![]() We tend to be either overly cautious to the point of self-protective impracticality, or in cavalier denial about the risk, thus endangering others. Then, when we’re forced to confront the fragility of our lives, with reminders like today’s ubiquitous Coronavirus face coverings, we don’t deal well. We even try to forget about our own death and often make our lives a quest for a distraction from it. Sadly, now it seems we push the death of even our own family members out of our homes and therefore out of our experience as well! As grandma becomes forgetful, she is too often forgotten and ends her days out of our sight. We are as distant as any society can be from the necessity of hunting and from the farm, where we once witnessed and respectfully relied upon the death of animals for our own lives. Interestingly, and in stark contrast to this memory, one could say that one of the most defining features of our modern society is that we have worked very hard to push away the thought and reality of death, along with any representation of it. Why would this thought be so worth keeping in mind that it bore dragging around a physical representation? Because it profoundly affects the way we live. Armed with a bow and arrow, she reminded all present that death follows us closely and takes aim at us, wherever we go. Dona Sebastiana was a life-sized hand-carved figure of a skeleton riding in a cart pulled by the last person in the procession. ![]() In northern New Mexico, processions of faithful penitents would often be followed by “ Dona Sebastiana“- a local and somewhat humorously affectionate name for death. My affinity for the skull goes back to some of my earliest memories. Just because the skull has perhaps lost its Faith-affirming connotations in our day does not mean that the symbol shouldn’t be fully embraced and re-claimed for the incredible consolation it can be to the Christian heart. ![]() ![]() If ever the skull is used to symbolize things of the occult, I obviously object to such uses! However, they are not my topic. They also bring out one of my favorite Christian symbols and one that is perhaps currently least understood: the skull.Īs a preface, please let me state that I mean to discuss here the skull as a Christian symbol. The Church feasts that come around this time of year -All Saints Day, All Souls Day, and the resulting popular secular celebration of Halloween (the eve of these feasts, or All Hallows Eve)- help us reflect on those realities. As the leaves fall, the weather turns colder, and the day shortens, we naturally think of the shortness of our own “day” on this earth. The Catholic liturgical year has a rhythm that keeps our lives tied to the seasons, and those seasons tied to the eternal. ![]()
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