Read the Bible with Me!

Welcome to the Pauline Family's "Year of the Bible"! I'm reading the Bible clear through this year, and I invite you to read along with me. But first, let us pray: 

My God, I adore and thank your loving and wise Providence, manifested on every page of Sacred Scripture. You have always been close to sinful and erring humanity, and have indicated the way and given hope. Amid the shadows of error and corruption, you kindled the light of your truth; amid universal corruption, you are the Just One; amid so much idolatry, humanity in every corner of the earth has cultivated a sincere worship of you.
Let my reading today increase my trust in your goodness, your mercy, and your unfailing faithfulness.

Today's chapters are 2 Maccabees 12-15.

I added a fourth chapter today so that we could finish the book AND the section of historical books.

Chapter 12 has a significant story in it. We have already seen that by this time (164 BC), belief in the resurrection of the dead had developed on the basis of God's creative power and faithfulness. Now we see that this belief in a future resurrection of the body also includes the possibility of purification from sin even after death, and in the possibility of intercession on behalf of those who have died. This chapter, in other words, offers a Scriptural basis for Catholic teachings about Purgatory (there are other references, such as Matthew 12:31-32 which references sins being forgiven "in the age to come").

Start reading here.

If you are looking for a solid but approachable companion to the Bible, I can wholeheartedly recommend A Catholic Introduction to the Bible: The Old Testament by John Bergsma and Brant Pitre. Although the authors are top-level Scripture scholars, they write for "real" readers. Notes include recent findings from archaeology and ancient manuscripts, and how each book of the Bible has been understood by the Church Fathers and used in Liturgy.

Purgatory, in other words

I have a lot of friends on Facebook whom I've never really met up close, but only know through posts and the occasional Instant Message. A while back I got one of those messages from a Coptic Christian in Egypt, asking prayers for his Dad, who had recently died. I wrote back asking him to also pray for my beloved Dad, who left this life ten years ago (his anniversary is next week).

My Coptic friend wrote back with Coptic consolation: "All Our Beloved People are in the Waiting Beloved Comfortable Place with God and Our Mother Virgin Mary and all Angels and Saints...
a Monk told me that today .....about my father."

The Copts put an interesting spin on what we practical Westerners call by its immediate function (purgation, purification). That antechamber to Paradise, where our loved ones still need and benefit from prayers, is the "Waiting Beloved Comfortable Place" where the deceased are not far from God at all. Sounds a bit like St Angela of Foligno, who insisted that the Poor Souls wouldn't change places with us no matter what they were offered: They love God ardently (ardens means burning!) and are drawn to him like moths to a flame. True, for now the flame appears to burn away what is still ungodly in them: all the better! They become more like God in the process, more "capax Dei" (capable of receiving God). They love their spot in the antechamber, because it is the guarantee of possessing God as he is. 

And that makes Purgatory a "Waiting Beloved Comfortable Place."

Dia de los Muertos

Growing up in New Orleans, the only All Souls Day tradition I was familiar with was visiting the cemetery--My godmother is probably to be found at this moment in St. Louis Cemetery #2, sprucing things up a bit at the final resting place of her parents, grandparents and great-grandparents. (The name inscribed on the family tomb is that of my great-great-grandfather.)

When I entered the convent, the sisters still had the custom of setting up a catafalque (a fake coffin) in the chapel, draped in cloth and surrounded by candles on tall candlesticks. We would pray an entire "rosary" using the beads to pray 50 times the prayer for the faithful departed: "Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them. May they rest in peace. Amen." It was all piously somber and subdued.

As the years have gone by, I learned of only a few other All Souls Day traditions: the permission priests had to celebrate three Masses; the Italian almond cookies called "dolci dei morti" (made only for November 2); finally, the Mexican traditions for the "Dia de los Muertos."

Until three years ago, the only thing I knew about the Dia de los Muertos was that candy was shaped

Making their way to Albuquerque's Dia de los Muertos parade.

into skulls and given to the kids. Then I took one of the Chicago walking tours into the Pilsen neighborhood, where a visit to the cultural museum presented me with macabre figurines of festively dressed skeletons dancing, playing music, getting married... I began to realize that the Dia de los Muertos was a way of thumbing one's nose at death, which, after all, has already lost the final battle. And then last year I was in New Mexico at the beginning of November, and went to Mass in Old Town Albuquerque right when a Dia de los Muertos parade was about to begin.

St Paul would probably have nodded in appreciation (once he got over the cultural shock!).  As an apostle, he knew: "Death is working in us, but life in you" (2 Cor 4: 12), but that went for everyone: We were buried with Christ in baptism (Rom. 6: 4), and having died, our life is hidden with Christ in God (Col. 3:3).

Obviously, there are a lot of pre-Christian customs that have been preserved in the Dia de los Muertos. I see that as a strength: the faith was able to "claim them for Christ" and put his stamp on everything.  The in-your-face celebrations of the Day of the Dead become a way of declaring with Paul: "Even though our outward self is perishing, yet the inward person is being renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things not seen are eternal" (2 Cor. 4: 16-18). 

The Dia de los Muertos is a day of hope!