November: a time for contemplation
During this time we are invited to contemplate the Kingdom of God and how kingdom values affect our lives. Exploring and living with ‘Kingdom values’ steers us towards the parables of Jesus, with their emphasis on eternal values such as charity and getting our relationships right and re-considering where our ‘energy to live and love’ really comes from.
This season is full of anticipation of the new beginning of Advent and remembering what is of real value. During this month of November we move from the feast of All Saints (last Sunday) through the commemoration of All Souls tide (this Sunday), to Remembrance Sunday and finally we will arrive at the Festival of Christ the King (this year on 20 November).
A time for remembering
All Saints, which starts the season off on 1 November, provides an opportunity to consider the full range of the meaning of this season. Sanctity is – in spite of everything – accessible to us, not as a nice idea but as a reality pumped into the bloodstream of the human race by God’s action in the lives of his saints. The dark side of that confident rejoicing in our fellowship with the saints is the Church mourning her departed and commending them in faith and trust to God (All Souls – observed this Sunday evening). This commemoration as well as the Remembrance service next Sunday is a proper corrective to the rather forced jollity which is sometimes substituted for a sober confidence in the power of God alone to bring life out of death, light in our darkness. While we rejoice in the heroic example of the saints, we feel the loss of those we know and love and this is part of the range of the experience of anticipating the Kingdom of God.
Bernhard Schunemann
