In a recent issue of The New Yorker, Joan Acocella writes on Fordham University’s recent conference on the hit HBO show, “The Sopranos: A Wake.” One of the presentations went as follows:

Philip Scala, a retired F.B.I. agent, said that the ritual by which Christopher was “made” was entirely accurate, down to the burning of the saint’s picture, but that, as part of the lowering of standards so often deplored by Tony, the DeCavalcante family, said to be the model for Tony’s crew, had abandoned the ceremony: “They would just have a pizza party and say, ‘You’re made.’” (This caused other families to disrespect them.)

I’ve never much gotten into The Sopranos on TV, mainly because we’ve never gotten HBO at home. But this little snippet did make me think about rituals of initiation and rites of passage. Any rite of passage seems to be inherently religious, very broadly defined, in that the rite involves its participants within broader systems of meaning that help to make sense of the world, particularly the world which the participants are now entering.

Like the Sopranos, rites of passage are malleable acts. One day they can involve venerated and elaborate rituals, the next they’re a pizza party. I would suspect many know just as much about rites of passage from watching My Super Sweet 16 on MTV as from a Bat Mitzvah. And yet, to the extent that all these rituals—even watching them on TV—involve us within cultural systems of meaning, they are no less religious, broadly defined.

While I was in divinity school, I served as vicar (ministerial intern) at an incredibly multicultural congregation in the Bronx, NYC. My supervising pastor, Dr. Dien Ashley Taylor, received his PhD in religious education. The religious education program at Redeemer is intensive, multidimensional, and lengthy, drawing on ancient and modern forms of the catechumenate. In an urban setting, this kind of depth is significant, since many of the “traditional” rites of passage that used to exist there have been deconstructed, replaced by rituals than have more to do with street violence and teenage pregnancy than college graduations or prom dresses.

As just one example, the first class in Pastor Taylor’s teenage confirmation class is to plan and then celebrate the simple ritual of a meal together, with homemade food, table conversation, and everything that goes along with it. For some—and this is certainly not a uniquely urban phenomenon—it is the first “family meal” they’ve shared with anyone in a long time. The simple ritual is a first but crucial step toward the family meal called the Eucharist.

In any event, it seems to me that part of what it means to be, or rather, to become human is to experience the rituals that pass us from one stage of life to the next. Even if you’re a Soprano.

Photo: AP