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The Fall and Winter holiday season has arrived! One of my favorites is a Mexican religious and cultural three-day holiday, Dia de los Muertos, The Day of the Dead. It comes from a particularly rich and diverse historical background. Its religious roots are planted in the Catholic holy days celebrating the Communion of Saints in the first week of November. November 1st is All Saints Day, a day when the Catholic tradition celebrates all those deceased faithful who have been officially declared “saints,” and all those unknown but righteous believers who have passed unnoticed into heaven.
November 2nd, All Souls Day, is reserved for celebration of all those faithful who have died, the “faithful departed.” All Hallow’s Eve, the Vigil (day before the feast) of All Saints Day, since the Protestant Reformation, has also been known as Halloween. The Mexican version adds the living to the Communion of Saints, and turns the whole week into a celebration. The Catholic Church’s efforts to stifle Mexico’s observance of this tradition have only increased the holiday’s popularity.
Have you ever really been in love? Do you remember the silliest thing you’ve ever done for the person you loved? Those first feelings–the overwhelming feelings of desire, the obsessive need to touch, to hold, and to be with someone–have thrown all of us into frenzies of emotional activity, and sometimes serious foolishness. Love’s emotions move us beyond the realm of reason.
When people are really in love, they do “crazy” things. From the outside, it looks like madness. Thoughts of our beloved crowd everything else out. We forget to eat, we forget appointments, we forget responsibilities, and we’re consumed by our feelings. Everything we think, do, or say is defined by the presence or absence of the person we love. Love propels us into a feverish preoccupation with another person. You remember, right?
This weekend, I was listening to NPR’s Terry Gross interviewing Bill Maher and Larry Charles on Fresh Air about their new film, Religulous. And it had me thinking about just how many pitfalls there are on the road to authentic discipleship.
The argument behind the film is reactionary and visceral rather than logical. At least from their comments in the interview, and from reports of folks who have seen this film, Bill and Larry have not made an real documentary, but have, from a seriously flawed premise, constructed an ad-hominem attack on organized religion and anyone who looks for an authority above human understanding.
