"Nothing is certain in this world," my mother often
says," except for the fact that one day we will all die." A rather
stoic and sobering assertion, indeed, yet one that wisely embraces the
acceptance of life's ultimate limitation.
Old age and illness are perhaps the two realities that more
regularly confront us with our mortality. The brutality of violence and war
continues to assess — almost irrationally — a deadly toll on many. The effects
of poverty, hunger and lack of decent conditions to live shorten life for
others.
Rich or poor, young or old, immigrant or citizen, believer or
unbeliever, highly influential or almost invisible in the anonymous crowds of
our growing cities, death is the great equalizer.
Such thought echoes the author of the book of Ecclesiastes:
"For the lot of mortals and the lot of beasts is the same lot: The one
dies as well as the other. Both have the same life breath. Human beings have no
advantage over beasts, but all is vanity" (3:19).
During the last months of the year, Catholics reflect about the
reality of death. The church's liturgy brings us All Souls' Day. Among Hispanic
Catholics, the feast is widely known as "el Día de los Muertos" (the
Day of the Dead).
The Day of the Dead calls our attention to our communal identity.
It is not a day about death as an abstract idea or a mere superstition, but
about commemorating our dead in faith: dead relatives and friends, ancestors,
people known and unknown, saints, martyrs and witnesses.
The Day of the Dead is about cultivating relationships with those
who once lived with us and now live in a different way. The dead are not
completely gone. They remain alive in our memories; they remain in relationship
with us; they are alive in God.
This day is also about cultivating relationships in our families,
neighborhoods and faith communities as we remember. We live with gratitude for
what we received from those who are not with us anymore. We live inspired by
their memories and legacies.
We remember our dead to affirm life: life as a gift from God
through which we become present to one another in history. Life in Jesus
Christ, also a gift from God that never ends and incessantly transforms all
that exists, including the created order.
The Day of the Dead is a true sign of hope. More exactly, hope in
the resurrection. I am fascinated by how many Hispanic communities and families
celebrate All Souls' Day as Día de los Muertos with profound gratitude and a
sense of fiesta.
Many Catholics, perhaps influenced by the fears and distortions
about death that our culture impose upon us, tend to think of death mainly as
sadness, loss and isolation. From that perspective, it makes sense that one
wants to avoid it or ignore anything related to it.
The Day of the Dead, however, with its affirmation of the victory
of life against death, the celebration of relationships that bridge the visible
and the invisible, and the colorful symbolism that captures an omnipresent
festive outlook in Hispanic cultures, tells a different story.
Remembering the dead with a sense of fiesta is quintessentially
Christian. In Christ, the living and the dead partake in the communion of
saints. In Christ, any sense that death is final is no more. Life is.
U.S. Catholicism is enriched by how Hispanics, Latin Americans
and Caribbean Catholics remember our dead to affirm life. In this, we are not
alone, which is a major gift of being and celebrating our Catholic identity in
a culturally diverse church.
Ospino is professor of
theology and religious education at Boston College.