Rector’s Note: I don’t need God, I’ve got a sword-10.29.26

This is one of my favorite Halloween stories: When our son Jesse was about four, he attended Sunday School at St. Cecilia’s Catholic Church, where we attended. Halloween was upon us and the kids were invited to dress up as their favorite saint that weekend.

Jesse was enamored with the story of St. George and the dragon, and we had been reading some wonderful children’s books on the subject. He wanted to dress up as St. George for his Sunday School class. So we made him some armor out of garbage bags, and a sword made of cardboard, which he was not to point at anybody.

As we drove to church that day I asked Jesse what he would tell his class about St. George. “I slew the dragon!” he cried. “Yes,” I said, “But I wonder if there is anything that you can tell your class about why St. George was a saint,”

“I slew the dragon!” he repeated.

“Is there anything else about St. George that you could mention?” I persisted.

“I don’t know.”

“How about you tell your class that if we have faith in God, then God will help us, just like God helped St. George slay the dragon?” I offered.

To which Jesse replied: “I don’t need God, I’ve got a sword.”

Nearly 30 years later it still makes me laugh. And haunts me a little. It’s funny coming out the mouth of a four-year-old. It’s scary when it comes out of the mouths, or policies, of elected officials, ICE agents or spiritual leaders.

Halloween is the holiday where we stand up to the things that scare us. For little kids, that includes monsters, demons, skeletons and the dark. And so we dress our children up as things they are not – royalty, heroes or villains, and any assortment of things that go bump in the night. And we send them off to do forbidden things in very licit ways – to walk around the neighborhood after dark, to take candy from strangers, to eat sweets late into the evening. All to illustrate that these things can be done in moderation, and the things that scare us most can be put in their place.

For those of us who are older and more experienced with death and darkness, the things that scare us are more complex – aging, illness and dying, violence, irreparable loss, financial threat, climate catastrophe, the upcoming elections.

Halloween can still be a night that invites us adults to defy our fears and to trust in the role models of faith. In fact, if there’s a fear in our heart there’s probably also a saint for that – one who has defied the terrors of life and has insisted that a loving God is bigger than all of that.

If you don’t dress up as your favorite saint for Halloween, you might still take a moment to locate one to reflect on and to emulate. This week at our Wednesday liturgy we celebrated the feasts of St. Simon the Zealot and St. Jude. I was always told that St. Jude was the patron saint of lost causes. That’s not a bad saint to spend some time with this weekend. There’s also St. Anthony, the patron saint of lost items, in case you have a hard time keeping track of things like your car keys or your sense of calm.

And St. George is still available, just in case you’ve discovered that you don’t have much need for a sword these days, but you still need God.