Rosaenstock-Huessy
argues that the feast of All Souls is the source of Western liberty: “Liberty
was promised to all souls, liberty, the great promise of Revolution, is first
heard in the Occident at All Souls” (Out of Revolution, 510).
The
feast accomplishes this by inserting death and the Final Judgment into the
rhythm of the Christian calendar. Mortals have freedom insofar as they embrace
death in life, insofar as they are able to shed old habits, loyalties, patterns
of life, and live on to embrace new ones.
This
liberty All Souls gave to the Western church. Freedom was, Rosenstock points
out, the theme of the All Souls liturgy: “’Free Thou,’ the Mass for All Souls
beseeches Heaven, ‘Free Thou the souls of all believers from the punishment of
hell, from the deep abyss, free them from the lion’s maw. May thy
standard-bearer, Michael, bring them into the Holy Light which thou didst
promise to Abraham and his seed” (510).
He
adds provocatively that this emphasis on liberty distinguishes East and West.
The Eastern church he characterizes as the church of “holiness and adoration,”
while in the west Christianity was always fighting for “salvation and
deliverance” (510). A generalization, surely, but one that has something in it.
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