Christian spirituality: Stewards of symbols
As a Church called to give witness, we must recognise the transformative power that resides within ecclesial symbols
Symbols can be powerful tools. Both within and without the Church, this is amply clear. Inevitably, then, the question of how symbols are used, treated or interpreted becomes all the more important. Such an evaluation necessarily intersects a variety of ontological, epistemological and ethical considerations. And, while much can be said of secular and political symbols, I am here more interested in the symbols emerging from the ecclesial context.
The Lenten period we have concluded and the Easter season we now find ourselves in are particular times full of symbols; from the use of materials and elements in the liturgy such as fire, water, oil and ash, or actions such as the waving of palms, the washing of feet, or the adoration of the cross. Within the wider Church, symbols and symbolic actions are essential to the faith – suffice to mention here the sacraments as symbols par excellence, or the Creed itself – the ‘symbol of Faith’.
In an address delivered at the University of Notre Dame last year, Norwegian Bishop Erik Varden reflected on the “symbol of Christ’s passion” in today’s culture. Firstly, Varden points out that “Christian symbolism is determinedly real and realistic. It’s focused on a historically wounded body”. By means of our symbols therefore, we recount, remember and actualise a historic event that happened at a specific time and place. This already gives a certain weight to our symbols, a weight that must be respected.
Unfortunately, however, this respect is sometimes lacking. We experience our fair share of liturgical actions that sometimes seem more like cultural evenings, PVC tubes cosplaying as Easter candles, the Easter proclamation (Exsultet) reduced to an Easter playback relayed on speakers, or the immersive baptismal waters of rebirth turned into a light drizzling of the forehead.
Symbols have power, but only when performed properly
We must realise that a poorly presented symbol is no symbol at all – if anything, it becomes the opposite (and the Greek opposite of ‘symbolic’ is ‘diabolical’!). We must be careful and watchful, therefore, lest we become symbolically illiterate and, in the process, estrange others from the reality the symbol is supposed to lead to. Symbols have power but only when performed properly.
But there is an even further challenge that such symbols pose. Over the course of the address, Varden calls out so-called “symbolic capitalists”. Quoting American sociologist Musa al-Gharbi, symbolic capitalists are those who “traffic in symbols and rhetoric, images and narratives” to achieve their own ends. Much can here be said about the exercise of symbolic capitalism by politicians from both extremes of the political spectrum (suffice to mention the current religious discourse employed by the Trump administration).
For this reason, Varden continues that the “symbol of Christ’s passion is not a symbol that we engender but a symbol that we receive. It’s that symbol that interprets us, it’s not we who interpret it. The question is: ‘Will I submit to its interpretation?’”
As a Church called to give witness, we must recognise that the transformative power that resides within these symbols is not ours to control or harness for our own means and ends. We are invited to be mere stewards of these symbols, faithful to what they present, open to what they challenge within us and responsive to how they invite us to change the world.
