I keed… I keed…
Today isn’t just Halloween… today is the day that Luther excommunicated himself from the Christian faithful and spawned a rebellion against God and Christ’s Holy Catholic Church Martin Luther nailed the 95 Theses to the door of the church in Wittenburg.
The Protestant Reformation would roil Europe in the bloody Wars of the Reformation for the next 50 years, ending finally with the Peace of Westphalia and the advent of the consolidated Ottoman Empire, which was once checked by the Holy League in 1571 at Lepanto and would be turned back finally by joint Protestant-Catholic forces at Vienna in 1683 — beginning Islam’s steady decline over the next 300 years until the present day.
Over 400 years later, with the idea of Christendom a distant memory, secularism the dominant religion of the time, and the enemy at the Gates of Vienna once more… Christ’s prayer “that they may all be one” (John 17) still goes unanswered in many ways. Yet the body of believers is waking… slowly perhaps, but waking nonetheless.
Martin Luther begged for a Christianity that was lived. For Catholics, Halloween begins a three-day remembrance that we all must die (Halloween), that saintliness is possible (All Saints Day), and that there are many who have gone on before us waiting to join us in Heaven (All Souls Day). This should stand in stark contrast to those preaching political rebellion on the eve of Guy Fawkes Day (Nov. 5th) where political change is trumped over personal conversion.
Now is a season to reflect on personal reformation above political revolution, as Christ did while he walked among us. Now is a season to reflect on those who have gone before us. Now is a season to pray for the Christian Restoration and ask yourself how you are living your faith, and if not… why not?
Happy Reformation Day.
