Hallow’een – with the original apostrophe – signals where it came from, All Hallows Eve. Of course you have to have an understanding of what the slightly archaic word Hallow means. We still use it in the Lord’s Prayer, Hallowed be thy name. If a saint is a noun – a person, place, thing or idea – to hallow is the verb that makes a saint. Yes, 3rd grade grammar, which is also something that isn’t taught anymore, can be useful. To hallow, is to make Holy. Hallow is a good old Anglo-Saxon word. The words that have replaced it – saint and sanctify – come from the Latin. Hemingway liked short sentences and Anglo-Saxon words. He thought those old words were closer to the living core than the more intellectual Latin. You take off your shoes when your gut senses the hallowed; the sanctified is something you ponder with your head. Which cuts to the quick?
And that distinction is something I want to think about here. All Hallows Eve was of course followed by All Saints Day and All Saints was followed by All Souls. The distinction is the medieval one – between those in heaven and those in purgatory. And hence it was something in need of Reform as medieval purgatory is not part of the true teachings of the church. Christ actually did save us. The Holy Spirit actually does hallow us. We do not owe the Pope penance or need to buy indulgences. A Reformed understanding of All Souls might simply be that the judgement as to our final hallowing is not up to us. We can grasp with surety the promise of souls with Christ, which is better by far (Philippians 1:23), for those who evidenced belief. But there are many who might have been baptized but did not evidence belief. Or had not in a long time. We do not know. And judgement is not ours to make. We commend their souls to the grace of Almighty God. All Souls Reformed is the shadow of All Saints. If we hold up the Saints as examples of faith to follow. We should also remember that everyone we meet has a soul with all that implies.
And that brings up the question, what is a soul anyway? Modern philosophers would dismiss the word. Tom Wolfe – the guy who wrote The Right Stuff – also wrote a famous article “Sorry, Your Soul Just Died.” What might be shared between ancient philosophers and modern would be that your Soul is what makes you, you. Plato and most of the ancient world asserted that your soul was eternal. It was a little spark off of the eternal one. And you – your soul – would eternally separate from the one and eventually return to the one. Eastern religion would call it the Wheel of Samsara. Modern philosophers, contrary to the ancient, would say Tom Wolfe’s title. Your soul dies with your body, sorry but nothing of you is immortal.
The Philosophers might bounce between eternal and mortal, but the Psalm writers are the greatest biblical students of the soul. Your soul is not eternal. You are not Christ, begotten of the Father before all world, God from God, Light from Light. You are not a spark off the eternal one. You are a creature. You were created. “You knitted me together in my mother’s womb (Psalm 139:13).” But neither are you reducible to just atoms. The Psalmist knows that he can’t boldly state the immortality of the soul. Lions might tear the soul (Psalm 7:2, 57:4). The soul might melt away (Psalm 119:28). One pleads that the soul might live (Psalm 119:175). Your soul depends upon the grace of God. But it is that gracious God who sustains you. “Yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death…He restores my soul (Psalm 23).” It is God who redeems your soul/life from the pit/sheol (psalm 103:4). It is the LORD who is the consolation of the soul (Psalm 94:19) and makes you the apple of his eye (Psalm 17:8). All this is why the Psalmist says many times, “Praise the LORD, O my soul (Psalm 146:1).”
We might think, and when we think we worry, about our souls – what makes us who we are. But our worry is unnecessary and often unhelpful. It leads us to false hopes like an eternal soul. It leads us to despair like a dead soul. Instead we put our trust in the LORD, our strength and tower. For He knows our worth. And he will hallow and keep you – keep your life – in Christ. Know it in your gut. You are being hallowed.