SUCH IS LIFE

This may seem an odd post for the last week of advent. This little thought was sitting on my computer in case of emergency - a busy day when I would not have time to post. This is one of thosse days.

When I was a kid and we drove past a cemetery we held our breaths and lifted our feet off of the floor of the car. I am not sure why but we knew if we could not hold our breath that long or hold our legs up until we cleared the cemetery, it was some sort of odious thing.

As teens we went into cemeteries at night to scare ourselves. If you watch a scary movie they so often end up in cemeteries. We create that kind of mystery and awe around them. One of my friend’s grandpas would say in an ominous voice every time (every time) we drove past a cemetery, “You know who lives there don’t you? Dead people.”

I hope you don’t feel that way around cemeteries. I was doing a committal service the other day at a cemetery, commending a soul to heaven, and looked out at the hill across from us covered with grave stones. I was not put in an eerie mood or felt a chill run up my spine. Rather it was more like looking at the graduation pictures in the hallway of my old school; all those faces who completed their time here and have gone on with great potential to live a life beyond the confines of that tiny school which seemed so big to us at the time.

I grant you, if you are missing the physical presence of someone due to death, a cemetery might break your heart – but it need not scare you; far from it. It should be a sign of hope – graduation monuments if you will.

DEAD AGAIN?

I will have the honor to perform (what is for me) an unusual funeral service today for someone with whom I was close. The person being buried is Catholic but has long since stopped practicing other than for funerals, weddings, and the odd ordination. Her family’s belief does not necessarily extend to an afterlife. So, in large part it guts most of what I usually have to say at moments like this and it makes me contemplate what we have. Some of the problems are tricky and challenging. How do I end a prayer? I can’t say through Christ our Lord – or make the Sign of the Cross. Though they understand that I am a committed Catholic Christian and these things will just have to be a part of it, it will not make a sense to make too much of it since it more likely will turn the family off than anything else. Other things are more challenging. For the Christian, in our sadness we have hope. Even if tears should stream down our faces there is always a little flicker of joy that the dates that will appear below the name of the person on their grave marker will not simply mark a birth and death year, but two birth years; one into this world, one into the next. When we look at a graveyard we not only see those to whom we had to say goodbye, but we also call to mind that they are waiting to greet us again when we come to join them. And not in just some anonymous way – we don’t become part of some great energy or recyclable life system with no memory, but in a real and personable way. If we are so graced to enter into the kingdom of Heaven, I shall see those I love again for that is way Christ is in heaven and He is the foretaste and promise of what shall happen to us.

But what if you don’t have this hope? What does one do with death? We comfort each other, we remember, and we try to take what we appreciate in the life of the person and carry it on and hope that their memory lives on as long as their grave stone lasts. But like a torn down mansion – the person is simply gone. Look at this gravestone. This person did a lot – accomplished a lot. I know it because this person had it printed out on his gravestone. Is that the extent of our lives? What is left behind is a memorial in bronze we hope someone keeps the weeds from overtaking? This stone utterly depresses me.

The odd part to me is that it takes just as much faith to believe that there is not a God as it does to believe that there is one. I for one am glad I have God. Even if it turns out that I am wrong (and I do not believe so) I will have lived life in more hope and joy beleiving those I loved did not cease to exists at the end of the dash and date and that we are still united in Christ and we shall enjoy each other’s company again.

SYMBOLIC SATURDAY - COFFIN UP THE LAST OF THE SYMBOLS

Here are some more general symbols to be found around the cemetery and what they mean.

Anchors, when they are not denoting a seaman means hope.

Angels – rebirth, resurrection, protection, mercy.

Broken or draped column – Early death or grief.


Female figure – grief, sorrow.


Garland – Victory over death.


Laurel Leaves – Triumph

Lily – purity, chastity

Obelisk – Rebirth – connection of heaven and earth.

Sheaf of Wheat – Old age


Sleeping Cherub – Innocence usually found on a child’s grave.

Three steps – Faith, hope, and love.

Torch – Immortality – (inverted – Life extinguished.)

Wreath – Victory.

For some odd reason the Freemasons have a lot of graveyards hereabout. They are marked by the compass and square joined together representing the interaction between mind and matter. Often the letter G is found at the center. Some say it stands for God, other say geometry. As Catholics cannot be Freemasons, they should also not be buried in such cemetaries.

SYMBOLIC SATURDAY - ARE YOU DYING TO KNOW MORE?

Cemeteries are not places I would commonly think to hang out but more and more of them encourage people to use them to jog, bike, walk, learn, read, though I don’t think that I am up to even considering having a picnic there. Lakeview in Cleveland, a place I recommend you have a gander at, has programs on a regular basis in the summer. This brings to the attention the artwork that is there, (hopefully reminds us to pray for the dead) and helps keep vandalism down.

Perhaps the most common stone monuments are that of urns. “Ashes to ashes, dust to dust,” goes the saying and one can imagine the ashes of life symbolically held in this great stone pieces. Quite often the urns are dramatically draped with a cloth. There is some debate about what exactly (if anything) this means which may point to it meant different things to different people. For some it was just more artistically daring. According to Douglas Keister in his article “The Story In Stone” from “American Cemetery” October 1999, “There are those with more romantic views who say the drape represents the collapse of the partition between life and death or that the drape represents the shroud that is left after the soul departs the body.” In another publication it was said that the addition of the cloth meant to signify that here was a life that was cut short.

It is not over surprising that the definition of the drape is not “concrete” or “etched in stone.” (Sorry about that.) Symbols can morph and change. Perhaps early it meant something specific and then somebody saw it and said, “Cool, I want that!” and thus the meanings became blurred.

On Cleveland’s east side is another symbol that might shock visitors to the graveyard. Over the portico to the cemetery chapel there is a stone angel gravely staring down at everyone and clearly giving them the bird, back of the hand facing the people with the middle finger boldly sticking up. Back when the angle was carved however, this symbol did not mean what it means today. The finger, actually extended before the angle’s face is calling us to hush and be silent, for all should show reverence in the presence of death.

Well, if the real message did not get across, shock might achieve the same thing.