Most people who visit the historic 13th century Franciscan Church in Salzburg, Austria, come to see the magnificent altar by Fischer von Erlach and Madonna by Michael Pracher. That was what drew me there on my first of many visits 45 years ago.
These two works have the power to spiritually magnify those who come there.
When, on my first visit, I retraced my steps down the aisle away from the altar, I was startled to see in one of the side chapels a carved human skull grinning at me. as if enjoying a macabre joke I had forgotten. The skull was carved in an otherwise beautiful sarcophagus holding the remains of some ancient prelate of that church. Who, I wondered, would place such a disturbing image in such a beautiful edifice?
Later, I discovered that the grinning skull was a frequently used motif in churches of medieval times. The purpose was to remind mortals of their mortality, to help the living recall that, as the Book of Common Prayer puts it, "In the midst of life we are in death." Surrounded by life and its beauty, the grinning skull is a warning that life, as The Preacher (Ecclesiastes) tells us again and again, is "vanity"!
Ungraspable
Remember, however, that the Hebrew word translated in our Bibles as "vanity," is hebel, which literally means "vapor" or "breath" and which The Preacher uses to signify that which we cannot grasp or hang on to life because it is ungraspable by mortals.
Like the grinning skulls, The Preacher reminds us, not that life isn't good, but that it is fleeting: here today, gone tomorrow! So, when the days are good and fruitful, carpe diem! — "Seize the day!" When the days are dark — and there will be an abundance of dark days — survive the day.
To youth he gives this advice: "Rejoice, O young man, in your youth, and let your heart cheer you in the days of your youth.." (11:9). Make the most of youth while you have it, because, like a vapor or human breath, it is hebel — fleeting and impossible to hold on to.
To the mature person, he advises: "For if a man lives many years, let him rejoice in them all; but let him remember that the days of darkness will be many.” All that comes is vanity (hebel/ungraspable). So the young person is to enjoy youth while it lasts and the mature person is to remember youth and be grateful for it.
Whether or not we need grinning skulls in our churches, we all need to be reminded of and confronted with the fact that life is all too brief and all too hebel. We cannot hold on to life or the things of life, but we can hold on to God.
Seize the Day, But
This, however, is not an invitation to "Eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die." While we are making the most of the days that God gives us, we need to "know that for all these things God will bring you into judgment." (11:9b).
Yes, seize the day, but remember God is watching and judging what we do with our days.
The Preacher closes his book with his own "grinning skull," allegorizing the aging human body as a house in the throes of decay (12:3:-5a.):
For example, "the guards of the house" are thought to stand for the knees and the bent "men of valor" referring to tottering arms and legs. Young people have a hard time taking this seriously, but aging people do not.
So, The Preacher concludes, "Vanity of vanities…all is vanity" (12:8). But, as Dwight E. Stevenson has reminded us, "This is man's last word, but not God's." "Fear God and keep his commandments; for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing whether good or evil.”
