps going on and on and on.  

You see, it is a really scary world out there. People may not be running around wearing masks and yelling “boo,” but one doesn’t need to go far to be frightened out of one’s wits.  Two large scale wars are raging and threaten to escalate into full-scale global conflict. Democracy as we know it in this nation is under serious and genuine threat. The climate is not only changing, but changing radically and quickly and in ways that will alter all life on earth.  Inflation is still on the rise causing many people on the margins to have real struggles in making ends meet.  Drug use and abuse continues to afflict young people who don’t always have the wisdom or skills to make wise choices. The list goes on and on and on. Halloween may be over, but the world in which we live continues to be terrifying.

And in the midst of these enduring frightening days, we Christians have the audacity to proclaim a God of love and a message of hope.  We followers of Christ continue to strive to live the Way of love even though our efforts seem so small, so ineffective, and even though the outcome is so unsure.  From whence comes such audacity?

Recently I heard a story from our bishop, Craig Loya, about a trip that he and his family took to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter in Florida. Having taken the time and expense to make the pilgrimage to Orlando, he and his wife discovered that their children weren’t big fans of roller coasters.  And really, the whole point of the Wizarding World is the roller coasters!  In each roller coaster line, Bishop Craig sensed the anxiety rising in his children. As they were standing in line after line waiting for roller coaster after roller coaster, Bishop Craig and his family adopted a mantra: “Sometimes you have to do it scared.”

That would be a pretty good mantra for us Christians as well. Sometimes, we will have to do it scared. You see, I don’t anticipate that the world will become any less scary than it currently is.  These present crises may be resolved, but others will take their place.  It has been the nature of human history forever, and there is nothing to indicate that pattern will change. Faced with this frightening prospect, many people will become paralyzed. Many folks, even good-hearted, well meaning folks, will circle the wagons, will hold their families tight, will look at the stranger with suspicion or contempt, will hesitate to reach out, will put a freeze on their giving to good causes.

What about us who choose the Way of Jesus?  Christians trust in God’s providence, God’s grace, God’s eternal protection and salvation.  But that doesn’t mean that we won’t be scared or that following the Way of Christ will be easy.  Even if we have generous portions of faith and hope and love, we will be scared at times.  What does a truly courageous life of love look like?  Well, it looks like days of doing the deeds of Jesus, even when we’re scared.

May we choose to love even when we’re scared.  May we choose to give even when we’re scared. May we choose to welcome the stranger even when we’re scared.  May we choose to stand up for the poor and the marginalized and dispossessed even when we’re scared.  May we choose the Way of love, the Way of Christ, each day, every day, even when we’re scared.  It may feel like a real-life, not-so-fun, never-ending Halloween out there, but we can do this thing. It’s just that some days, we’re doing it scared.

~Father Art