Last mystery
Credit to Author: Tempo Desk| Date: Thu, 31 Oct 2019 05:50:03 +0000
HAPPY Halloween! In the old days when we were young, the short season of remembering the dear departed was known as “todos los santos,” the English translation being All Saints Day. These days the kids, they who rule our lives and whose lives rule our hours and days, prefer to mark All Saints (Nov. 1) and All Souls (Nov. 2) with costume parties and neighborhood trick-or-treating. Meanwhile, I wish I knew where “Undas” came from. Is it a Tagalog word and where is it rooted? In custom and tradition, or religion?
As usual, priests and pastors call out against the secularization of two holy days that could be better spent in prayer and with less revelry, especially when evil spirits like the devil, ghosts, witches and spooks are portrayed as playful characters when the truth is they should scare the h— out of you. The clergy ask, and rightly so, instead of imitating the look of frightful goblins and ghouls, why not put the holy saints of virtue in the center of the fun?
Why not, indeed? I have an answer but it may not be the correct one nor will it sit well with theologians. For starters, I would be more scared to look like a saint, many of whom died horrible deaths – by crucifixion, decapitation, being fed to lions, burned at the stake, stoned, speared, etc. Martyrdom was the way to heaven, a process that continues to be relevant today, with modern popes affirming that
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