Alternative Halloween: "El Dia de los Muertos," "The Day of the Dead."

For a completely different observance of the season of death and dying, try the approach of Mexicans who each year observe, “ El Dia de los Muertos,” the “Day of the Dead” on  November 2, All Souls Day.

Although some Mexican communities have started to have a kind of Halloween on Oct. 31, Halloween has no cultural roots in Mexico. It is an artificial observance imported from the U.S. The familiar “Trick or treat” custom is foreign to the typical Mexican family who is not going to waste money on costumes.

 “The Day of the Dead," however, is indigenous in origin and Christian in practice. It’s no coincidence that “El Dia de Los Muertos” occurs on November 2, All Souls Day. It’s a sacred day for most Mexicans. Halloween…not so much.

I once joined an observance of “El Dia de Los Muertos” in a cemetery on the outskirts of Oaxaca, in the state of the same name.

By the time I arrived on All Saints Day evening, the city cemetery was already teeming with people who were gathering at their family plots. Children joined their parents and grandparents to observe the customs of the day. No one was dressed in a Halloween costume.

 I carefully made my way among the gravesites where family members had erected small altars. Children and youth brought flowers and entire families laid out plates of food for themselves and for the deceased.  At one gravesite, Uncle Jose was remembered by a favorite hat, a cigar and a home-made tamale all laid respectfully on his tomb next to a shotglass of tequila.

It’s dark during the observance of the Day of the Dead, Halloween in Mexico. The only light comes from the flickering candles at each grave which reveal the faces of those who have come to spend the night with their dead. While guitars play softly, each family respects the devotions of their neighbors.

As a non-Mexican I was not uncomfortable with the spirituality of the observance. The idea of recalling that those who have gone before us are still with us seemed right to me. The living had come to share one night by walking among the spirits of the dead in the place where they still lived.

Observing the customs of El Dia de los Muertos is a way of making a friend of death, since we all will have to experience it. It is a solemn observance of the reality of the spirit world. 

The entire family stays with the spirits all night, eating and drinking and singing.  If the candle flickering on Tio Pepe’s grave suddenly catches a wisp of air and moves or gets unaccountably brighter or even goes out, that is proof that Tio is there. 

The families remain all night with the spirits of their loved ones and do not leave until sunrise.

All Souls day used to be observed by Catholics as a day to bring flowers to the burial sites of loved ones. We prayed there and tended our grave sites out of respect for the memory of those family members who had died.

Our All Souls Day observance is like the Day of the Dead and very unlike Halloween. On All Souls Day, the Day of the Dead, we ought to visit a cemetery and remember that for Christian believers life is changed not ended at death. 

 

Lutheran Leaders Visit Pope Francis.

My Lutheran minister friend of thirty years sent me a notice of the recent meeting between Pope Francis and representatives of a coalition of Lutheran churches. (Oct 21, 2013)

It is remarkable that we have come so far in just the last fifty years.  There was a time here in the U.S. when Lutherans and Catholics wouldn't even acknowledge one another's presence. I, a Catholic, was taught Lutherans were heretics and Martin Luther, a renegade monk.

A Lutheran minister told me long ago that that his mother taught him to never trust a Catholic. These days, it looks like the pope and the Lutherans are trying to trust one another.

We've come far by dialoging. Lutheran leaders who have been in the forefront of ecumenical discussion think it's O.K., even good, to walk into the Vatican and meet the Roman Pope on his own turf. They hear him say that Lutherans and Catholics do not need to contend any more. That time is over.  It is a time of healing now.

In his opening words,  Pope Francis greeted his Lutheran guests as brothers and sisters in the Lord.
He encouraged both Lutheran and Catholic leaders to work on practical ways of achieving the unity that Christ, Our Lord, prayed for in John 17; 20-21.

I have been blessed to be friends with three wonderful Lutheran ministers in my life. Forty years ago, one of them gave me a print of the Last Supper (by P. C. Hodgell).

 He wrote on the back of the print the following prayer: "...toward the time when we will be able to take communion together."

Pope Francis thinks we are getting closer to that time.



 

Original Sin: It's more than a Forbidden Bite.

Original Sin is a concept we Catholics have inherited from St. Augustine.  In his book,“Confessions,” he explains why you and I are such a mess.

Adam and Eve, detail of  tomb  (Gerald Watt)

 Read the “Confessions of St. Augustine” and you will begin to understand why we have to suffer simply because two young people picked and shared forbidden fruit.  Why are we “attracted to evil” as one of the founders of my Congregation put the problem? Who would want to do bad? Who would choose to be evil?

Before you dismiss the idea that you might be attracted to evil, think of this: Doing evil can be fun (So I’m told).  Getting away with it can be more fun.

What does it feel like to steal an apple?  Well, you have to steal an apple to find out.

To toy with the possibility of sinning can be thrilling, heart-pounding, energizing.  To finally decide to do an evil thing is to experience a surging wave of pride.  Then, to actually do the evil act can be like the rush a diver feels as he jumps off of the high  diving board. ("I could break my neck, but ...what the heck!")

Sin is even better when a punishing angel chases you and is unable to catch and chastise you. The thrill of escape is captured by the poet who in the “Hound of Heaven” says “I fled Him down the nights and down the days… and under running laughter….” (Francis Thompson)

When you think about doing something evil that promises you some pleasure, your heart warms to the idea like a child who contemplates the forbidden coconut macaroons in the cookie jar in the kitchen. Such is the way of Original Sin.

We don’t choose to do evil because something is evil but because we are attracted to it as good. That’s how twisted our motivations become.  It’s only after the deed that we experience how sour sin can be.

As the Christian learns to ward off sin and depend on grace, he/she embraces more deeply the life of a follower of Jesus Christ. 

The sweet act of forgiveness which we experience in the Sacrament of Reconciliation, brings with it the sanctifying grace which begins to heal our troubled hearts. That grace is the same grace that was poured over us at our Baptism setting us free from the domination of Original Sin.

"...where sin increased, grace overflowed all the more...." (Romans 5:20)

 

Pope Francis Gives a Surprising Interview.

When Pope Francis was asked recently to answer the question, Who is Jorge Bergoglio?, he answered: "A sinner upon whom the Lord has turned his gaze."

Pope Francis gave this response in an interview in September, 2013. The interviewer was Antonio Spadaro, S.J. and Pope Francis remarks were published in "La Civitta Cattolica."

OMG! What modern pope has ever defined himself as, first of all, a sinner? What happens to our conception of the pope as the pre-eminent, holy, follower of Christ? A pope in our day is considered an icon of holiness.  All you have to do is think of John XXIII, Paul VI, John Paul II and Benedict XVI.

 Pope Francis wants to shatter the image we might have of him as reigning above us all in holiness. Pope Francis calls to mind the painting by Caravaggio of the "The calling of Matthew." The masterpiece hangs in the Church of St. Louis of France, in Rome. I saw it when I was in Rome two years ago.


In the painting, Matthew is in what appears to be a pub.  Along with him are several of his henchmen and they are counting the days take.

One young man fingers the day's haul and contemplates it. Jesus, barefoot, enters the pub with Peter.  Jesus points to Matthew and says "Come follow me" as he points at him. Matthew points to himself as if to say, "Are you sure you want me?"

Matthew, a despised Jew who worked for Rome against his own people, is called by Jesus to fulfill a destiny which Matthew had as a member of the covenant people.  Matthew was a ritually unclean Jew who gouged the poor and extorted from the rich. But, when called, he got up and followed Jesus as a member of the new covenant people.

Pope Francis feels he has been chosen through no merit of his own to be an apostle like Matthew.. Pope Francis does not set himself above us but situates himself with the rest of us sinners.

There is a quiet revolution going on in the Catholic Church.  In this fiftieth anniversary year of the opening of the Second Vatican Council, Our Lord has given us as chief shepherd, a sinner in need of the healing call of God's mercy, just like you and me.

Pope Francis is confident of that mercy and he knows that he is graced with the light of God.  He wants us all to see the light.
 

John XXIII, the Saint Who Opened the Windows.

Pope John XXIII will be canonized in a ceremony to be held at St. Peter's basilica in Rome during April, 2014.

Bronze statue of John XXIII, Italia (G,.Watt)

I am old enough to remember when Pope Pius XII died and Angelo Roncalli  was elected Pope.  He took the name John XXIII. Someone remarked to me on seeing him for the first time: "He looks like a butcher!"  Unlike the formal demeanor of Pius XII who seemed to have been carved out of a narrow block of granite, the new holy father was chubby, had an easy smile and was spontaneous.

When John XXIII announced that he was convening a Vatican Council, most of the bishops of the world were stunned. But, Angelo Roncalli was a seasoned Church diplomat.  He had been posted as the Vatican's nuncio to Bulgaria and then to a similar position in Paris as nuncio to France. He knew what he was doing.

John XXIII said that he wanted to open the windows and doors of the Church to the modern world. It was a leap forward by the Church that few thought possible.

I remember just a few years before John XXIII's election,  a "monitum" had been issued by the Vatican concerning vernacular liturgies."Monitum" means warning and we (I was a seminarian at the time) were warned not to even discuss employing vernacular in the Church's liturgy. Every Latin word in all the rituals was considered sacrosanct. But the Holy Father knew that language is the essence of evangelization. That is why the document on the liturgy was the first to come out of Vatican II and it stressed the use of the vernacular in all church rituals.

 I was present at the first Mass celebrated in English in the U.S.  Msgr. Martin Hellriegel was the main celebrant and the occasion was the opening of the National Liturgical Conference in St. Louis.  That day American Catholics caught a breath of fresh air which came through the open windows of the Church of John XXIII.

But it's not solely because John XXIII called the Second Vatican Council that the Church is celebrating his life at this time. Angelo Roncalli was a warm, pastoral presence. He genuinely lived the Gospel of Jesus Christ, heroically.

A few years ago, I was standing near the tomb of John XXIII.  Just in front of the tomb was a man and a boy of maybe 10 years old who I presumed was his son. They stood alone but I heard the man say to the boy as he gestured toward the tomb: "Il Buono Papa," the good pope.