This upcoming Monday, December 8, is celebrated by Catholics as the Feast of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary: her parents’ conception of her without the stain of Original Sin. Her sinlessness is what led the (non-Catholic) poet Wordsworth to call her “our tainted nature’s solitary boast.” Non-Catholic Christians generally do not accept the doctrine about her being conceived without sin; the Church of England celebrates the feast on December 8, but simply as the feast of her “Conception,” with no mention of whether or not it was immaculate. Still, the Conception of the Mother of God is a pretty important landmark in the Christian account of salvation history, which would make December 8 an important date regardless of the dispute over the doctrine about her being preserved from Original Sin.

So imagine my delight when I learned, last month, while watching a documentary about Zen Buddhist monks, that the traditional date of the Enlightenment of the Buddha is . . . December 8. Our friend Father George Rutler published not so long ago a highly entertaining book about coincidences; I share his joy in them, and I am especially taken with this one.

So here’s my (admittedly puckish) proposal. For years, I have been reading paranoid religious conspiracy literature (another of my relatively innocent hobbies), and I have come across numerous dark warnings of a conspiracy to establish a One World Religion. I have looked around for congregations of this One World Religion in my area, so that I might visit one of their services; but I haven’t found any, so I suppose the project hasn’t really gotten off the ground quite yet. So: If they ever do get around to establishing the One World Religion . . . I propose December 8 as its chief holy day. When He schedules the conception of His Son’s Mother, and the Enlightenment of one of the world’s all-time greatest sages, on the same date, I think the Man Upstairs is dropping some pretty serious hints about December 8.

[This post was amended after original posting.]