Ghosts

Fr dear Fr: Ghosts - how do they arise? Do they have material extension or are they visible only to some, or what is the nature of their exterior formalities? Do pray tell.

Something about movies. Something about Mary. My Best Friend's Wedding. Ghosts often arise from the story of some extreme love affair, sometimes of a love that is impossible or unrequited. Up to the advent of the movie "Ghost", there was much mystery about this subject and much to fear for ordinary people. But the musical score of that movie "Ghost", what with The Righteous Brothers singing "Unchained Melody" concretised it intensely for many and made it a most romantic tale of love never told, as two young people get to grips with the mystery of their deaths and their lives lived under the shadow of great corruption among the murdering figures of the shadow world. The lyrics of the Unchained Melody are apposite - "I need your love, I need your love." While eventually there is recompense for sick corruption as the Shadows come up for shadows. Darklings eventually absorb the darklings. A very timely movie at the time, and one which experimented with people's widespread emotions about a difficult and mysterious subject, and yet a simple one - the two young people concerned found that not even death could conquer their love for one another and their love for the truth about their deaths. Lives lived in the penumbra of the innocence of love and then cut short by foul means and unfair methods. Love produces extreme emotions. "Ghost" is one of those movies.

Hollywood is strangely well informed about these realities in many people's lives. Even the scene where the ghost tries to signal to his beloved ex girlfriend through the movement of a coin is an example of what Hollywood does seem to know about ghosts - they rarely experience material extension but sometimes this is allowed for some good and just cause in a particular case. Ghosts are lost souls that need prayers and sometimes they are souls that are allowed to walk the earth in particular places to remind others of the sad features of their lives, to remind others to learn the lessons of those lives and to ask others to pray for them, for the happy resolution of their much contested and much debated lives. This is especially true for cases in which a tortured soul takes his or her own life even if not committing the serious offence of suicide. So ghosts then can communicate with the living when they wish to and when they are permitted by the heavenly powers. There are cases in point of historical personalities who were asked to walk the earth in a particular place for a certain number of years. Queen Anne walked the earth around her castle for almost 500 years. Queen Catherine too of Aragon walked the earth around her castle too for something like 500 years. Both had a message to impart to young women who throw all of their lives upon the mercy of a capricious boy, upon some feeble human heart that is fickle and importunate. Earthly hearts may change and falter, earthly hearts may vary. "Ghost" is a nice tribute to the sentiments of the Hebrew love poems - "love is as strong as death."