It's been theorized that every organized human activity is in some way powered by the awareness of death. Religion, of course, is heavily influenced by the inevitability of death; few persons would dispute that. But what of the assertion that seeking corporate employment expresses the same awareness?
We are born to die. If we who believe in a second life are correct, this first stage of existence is only a preparatory trial. If we're wrong, this might be the only trip we get. Neither proposition can be verified on this side of the veil of Time. But one of them leads to civilization, sobriety, consciousness of the future, and respect for one's fellow men.
The origin of Hallowe'en, as I learned it, was as a slightly irreverent European counterweight to the All Saints Day (11/1) and All Souls Day (11/2) solemnities. Both those holy days are, of course, recognitions of the inexorability of death -- but in the Christian fashion, which exalts the lives of the truly good and exhorts us to pray for the souls of our departed loved ones. They foster an awareness of fate and duty more taxing than many persons of today can endure. Perhaps the 21st Century Bacchanal that's developed from the once-innocent Hallowe'en festivities is a counterweight for those who find November's memento mori too heavy to bear. Given how spiritually flaccid so many of us have become, there's some substance to the notion.
Excellent comment, Francis.
Thanks.
Posted by vanderleun at October 22, 2008 2:39 PMChilling, Gerard.
Goosebumps all over.
Wonderful, wonderful piece.
Wow.
Your comment -"If you've noted, as I have, the increasing lust for gruesomeness in costumes . . "
Yes. I've noticed. Yes, I despair for a culture that's lost its way.
I will carve a pumpkin, though. The smell of cooking pumpkin rind and the flickering of the candle through a dark evening - comforts.
Perhaps it's just the evocation of my childhood in the 50's. God. We were all so innocent.
I think that guy was in line behind me to vote yesterday.
Treg
Very good Gerard; very good Francis.
Death cannot be appeased; why worship it?
Posted by Mikey NTH at October 22, 2008 4:20 PMGerard, I have told you before that you really know how to preach! I did preach something similar to this back when the gazillion-dollar federal prescription plan was being passed - what else did it exhibit but the fear of the eternal abyss, dressed up in language about "affordability?"
I am reminded often of Locke's observation that the deepest fear of human beings is not death per se, but "perpetual perishing," the disappearance utterly from both life and memory.
I also urge everyone to read, "Christ and Nothing," by David B. Hart. Excerpt:
And so, at the end of modernity, each of us who is true to the times stands facing not God, or the gods, or the Good beyond beings, but an abyss, over which presides the empty, inviolable authority of the individual will, whose impulses and decisions are their own moral index.And that is, I think, what we find so frightening: we have made ourselves gods, but at midnight, peering into the darkness, we know that we are only humbugs beind the curtain, neither great nor powerful. Posted by Donald Sensing at October 22, 2008 8:09 PM
Raised Catholic, with 12 years of parochial school, by senior year in high school I considered myself an atheist. But I was never one of those particularly militant ex-Catholics.
Now, at 43, I still don't particularly believe per se, but I've increasingly come to appreciate the value of religion, Christianity in particular in spite of its flaws (or rather those of its adherents thru the centuries).
Part of that is from knowing actual history -- the Christian West is the only source (at least the one that 'took') of the notion of universal human rights. Hell, Christian patriarchy-hating hardcore feminists ow their gains to Christianity -- there's a straight line from the Catholic cult of Mary (with some admitted pagan syncretism) to the chivalric view of women, to protestant Victorians deciding that giving women the vote would better civilize society. [The jury may still be out on that one ;)]
The other part of my renewed respect for Christianity -- and the religious impulse in general -- is this: I'm a husband a father.
The materialist view of death as an absolute end does not scare me much in its own right. Rather, what I call 'the Tragedy of Sapience' is: what truly hurts is knowledge of the certain deaths someday of all those whom we love.
IMO *that* is the real heart of religion -- not creation myths or a desire for magic powers -- and those who would mock even that core desire for comfort, for the sake of those we love, are indeed twisted.
Posted by newscaper at October 22, 2008 10:56 PMBrother Gerard,
Beautiful. When Donald Sensing drops in to compliment you on your preaching there is not much more to say than:
Say amen everyone!
Posted by doug at October 23, 2008 12:36 PM"Halloween has mushroomed into a major American fornication festival..."
Why am I always the last to hear about these things, dammit??! I KNEW those kids were looking older every year, and now I understand that girl last year dressed as a Playboy Bunny who asked me if I didn't have anything special for her! Whoa -hope she come back!
I wish she hadn't called me "Gramps" though!
Posted by sherlock at October 23, 2008 7:05 PMI grew up in Spain and vividly remember those outings when I was a little boy. The adults were, I thought, solemn, and seemed sad. Now, ending my fith decade on this earth, I understand melancholy, which is what is left after contemplating past happiness and remembering departed loved ones. It is not a bad feeling and I don't unerstand why people avoid it. It is just the remembrance of good times.
After the picnic we kids would play hide and seek among the tombstones. Once in a while, while hiding behind a particularly solemn mausoleum we would get spooked and would come out of hiding even at the risk of being tagged. I have always thought that this is the feeling that Halloween tries to recapture with all its fake creepiness.
Thank you, Gerald, for reviving these memories in me.
Posted by Freddy Hill at October 23, 2008 9:37 PMNailed Gerard,
"Without faith, more and more of us find ourselves hitchhiking on the cold plains with no chance of being picked up. Without faith, the vehicles that pass us on the high road just aren't going our way."
There is indeed a fate worse than death. It's going to ones grave not knowing why.
Jesus of Nazaeth, on His march to the grave, knew why and summed it up beautifully: "Let the dead bury the dead".
Posted by Denny at October 3, 2009 3:10 PMMan alone of all created beings shows a natural disgust for existence and an immense longing to exist; he despises life and fears annihilation--Tocqueville
Profound thoughts (hardly the right word) magnificently written.
Posted by Lance de Boyle at October 4, 2009 1:33 AMWonderful post! One could apply many of your points to the current morbid fare of zombies, vampires, psychokillers and gangsters Hollywood serves us for entertainment these days. Tho there are at times elegant and hmorous elements to some of the vampire stuff, wh is richer psychologically and artistically. Thanks for a better sermon than I heard Sunday...
Posted by retriever at October 5, 2009 9:45 AMI was having lunch with some forty-something co-workers in the cafeteria of one of the worlds largest healthcare centers when one guy looks around quizically and says, "You know, all of these prople here, in this room, someday are going to die!"
Posted by Mike Bailor at October 5, 2009 10:54 AMPost a comment
"It is impossible to speak in such a way that you cannot be misunderstood." -- Karl Popper N.B.: Comments that exceed the obscenity or stupidity limits will be either edited or expunged