Are Relics a Relic of the Past?: Toward a Sacralized Skull and Bones Aesthetic and the Acquisition of a Healthy Corpore-Morbid Spirituality

Are Relics a Relic of the Past?

Toward a Sacralized Skull and Bones Aesthetic and the Acquisition of a Healthy Corpore-Morbid Spirituality

I. Introduction

II. Resurrection of the Body

III. The Saints and their Intercessory Powers

IV. A Sacramental Outlook

V. Conclusion: Why a Corpore-Morbid Spirituality?

Introduction

The Catholic Church is universal.  It has a place for everyone, and if it is functioning well, it takes whatever is good in their personality and turns it to the good of God, often in deep and unexpected ways.  There is a type of counter culture that likes to make use of bones in its art and imagery, and the universal church very much has an avenue to welcome them.  First, but less relevant to our purposes, is the counter culture aspect.  It is no secret that the founder of Christianity was counter culture in oh so many respects, though his life is an appeal by God to all humanity, thus his efforts are embraced by a host of macro and micro cultures in different and varying ways. 

For our purposes we want to talk about bones.  From “motorcycle clubs”, to punk rock / death metal, to voodoo, to goth, to practitioners of left-hand Tantric methodologies, bones play a key aesthetic role in many american subcultures.  Each of those listed appeal to a wide variety of types of people, but the appeal of bones unites all of  them together.  Skulls and bones are often the mark of an outsider in our culture, but our task here will be to apply the drag net of salvation in the Catholic Church and try to bring in those to whom such an aesthetic might offer solace. As noted those people often consider themselves outsiders, and this is the opening angle on how to flip a symbol meant as a repellant to a symbol aimed at the glory of God.  These people seek to channel the mystery of death and the dead to instigate fear and/or awe and up-play their outsider status.  In a way it is a valid trope.  Who is more of an outcast in our culture than the dead.  They are quickly forgotten and anyone on a certain approach to death is generally systematically stripped of all dignity by all but those who deeply care for them.  So in aligning oneself with its symbols one aligns himself with a powerful outcast: death.  It is as simple as that.  But the Catholic church has a deep aesthetic available to these people which can take this surface fascination and make it profound.

The devotion to relics has been almost completely put aside in the American Catholic Church and is rapidly dying off as a backward superstitious belief everywhere else.  But from the beginning of the church’s existence some sort of physical connection to the dead has been an important practice in Christianity.  Since a corpore-morbid aesthetic has been almost totally forgotten it may be important to reinvest our sacramental system with a sense of corpore- morbidity and offer an avenue to all those who seek to indulge such art in their spirituality.  The result would be to act as Jesus did, take outcasts whose purpose and meaning is scattered and give them a deep sense of purpose and an avenue of connection to God.

Resurrection of the Body

There are three key concepts to acquiring a healthy corpore-morbid spirituality in the Catholic Church.  Interestingly they are all doctrines and dogmas that are not overly focused on in modern Catholicism, though they are still believed in.  They have never been a focal point of protestant Christianity since its development.  Equally interesting is that these beliefs are all solidly foundational to ancient Christianity. They are as follows: the resurrection of the body, the communion of saints and their intercessory abilities, and lastly a sacramental outlooks towards the cosmos.  If one’s spirituality is calibrated with these beliefs closer to the center then a healthy corpore-morbid spirituality can be developed and used as a light to God’s almighty goodness in dramatic and beautiful ways.

The first neglected belief is resurrection of the body.  Since the time of the ancients some or other form of duality between soul and body has existed.  Such a duality was a favorite among the greek, who view the body with disdained and not so favored by pious hebrews who saw both body and soul as good creations of a good God.  The struggle between these two worldviews if painfully evident in the book of Maccabees.  By the time of Jesus the hellenization of the ancient world was entrenched in the roman empire.  The Sadducees had succumbed to the view, but the more counter culture Pharisees held firm to the Jewish belief in bodily resurrection.  Thus in Matthew 22 Jesus is questioned by the Sadducees about resurrection and he holds firm to the belief deflecting their attempt to paint it as inconsistent.  

In modern post enlightenment western culture the focus on the mind, cognition and the “soul” leads to a similar disdain of the body as the ancient greeks.  Because of this the long held belief of Christianity that the body will rise again and be reunited to the soul is almost forgotten by the larger Christian populace.  There are fringe protestant sects who hyper-focus on the second coming for whom this belief takes a central role, but they are often viewed with suspicion and trepidation by their fellow protestants.  The Catholic church in the teaching office of the magisterium still holds fast to the tradition as laid out in the creed, but the belief itself is almost functionless in the spiritual lives of those who practice in the pew, and even at the altar. 

But this belief is a stalwart of Christianity.  At the final judgment, the belief is that we will be reunited with our bodies, and those bodies will be glorified.  What exactly that means is mysterious, but one thing that it most certainly means is that the body we have in the end, though different, is continuous with the body we have now.  There is a common pattern when Jesus appears to his disciples after the resurrection.  First the believer does not recognise Jesus, then he does or says something to indicate who he is, then some sort of veil seems to lift and they believe without doubt.  The body is different enough that this lack of recognition is standard, like as if I knew someone as a child, left them at the age of seven, then randomly met them at the age of forty five.  I may not even recognize them at first, but as we find out who each other are, I will not be able to unsee the likeness once it is noticed.  

Another difference is that the bodies are what Saint Paul calls spiritual bodies, glorified, and therefore different in major ways than the state our bodies are in now.  For example the resurrected Jesus has the ability to be when and where he chooses.  A spiritual body is apparently not a ghost, but continuous with the body we have now, not some reality separated from it.  In both Luke’s and John’s Gospel Jesus eats when he appears to the disciples after the resurrection.  Jesus specifically tell Thomas that he is not a ghost in John’s Gospel and asks him to feel the nail marks in his hand and touch his side.  There is a definite continuity between what his body went through in life and how his body presents in the resurrection.  The analogy used by both Jesus and Saint Paul is the seed and the plant that springs from it, the same but different.  The bodies we have now are only a proto form of the full potential that they have, but, given that, they are the bodies we will have in the fullness of time.  Just as in some sense when you hold an acorn you hold an entire oak tree and when you see the mighty oak tree it is the full potentiality of the seed you held so long ago.  There is a connectivity between the bodies we leave behind and what we will be when all things revealed come to pass.

The Saints and their Intercessory Powers

In modern culture there is a taboo on all things death related.  That is why it is so easy to slap a skull on a bad piece of art, an album cover or a patch and  quickly brand yourself as an outcast to society.  The symbology is all but cliche’ by this point.  Still the effect is noticeable given things concerning death are not discussed in our culture.   So much so that neighborhood associations protest when a company want’s to open a hospice near by, and no one can give a reasonable explanation as to why other than property values may go down.  But no one can pragmatically explain why that would be either.   People don’t want to be even remotely associated with death. This, coupled with the disdain for the body in general makes it difficult to promote the beauty of the dogma of the resurrection of the body as well as the second dogma that is necessary for understanding a healthy corpore-morbid spirituality, the communion of saints and their intercessory powers.  

These saints dwell in the realm of the dead beyond our immediate sensory experience.  The same empirical methodology born of enlightenment rationalism exalts the mind over the physical.   It objectifies and alienates the physical to the point of the body being simply a dead object once the soul passes, but at the same time the soul cannot be empirically verified so any discussion of saints needs to be tabled as at best beyond our scope and at worst pagan superstition.  This twisted and contradictory bifurcation leads to an angst about death that wrapped itself in denial and silence until death itself decides to offer a reality check.  This lack of a healthy discourse on all things morbid has lead to a lack of any avenue for a healthy corpore-morbid spirituality.  This aesthetic vacuum will abide until we as Catholics can bring some of our key beliefs back to a more prominent place and allow them to fill out the shape of our devotion.       

The resurrection of the body is all but forgotten by the majority of the faithful, but most Catholics are aware of the saints, though their intercessory powers are greatly downplayed.  We know their great deeds and name our children for them, or at least make sure that the children’s name lines up with some saint.  But more and more the ancient connection to the saints as beings whom we come into relation with and pray together with is fading.  This tragedy may be partly facilitated by the rather effective argument from protestant Christianity that one should only “pray to God” and that the concept of the communion of saints is somehow a vestige of paganism that crept into Christianity with its legalization under constantine.  As I said the argument is effective, but only against the straw man that has been built.

A proper theology of saintly intercession is known to most Catholics, even if it is not practiced.  We do not worship the saints, we seek their intercession.  What this means is that we ask them to pray with us and for us.  The logic here is fairly solid as well.  No Christian of any variety would hesitate to ask a friend and fellow member of the body of Christ to pray for them in a time of need.  For ancient Christianity those who have passed to heaven have not stopped being members of the body of Christ and have not stopped caring about their fellow members.  They pray with us, and given their triumph through Christ and reception into heaven, they can be relied upon as excellent prayers.  So as much as you may desire to ask a person standing before you to pray, why wouldn't you want to ask someone standing before God to pray for you? 

I firmly believe that part of the problem is poor choice in words.  Catholics steadfastly say that they, “pray to the saints” for help.  The word “to” is truly a sticking point.  It does make it seem like a polytheistic overlay of Christianity.  By simply changing the word “to” to the word “with”, “we pray with the saints” all the confusion melts away and what is actually going on in an intercessory relationship is laid bare.  According to the church there are humans who have spiritually passed into the direct presence of God and are one with the Father through Christ.  Yet in this oneness they retain their personal sentience.  These sentient beings care deeply about the community which Christ founded, being part of it themselves, and seek to pray with that community who seeks to pray with them. 

Connect this belief with the resurrection of the body and what one realises is that the saints as they abide in heaven are in some way “incomplete”.  According to the teaching of the Catholic Church a human is not a complete human except in body and soul.  One without the other is a lack of completeness.  In Question 93 Article 1 of the Summa Aquinas says, “It is manifest that the happiness of the saints will increase in extent after the resurrection, because their happiness will then be not only in the soul but also in the body. Moreover, the soul's happiness also will increase in extent, seeing that the soul will rejoice not only in its own good, but also in that of the body.”  I say they are incomplete “as they abide in heaven” because their bodies still do exist here on earth.  Even if they have been dead for millennia, DNA traces most likely still abide even in the soil where they were reposed.  This is why cemeteries are sacred ground because the saints abide with us in these grounds.  They are still connected to what is present here and one day will re join with what is deposited there.  At this point the human is a trans-terra-celestial creature, as a complete being existing in both heaven and earth because the spirit is still bound in relation to the body, which is in seed form laying in the earth until all things are complete.  This seems like a long time from our point of view, but when your life span is everlasting it may turn out to be a short wait.

A Sacramental Outlook

Given all this, why not let them lay in seed form in the ground?  Why dig them up and carry their parts around?  These questions lead us to the last belief that languishes mostly misunderstood in Catholic Dogma, the sacramental nature of reality.  That there are seven sacraments of the Catholic church is well known by all practitioners.  The famous definition goes that a sacrament is “an outward sign instituted by Christ to convey grace”.  For our purposes I want to point out that those seven function not because they are magic rituals, but because of the belief that the entire cosmos is sacrament.  This more general belief is often underplayed by the faithful leaving the seven sacraments in a vacuum.  The basic view is that creation itself is an outward sign instituted by Christ (creation by the word of God from Genesis and John’s prologue) to convey grace.  The purpose of creation is to develop and support creatures made in the image and likeness of God so that they may come into communion with him.  Because of this, physical reality is not seen as a waste or deadness, it is a dynamic interplay between God and his creatures.  All of reality is sacramental.  This worldview allows for the seven sacraments, of course, but it also allows for revelation through scripture (pieces of paper), and through the human Jesus Christ (a physical person).  Without the sacramental worldview Christianity as a whole does not make sense.  

The broadness of the sacramental outlook is usually talked about in the pious corners of the church in terms of “sacramentals”. Classically sacramentals are defined as expressions of piety that extend the liturgical life of the Church, but do not replace it. They harmonize with the liturgical seasons, accord with the sacred liturgy, are in some way derived from it and lead the people to it.  What these physical things do indicate is that the entire cosmos is charged with God’s grace and this charge is encapsulated in the seven sacraments of the church.  Examples of sacramentals would be visits to sanctuaries, pilgrimages, processions, the stations of the cross, religious dances, the rosary, medals, and, of course, veneration of relics. [CCC 1675-1676]

That a human body can convey grace should not be shocking to Christians, Jesus’ body is THE conveyor of grace.  But what about a dead body, or worse a piece of a dead body?  How can that be a conveyor of grace?  Isn’t it too late by that point?  These questions seem just in a post enlightenment mindset where a dead body is seen a refuse with the rational mind departed beyond relation.  But that is not the world of Christianity.  Christ’s death was the achievement of salvation, his dead body was necessary for the redemption of all.  His dead body was also resurrected and is the carrier of glorification to creation.  It should in no way be outside the scope of Christianity to think that a dead body could convey grace seeing as how the mightiest deed of our religion was, in part, effected through a dead body.    

Christ goes on to found the church which is a trans-temporal reality, as well as a trans-terra-celestial reality.  The church exists as a unit from beginning to end and all of its members, all of their bodies, make up its whole.  When one venerates a relic, what the practitioner of corpore-morbid spirituality is doing, standing in the presence of that body, is they are standing in the presence of that human, soul and body still a unit in a trans-terra-celestial relationship.  That human is spiritually standing before the presence of God.  In effect you are standing with someone who is standing before God and asking them to pray with you.  When you look at it this way, why wouldn't someone want to do such a meditation?  The answer is simple, the dead are outsiders, just like the practitioners of corpore-morbid spirituality, and who wants to rely on an outsider?  Our bias against those not like us gets in the way of God’s free flowing grace.  And people who are body-soul separated are certainly not like us.  They appear very weak indeed, the body being inert and the soul being beyond our sensory experience.  It is hard indeed to conceive of these people as being our aid and protectors.  It was the same difficulty the sadducees and pharisees had in seeing a wandering carpenter as the messiah.  

Conclusion: Why a Corpore-Morbid Spirituality?

Many Great ends are achieved by those who practice a healthy corpore-morbid spirituality, and those interested in the aesthetic with peripheral depth would do a service to the church if they could develop that aesthetic within the profound framework offered by Roman Catholicism.  Those who would practice such a spirituality would be a great beacon to profound truths offered by the church.  The practice reconnects us to the languishing, but important beliefs of bodily resurrection, the communion of saints and the sacramental nature of the cosmos.  It reminds us of our fate, in the end our complete person will be trans-terra-celestial and in that we should not forget our fellow church members above and below.  It is a great meditation on the absolute unity of the church.  That the church as a unit exists across time, across geography and across the span of heaven and earth.

Connecting these together is a potent reminder of just how powerful God is.  All our presuppositions tells us that dead matter is useless refuse and good for nothing, but a corpore-morbid spirituality reminds us of what the Bible reminds us in almost every chapter, that God flips all expectations, he uses the most unexpected avenue to get achieve his will, in this case the supreme outcast, a dead body.  In this case his will is the connection of the church across space and time, across the cosmos and the celestial spheres and the conveyance of grace through the most unlikely of sacramentals, the corpse, the seemingly stagnant seed of glorification.