Celebrating Holy Week's Symbols
It's Hard to Say / Shutting up
for symbol's sake / How symbols work
Clarity and confusion / When a symbol
is a symbol / Building up church with symbol
The most concentrated, symbol-laden, primitive, critical, foundational, animating - I've run out of adjectives - liturgical time in the Christian calendar moves ever steadily towards us: Holy Week, cumulating in the Easter Vigil of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. We stand before the emotional well-spring of Christian liturgical experience.
On the eve of Holy Week, we have no time to worry about our liturgical skills and expertise: A rush of rich symbol tradition is about to sweep over us. All we can do is swim with it as best we can. Nevertheless, in the weeks ahead of Holy Week, we can try to become somewhat aware of symbol handling.
To prepare for Holy week, liturgy committees and pastors ought to read two books: 1) A Wack on the Side of the Head promotes our ability to see the ordinary in fresh ways; 2) Elements of Rite promotes liturgical thinking through a series of examples. We need to generate refreshed liturgical thinking about Holy Week because it contains a gold mine of Christian symbolic tradition. And most of us are plain clumsy when it comes to working with our own symbols. Let's assume that we're ready to meet our symbol tradition head on.
The most grievous mistake we make with all of our symbols, especially during Holy Week, is that we don't allow them to speak. This really means that "we" get in the way of the symbol. More times than not, the liturgical space "ain't big enough for both of us, see?" We cram a bunch of words over, around or through symbolic action. We forget that words and symbols are two different animals.
Both words and symbols work together but not in the same way. They are different. It's as simple as this: one is verbal - the other is non-verbal. We can never forget that difference. The mere fact that we find it hard to talk about symbols demonstrates this basic difference.
For example, we need many more words to describe an action than if we simply performed the action. To describe what happened and how we felt during a power failure, as we walked down the stairs, would take quite a while. However, suddenly turn off the lights when our listeners are about to leave the room and they will know immediately what we are trying to say. Symbols work immediately.
To trust symbols and our ability to work with them, we have to give up speaking for a while. We have to reflect on the power of a hug over the spoken phrase, "I care for you." Both "say" the same or similar thing. The hug speaks of caring in a totally di fferent way but it does speak. Similarly, washing someone else's foot has so much to "say" that words lapse into clumsiness. All the declarations of love in the world don't a mount to a hill of beans compared to allowing someone to hammer a nail into one's hand. The power of non-verbal action abounds around us if we stop and think for a moment. Let's assume we've begun to feel and trust the power of symbol.
Symbols become holy -- they speak-- through handling in the power of the spirit. Using objects in liturgy lets us recognize their holiness. The tradition of tabernacle is a prime of example of setting something apart which has been handled. Handling symbol is fundamental ritual activity. We handle symbols in at least four ways: we let them sit, we carry them, we present them, we let them speak.
A lit candle in a darkened room sits there but speaks nevertheless. On the other hand, a lectionary, hidden from view, sits there but is silent. A lector carries a lectionary in procession up to a lectern whereby both lector and book become associated wi th each other. The lector places the book on the lectern and leaves it. The lector returns to the book, opens it and looks at to find his text. When the lector opens his/her mouth for proclamation, the lectionary itself summons the previous actions together and speaks itself. Book becomes lectionary in the proclamation of the lector. As a source for proclamation, it becomes the deposit of the Christian tradition of the Word of God. The assembly is aware of all of these small actions. Carrying and presenting the lectionary lets the lectionary speak. Otherwise, it's just a book.
The most potent case allowing the symbol to speak is bread handling: bread before it is carried, presented and allowed to speak is simply bread. After being handled in eucharist, it speaks of itself as the body of Christ.
Sometimes these four aspects -- sitting, carrying, presenting, speaking -- overlap. Overlapping can be healthy or dangerous to the health of the symbol. For example, simnply carrying the lectionary in procession promotes the symbol's health. Trying to present the book in procession by holding it aloft one's head can be unhealthy especially if the bearer hasn't figured out how to be comfortable with this elevation. We look away from the book and gaze upon the bearer. The book stops speaking and the bearer starts.
When we uncover and cover the chalice, we cover all four aspects of sitting, carrying, presenting and speaking. Each aspect ought to be given room to happen, no more no less. After communion, for instance, be economical in handling the preparation and pr esentation for carrying the chalice. Let's not overdo it: we're not here to do laundry but to prepare and execute gesture.
Sometimes we have trouble discerning these aspects of how symbols work: just when is a symbol being presented and when is it speaking? This depends on the actual time, place and event. For instance, sometimes a symbol speaks when it is carried, sometimes when it is presented, sometimes when it simply sits, sometimes when it is handled like the wood of the cross on Good Friday. Contrary to our expectations, not every symbol does speak: plastic crucifixes at veneration and ornate monstrances or statuary too abstract for the community. Other times, we will find that a symbol begins to speak more often and during surprisingly different aspects of handling: a lectionary may start to speak as it sits near the entrance to the building, awaiting procession.
Discerning symbol is a lived skill. We feel a symbol's power to speak only when it does. Consequently, a particular element which we would have expected to speak symbolically may not. Even bread and wine, prime Christian symbols, can lose their power to speak in abusive circumstances.
Building up church with symbol
Holy Week is packed with symbol handling. Let's try to discern how these symbols work for us.
In this season of new life, we recall again the growth of community. The rich christian traditions handed down in our prayer life become crystals of light, pointing the way to loving service in the company of the saints. Especially, the renewing energy o f the newly baptized serves to stimulate our own energies for building up church and community. Our liturgical words and actions smack of loving service in the world. They serve us in at least three ways: they animate, critique and celebrate our christian living. Discipleship of the foot washing stands as a challenge to social jus tice. The sign of peace is only a sign when peace lives. Hands lifted in joy are unencumbered with sin.
Christ shepherds us into new life and service. He gives us again the tools and impetus to go beyond ourselves. The fervor of Holy Week and the unbounded joy and energy of the Easter season help us renew ourselves and rededicate ourselves to following him.
(A Wack on the Side of the Head, Roger von Oech, Warner Books, New York, 1983.)
(Elements of Rite: A Handbook of Liturgical Style, Aidan Kavanagh, Pueblo, New York, 1982.)
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