To Bury the Dead: the Necessary Rediscovery of a Medieval Spiritual Practice

Friday I spent most of the day in the library studying. On my way out the door I spent some time reviewing an extensive display set up in the library lobby on the Katyn Massacre. The top two thirds of the display were gave the historical details of the massacre (locations, reasons, impact, etc.) and the bottom third displayed photos of some of the men killed in the massacre. Such a horrifying, sad waste of life! So many wonderful young men killed, an estimated 22,000 of the best of 1940 Poland. The display talked quite a bit about the recovery of the bodies--the discovery of mass graves and the exhumation and reburial of the bodies. There was discussion of the care with which this was done--with a concern to do honor to the dead by the care taken of their bodies.

Then I came home and saw this news story about Tamerlan Tsarnaev's burial in Virginia. And I was deeply frustrated. Angry, even. I had been following the saga of Tsarnaev's body, because I was frankly scandalized that people were so unwilling to give his body a final resting place in Massachusetts, and that even Muslim clergy had indicated their unwillingness to preside over his burial. And now when someone had finally had the guts to step up and offer a place of burial, the community of  Doswell, Virginia had been downright begrudging to find themselves in the role of unwitting host to an displaced body.

I understand that people are grieving and it's hard to be in generous in such a state. But the majority of us (including this community in Virginia, presumably) didn't lose someone in the bombing, and thus can't be excused in that way. The talk of raising money to ship Tsarnaev's body back to Russia (lest he pollute apparently sacred American soil!) smacks of xenophobia, which I find deeply troubling. I'm all for patriotism in response to terrorism, but I get concerned when that seems to entail deciding someone's worthiness to be buried based on their nationality (or faith?). Or when we seem to believe that someone's basic humanity is negated by their involvement in terrorism (Some of those protesting the Worcester funeral home who accepted Tsarnaev's body had held a poster reading "Bury the garbage in the landfill.").

It seems to me it's time to rediscover some Medieval Christian wisdom on the subject. In specific the seven Corporal Works of Mercy:

The seven works of bodily mercy be these: feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, clothe the naked and needy, harbor the houseless, comfort the sick, visit prisoners, bury the dead.
                                                           --Middle English Sermons.

These works come from  Matthew 25:34-40, and thus are the works that Jesus gave as distinguishing the righteous from the unrighteous in the final judgement. Those who are blessed in this judgement are those who have done these works to the least (the poor, the unlovable, the undeserving) but which Jesus proclaims they have in reality done to him. The Medieval church embraced these teachings, painting them on their church walls as teaching aides and reminders.

The last work, "Bury the Dead" is not part of the Matthew 25 list; its addition to the list was apparently inspired by the apocryphal Book of Tobit, but also likely out of Medieval plague necessity (think "Bring out your dead!"...). Preparing a body for burial in such circumstances was not only nasty, intimate, but also possibly life threatening act. Handling the dead was a decidedly costly work in an age prior to refrigeration and embalming, where disease might have ruptured the body's envelope, where contagion risks were frighteningly mysterious. Think of the masked rescue workers in the Bangladesh Factory collapse painstakingly unburying the weeks-old dead. Not pretty. Not a glamorous role.

In modern Western society, there is little need for the laity to prepare the dead for burial, and the injunction "Bury the Dead" has an archaic ring to it. But now, here, is a sudden application. A sudden test for our attitude toward the least among us.

I don't know what the secular response to Tsarnaev's dispossessed body ought to be. I know there are both traditions that also honor the dignity of the human person, and those who take a disenchanted view of the world and wouldn't be too fussed about how the physical remains of a person are treated, terrorist or no.

But I do know what a Christian response ought to be. We ought to bury him with all the care and honor that the Polish buried their Katyn dead. If that seems wrong, that's the point. If it seems impossibly hard, then we know we're on the right track.

We ought to do what the funeral director in Worcester did: offer his body a dignified refuge from a state morgue.

We ought to do as one Connecticut man did: offer a burial place next to his mother's grave. 

We ought to do what the woman in Virgina did: recognize that Tsarnaev is the enemy Jesus told her to love and arrange for a burial in accordance with his religious and cultural background.

We ought to bury the body of this terrorist, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, as if it were Jesus' body.

Because the Christian story is all about grace. About undeserved goodness from God. About grace upon grace. Grace for Tamerlan Tsarnaev. Grace for Ariel Castro. Grace for Jerry Sandusky. Grace for Kermit Gosnell. Grace for Bashar al-Assad. In other words, grace for those we think should by rights be beyond grace. Grace for me.