October 31st is remembered worldwide as Halloween. Costume parties, horror movies, masks and more, but this is not the only thing remembered on this day. Several years ago it was a day that divided the history of the Church as we know it today.

"Peter the rock and on you I will build my church" are the words Christ said to Peter, the basis of the constitution of the Catholic church. As the centuries went by, the Catholic Church became an important part of the spiritual life of mankind, but also in the political and economic life.

At the beginning of the 16th century, the Catholic Church was the only institution through which man had a way or path to achieve salvation or damnation, to such an extent that the Inquisition had the power to judge and punish those who strayed from the faith. The Inquisition was born in the 12th century, gaining strength and presence in the following centuries until consolidating the "Holy Inquisition" in the 15th and 16th centuries, until its disappearance on June 10, 1820. The way to punish the so-called heretics was sometimes torture to atone for sins, leading some to death. Another activity of the church at that time was the sale of Indulgences. The Church gave certificates of Indulgences of Salvation if good works were shown and a specific amount was paid (Indulgences are part of Catholic life but monetary payments are no longer received for them). These activities awakened a great nonconformity in a group of Catholic theologians who did not agree with these practices on the part of the church.

On Saturday, October 31, 1517, Martin Luther, a German Augustinian Catholic friar, nailed the 95 theses of the Reformation to the door of the Church of All Saints in Germany. In it he exposed, among the most important, that the church is not a channel for salvation, it is up to each one to work out his salvation with Christ, and the only source of truth is the Bible.

This revolution, justified by many and condemned by others, gave rise to the birth of the Lutheran, Calvinist, Anglican and Baptist churches, among the best known.

For those who wonder if it has anything to do with Halloween, it was not yet celebrated on that day or as we know it today. Halloween came to be celebrated in the USA and Canada in 1840 brought by Irish immigrants and was not formalized until 1921 in Minnesota.

Would we have wanted the Reformation to have taken place in a different way and still be one Church? Of course we would, it is what Christ asks "to be one body" (Rom 12:5). On the other hand, today there are several churches and each one defends its faith depending on how they practice it, even though they all converge in the same God, Son and Holy Spirit (some do not).

Reforms like Luther's, the inquisition, indulgences and other practices have very good intentions, but in the hands of imperfect and selfish men (human nature) they tend to fall into the same errors that lead to greater division.

"The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? [10] I the LORD search the mind, I try the heart, to give to every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his doings" Jeremiah 17:9-10.

"Search me, O God, and know my heart; Try me, and know my thoughts; [24] And see if there be any wicked way in me, And lead me in the way everlasting" Psalms 139:23-24

Today a new reformation is needed, not outwardly but inwardly. It is not a question of changing the churches, because we are all the church. It is not about looking for what divides us but what unites us, not the error of the other but how I can be better and help the other to be better, pray more, criticize less, thank more, complain less.

May today October 31st (and every day) be remembered as a day where Jesus calls us to work on developing a close relationship with Him, may the reformation be in our hearts and together with the love of God we can fulfill the law that Christ left us "Love one another as I have loved you".

God bless you!