12-step Eucharist St. Mark’s All Saints, Hell, November 5, 2025
“Blessed are you who weep now,/ for you will laugh.”
Generally, on this first Wednesday of November, we talk about those who have died using the lectionary readings for All Saints or All Souls. We talk about what we have learned from those who died, who have come before us. Recently, Jake Owensby, the bishop of Western Louisiana, wrote about a friend who died from addiction to alcohol and drugs. His friend lost his family, his home, his job, his health, and finally committed suicide. Many of us will have family and friends who have been like Bishop Owensby’s friend. They were people who lived a living hell. I also had an uncle who lived a living hell. I always dreaded calling him on his birthday. He would start to use abusive language and tell me what was wrong with me. He was a very unpleasant person to be around. You never knew what he might say next. I know he drank, but I was never sure whether it was alcohol that was interfering with his life. I do know he was mad at the world and went to his grave believing his father had loved my mother more than him. So, disturbed family dynamics can lead people to a living hell, just like alcohol and drugs.
Where is God in all this mess? Indeed, living the 12 steps, which are based on Christian teachings, offers help to those with addiction or to anyone having difficulty living life on life’s terms. But sometimes, for unknown reasons, help does not materialize, or is not accepted.
In the burial office and at Baptisms, we read the Apostles’ Creed instead of the Nicene Creed. The contemporary version reads that Jesus “descended to the dead.” By contrast, the traditional words are “descended into hell.”
Bishop Owensby believes the risen Jesus does more than follow us wherever we go. He is there before we arrive, before we are born. Jesus died on a cross and was buried in someone else’s tomb, which stands for our own graves. Jesus preceded each of us into dark places and continues to do that today. Into our darkest place. Into our hell. And that’s what we believe he did for the bishop’s friend and my uncle.
In the depths of his darkness, even after Owensby’s friend had taken his own life, his friend discovered he was not alone or unloved after all. I think this was true for my uncle as well. I imagine that as they both passed from this life to the next, they found that Jesus had preceded them into the tomb. Eventually, they heard Jesus say, “What’s two nice guys like you doing in a place like this? Let’s get the hell out of here.”1
1.Jake Owensby,“Faith and Salvation,” The Woodlands: A Place for Exploring the Spiritual Life. October 24, 2025.
Joanna joannaseibert.com