Dear Loyola community,
Which season is more grace-filled—Mardi Gras or Lent? The answer, of course, is that both can be spiritually enriching. But if forced to choose, I’d acknowledge that, at its worst, Mardi Gras in New Orleans is marked by destructive excess (think of its carbon footprint!) and vestiges of segregation. Yet, I’d argue that, at its best, it more closely resembles heaven.
Look at Jesus. He had a reputation for eating, drinking, and socializing. Not self-denial but feasting supplied him with imagery for describing heaven, and the last gathering with his followers was over a meal with wine.
Think about streets. They are normally dangerous and polluting. In New Orleans, they have functioned like train tracks elsewhere, dividing people along economic and ethnic lines. Canal Street, for example, once separated the city’s American and French sectors.
During Mardi Gras, streets are transformed into playgrounds for children and into strolling paths for adults. They become not only kitchens where weekend chefs prepare feasts but also dance halls where amateur musicians and DJs entertain. They invite people who would never otherwise cross paths or acknowledge each other’s existence to exchange greetings of “Happy Mardi Gras,” for at least this short time.
Streets during Mardi Gras approach the promise of the prophet Isaiah’s peaceable kingdom that uses animals living in harmony to anticipate a time when we humans (and maybe even all creation) might do the same: “Then the wolf shall be a guest of the lamb…; the calf and the young lion shall browse together, with a little child to guide them” (Isaiah 11:6).
Mardi Gras in New Orleans has many problems, but it also offers a vision of how things can be different. It gives us practice in being civil across lines that usually divide and offers hope that our differences need not separate but may make our community stronger.
Tom Ryan, Ph.D.
Interim Vice President for Mission and Identity
