Let's Have 'Holy Days of Celebration'

The persistence of the so-called "Holy Days of Obligation" in the Catholic Church is evidence of just how badly Church leaders fail to understand their own heritage. The "days of obligation" are the remnants of great festivals of the past which have been deprived of all their power of celebration. If the leadership grasped the importance of beauty and celebration (which keep most Catholics in the church, regardless) they would rename the days "Holy Days of Celebration" and then make them authentic festivals one again.

The genius of the Catholic heritage is that it believes that God is present in creation, in the objects, and events, and people in the world around us, in the processes of nature, in the relationships among humans, in the great events that mark the human life cycle. The Catholic imagination is characterized by metaphors, a whole rainforest of metaphors which tell us what God is like. The Catholic tradition, at its best anyway, revels in sacraments and festivals at which it believes God is present in a special way. Hence music and art and architecture and poetry and story and ceremony are (or should be) at the center of Catholic life. In this respect we Catholics of European background have much to learn from our Latino(a) brothers and sisters. The Mass, even when it is badly done (as it often is) remains the very center of Catholic life.

Somehow or the other, in our Calvinist and pragmatic American culture, we have lost much of this element in our tradition. Those festivals which used to be great community celebrations are maintained in the calendar only as days we must go to mass under the pain of mortal sin. Most people find what they think is a valid excuse--or pay no attention.

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