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. They can 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 the cross was twice-blessed ~ blessed
in its primeval creation from the hand of the Creator and
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 ©1997-20229 JULIA BOLTON HOLLOWAY
OLIVELEAF PORTAL
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