All Saints, Year B (BCP) more notes

[Ecclesiasticus 44:1-10,13-14]
[Revelation 7:2-4,9-17]
[Matthew 5:1-12]

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The Tomb of the Unknown Saint.
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I was thinking about the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier as I read the propers for All Saints. Looking into the facts a little bit, I actually learned that there are two U.S. "Tomb of the Unknown Soldier"s, and that quite a few other countries have a similar Tomb.

The themes of publicity vs. anonymity, of being known and being unknown, or fame vs. humility, seemed to run through this week's lessons.

It made me think of how powerful a symbol it is for a nation to have a formalized remembrance of those who are not actually remembered by name.

It also made me think, conversely, of all the places where, in the early centuries of Christianity, an unknown skeleton would be unearthed beneath a Christian church and immediately acclaimed as the remains (relics) of some Saint or another. There was this urge, this drive, to identify and name the persons discovered in the catacombs. Some of these attributions are now considered pretty speculative, historically speaking.

Why this impulse: to identify the remains of the faithful as someone famous? Is it not enough to know that a Christian, who lived and died in hope, is buried there? Is it less meaningful if it was an 'ordinary' Christian?

It seems that, if having a formal symbol for those who are not known by name is a powerful symbol, then being able to attach a name to an unknown has a different type of power.

But still, I've got to playfully wonder, why can't we have a "Tomb of the Unknown Saint?"


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Ecclesiasticus 44:1-10, 13-14
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The Ecclesiasticus reading contrasts two category of "men" who are worthy of praise. There are those who are still remembered, and those who are now forgotten.

The passage is rife with "honor/shame" culture language and interests. The concern is largely on public perceptions and acknowledgements of worth. A rainbow of "fame"-related words is employed:
fame
glory
"name"
honor
pride of their times
praise

Clealy, public acclaim is something which is expected to attend a certain type of life. Whether this acclaim is something which God rewards the righteous with ("The Lord apportioned them great glory"), or something which they intentionally strove after (they "made a name for themselves") or something which the public itself controls ("Let us now sing the praises of famous men"), it is both good and somehow correlated to right-living.

The categories of people worthy of such admiration are catalogued as those who have the most "public" roles, who are the most visibly impressive before the eyes of all:
- rulers
- the valiant
- intelligent counsellors
- prophets
- leaders
- lore-masters
- wise instructors
- musicians
- poets/scribes
- the rich

In contrast to those whose memory persevered, there are those who are now unknown. It is ambiguous: Are these others who have left "no memory" formerly famous, and now forgotten, or were they always unknown? In a passage so concerned with public fame and glory, the opposite of publicity might be not shame but anonymity. Whether or not these others were always nameless or have fallen from fame, they are anonymous now-- nameless, faceless, "as though they had never existed... as though they had never been born."

After this passage's concern with fame, we expect the writer to go on to describe this as a fate worse than death, but our expectations are shattered: "But these also were godly men, whose righteous deeds have not been forgotten." So, perhaps the fame which tends to accompany godly living is not its reward-- in other words, public acclaim is not the reason to live righteously, but sometimes goes along with it anyway. The anonymous "godly men" are not considered somehow unfortunate or lesser because their particular name is not remembered; they lived and died well ("Their bodies are buried in peace").

So, perhaps the acclaim is for us; that is, it is for the onces "singing praises," not properly for the saints themselves. The praise and fame and acclaim train our eyes on wholesome examples. To recognize what is good and praiseworthy in the lives of others is to hold before our minds those worthy of emulation.

To this end, the author does spend more time praising those whose name remains known to us (for these are the ones whose example we can most clearly fix our attention on), but spends a few verses acknowledging those who left behind no memory or record of their good deeds. Indeed, these "unknown others" are, as a category, worthy of our memory: although we do not know their individual names, their "righteous deeds have not been forgotten... their glory will never be blotted out... and their name lives on generation after generation." That is, although we cannot honor them individually, we can honor (generically, as it were) those who lived godly lives but are not especially known to us.

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Here's a blurb about the "unknown saints" who are among us now:
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The Church must bear in mind that among her very enemies are hidden her future citizens; and when confronted with them she must not think it a fruitless task to bear with their hostility until she finds them confessing the faith. In the same way, while the City of God is on pilgrimage in this world, she has in her midst some who are united with her in participation in the sacraments, but who will not join with her in the eternal destiny of the saints.

...But, such as they are, we have less right to despair of the reformation of some of them, when some predestined friends, as yet unknown even to themselves, are concealed among our most open enemies.

- Augustine of Hippo, City of God I.35, trans. Henry Bettenson