Catholic Reading Wednesday

With many thanks to our awesome curator, Karen Celano, you can delve into a faith-related news article each Wednesday! Karen writes:

This week there were and are a number of exciting holidays and holy days in the Christian Church!  Last Sunday, October 27, was "Reformation Sunday," usually seen by Protestants as a celebratory and triumphal moment.  But Methodist theologian Stanley Hauerwas (a theology professor at Duke University who retired this summer) takes a different view, writing that even from a Protestant perspective Reformation Sunday commemorates a tragic event for the Christian Church.  God calls us the Church to unity - to catholicism and universality; the disunity of the Church that resulted from the Reformation, is, therefore, a sin.  Remarkably for a Protestant thinker, Hauerwas takes Protestants to task for not recognizing their own complicity in the sin of Christian disunity and looks favorably on the Catholic attitude towards faith and unity:  "It is extraordinary that Catholicism is able to keep the Irish and the Italians in the same church.  What an achievement!"  His article is a remarkable reflection as well as a reminder and challenge to all Christians (Catholics included) to work for Christian reconciliation throughout the world.

Thursday is, of course, Halloween, and in this article Dominican priest Augustine Thompson explains the Catholic origins of the holiday: its modern form developed out of a conglomeration of Irish Catholic practices of seeking to "frighten" damned souls in hell on "All Hallows' Eve" (the night before All Saints' Day) and French Catholic practices of dressing up as skeletons and ghosts on All Souls' Day to remind people of their mortality.  As European Catholics immigrated to the United States, these practices were merged, and other practices were added on over the years (he argues, for instance, that Trick-or-Treating emerged from Guy Fawkes Day celebrations).  All of these traditions were combined to create the distinctly American holiday of Halloween!  So if anyone tries to tell you that Halloween is a pagan custom, you can explain how the holiday actually emerged from Catholic countries for Catholic reasons!

Friday is All Saints' Day, and New Testament professor Greg Carey invites us here to reflect on what makes a saint.  Taking his starting point from Luke's Beatitudes, Carey argues that if a saint is a person blessed by God, then we must count as saints "not only those spiritual superstars who attain exceptional virtue" but also "people who are vulnerable, those society routinely forgets about - or worse, takes advantage of."  He concludes: "Where we may see poverty, infirmity or loneliness, Jesus pronounces God's blessing and presence."  Carey reminds us that All Saints' Day is not only a day to reflect on saints who have come before us, but also a day that challenges us to become saints ourselves by living out the call of the Beatitudes.

Saturday is All Souls' Day, and Chicago Tribune columnist Mary Schmich writes of her connection to the holiday, which she sees as an opportunity for her to reflect "on death and the relationships we retain with people who are gone."  (Personal aside: Her article touched me particularly, because like the author when I am in moments of crisis I still call upon the aid of two beloved teachers in my youth who have passed on - and I feel their presences keenly.)  On a lighter note, if you're looking for a way to celebrate All Souls' Day, you might try this traditional Pan de Muertos recipe from the Poughkeepsie Journal.  

Enjoy your holidays and holy days this week!