of Caskets and the Cross
The
tree of life flourished in the midst of the holy city of Jerusalem, and
its leaves had power to save all the nations. *
The Paschal diptych of dying and upraising, of
death and resurrection runs like a crimson cord throughout the Bible
from the majestic opening verse of Genesis to the blessing that
concludes Revelation with sheer grace and timeless assurance. The
matchless nature
of the great Paschal Mystery of
Jesus Christ is deep-seated and vibrant. This ostensibly arcane notion
of Christianity is the touchstone of human history. It conceives and
gives birth to the whole child of Christianity. Moreover, it engenders
genuine, individual children of God re-fashioned with such love and
tenderness in the very image and likeness of God. This omnipresent and
overarching theme has the power to evoke lesser diptychs or
hinged-icons. These appear all the way through the biblical books. A
conscientious, prayerful reader of the Scriptures has more than likely
encountered the one which draws the interest of the present writer.
Eden in
its primordial day was the verdant home of two remarkable trees, the
tree of the knowledge of good and evil and the tree of life. The
central position of this tree of immortality has earth-shattering and
soul-searing significance. It is the pure and luminous centerpiece of
the garden. Once the tree of moral choice had been desecrated by the
original prevarication, Yahweh, in an untold gesture of loving mercy
banished humanity from the garden. If we had remained in the garden in
that original state of shameful sin and somehow touched the tree of
eternal life, humanity as a species would have been eternally lost in
that dread “outer darkness” of spiritual exile. Yes, we would live
forever but it would be a life of utter separation from the face of
God. The kind and courteous heart of God imagined a way out for
humanity, a way that remains pivotal and vital for us to this very day.
It is
both tradition and folklore which cherish the belief that this
untouched tree of Eden foreshadows another tree that will be planted
one day in another garden. This tree was an instrument of terrible
torture, and, yet, it stands tall and true as the standard-bearer of
new
Life. It rises on skull-mount,
beyond the golden walls of Jerusalem and it is drenched with the
life-blood of the Savior. At the beginning of his walk toward death,
Jesus shoulders the rough-hewn wood of the crossbeam. Once Jesus is
crucified, the woodholds him in its embrace. Christ is at one and the
same time wood-bearing and wood-borne. This is no accident, no
impulsive act. The sacrificial death of Jesus of Nazareth by
crucifixion is a divinely and humanly profound lesson in life.
Wood has a raw, natural magnificence that attracts
the senses, whether it is the subtle or striking coloration, the
quality of the grain or the warmth it seems to impart. As seen and
illustrated in the preceding paragraphs, the sacred timber of the cross
~ that forever living
Arbor Vitæ ~ is an image to
be inscribed on the tablets of the human heart. Contemporary Christians
can participate in this hallowed wood in a unique and profound way.
Theycan do so with a new-found understanding of the natural beauty and
gospel simplicity of
wooden caskets. Bereavement,
while inevitable, is not commonly a pleasant prospect for most people.
It is often something shunned and intentionally avoided until the need
arises. However, it can become a source of spiritual refinement and a
measured moment of
reflection. In a move beyond the
two extremes of the austere and the sumptuous, the realoption of a
simple, yet tasteful wooden casket can restore a desperately needed
sense of proportion and nobility to anyone’s final earthly setting.
Caskets crafted of wood, whether of the lighter tones
of pine and oak, or the darker palette of walnut or mahogany, they are
more than mere vessels for human remains. They serve as tangible and
touching reminders of both life and the afterlife. Such simple caskets
are in some ways reminiscent of the ancient Ark of the Covenant. That
precious Ark of wood overlaid with gold held the sacrosanct relics of
the great Mosaic covenant of Sinai. Whereas the Christian casket holds
the mortal remnants of a disciple, made so in the baptismal covenant of
water and the Spirit. The casket is the chosen abode, the wooden womb,
as it were, of the consecrated, human body as it lies in wait for the
clarion call of the Resurrection. The very material of the wood for
this vessel of the casket speaks powerfully about the hopes and
expectations of the deceased. Carefully considered and chosen, a wooden
casket can be a valid testament in and of itself of one’s core values
and strong beliefs.
Not unlike the wood of the Crucified, the wood of
the disciple’s casket represents a paradox and a pattern of an offered
life. Nobility, trust and an earnest poverty of spirit blend seamlessly
with a rich earthiness, a return to nature, a respect for the elements
and dignity for that pinnacle of creation, the divinely animated human
body. The wood of thecross was twice-blessed ~ blessed in its
primeval creation from the hand of the Creatorand blessed again by the
riven hands of Christ our God when he was pinioned to it in the midst
of his bittersweet Passion.
The ever-abiding, ever new Paschal Mystery finds
authentic expression in the aligned images of the wood of the cross and
the wood of casket. Another gradation of this diptych reveals the truly
embodied sacramentality of the wood we venerate as well as the wood in
which we lovingly inter the mortal remains of our loved ones. They
share a rare bond, one that integrates both matter and spirit. It is
nothing less than the incarnational crimson cord that entwines the
Bible
from beginning to end. The mystery of salvation is infinite. It dwells
in the child-like domain of faith, content to remain there in Sabbath
repose, the same repose promised eons in the garden of Eden where the
two trees grew in harmony until that fateful day of the Fall. With the
Fall came the first hint of the assurance of cosmic redemption, of
which the Church sings with full voice and joy in the course of the
Great Paschal Vigil. “O happy
fault, O necessary sin of Adam, which
gained for us so great a Redeemer!” ** Here, the sacred wood of
the
cross is clothed with splendor and limned by myriads upon myriads of
candles. The same is true on a somewhat slighter scale of the wooden
casket at the funeral rites of the disciples of the Risen One.
Written by a Mercedarian friar
* See the antiphon for the Psalm 2 of Vespers I
for the Triumph of the Cross.
** The Easter Exultet from The
Roman Missal.
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OLIVELEAF WEBSITE || UMILTA WEBSITE || OLIVELEAF WEBSITE || JULIAN OF NORWICH, TEXT AND CONTEXTS, WEBSITE || BIRGITTA OF SWEDEN, REVELATIONES, WEBSITE || CATALOGUE AND PORTFOLIO (HANDCRAFTS, BOOKS ) || BOOK REVIEWS || BIBLIOGRAPHY || FLORIN WEBSITE ©1997-2008 JULIA BOLTON HOLLOWAY
OLIVELEAF PORTAL