The meaning of the Requiem text, part 6:
Isn’t it interesting that the first creative act of God recorded in the Bible, in the book of Genesis, concerns light? “And God said, Let there be light: and there was light” (Gen. 1:3 KJV). When we get to the last book of the Christian New Testament we see the same idea: “And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof” (Rev. 21:23 KJV). This bookending use of light imagery also plays out in the Requiem. Its very first line is: “Grant them eternal rest, Lord, and let perpetual light shine on them.” The title of the last section? That very same perpetual light, “Lux aerterna.” Just in case we didn’t get the drift, both “eternal” and “perpetual” are used.
Remember Michael the archangel who was discussed in last week’s post? He’s actually not involved in fighting Satan or bringing messages in our piece. Instead, he’s “the standard-bearer, holy Michael,” and his role is to lead the souls of the faithful into “holy light.” But if there’s light, there has to be the contrast of darkness, and the previous line makes that contrast clear: “Lest hell swallow them up, lest they fall into darkness.” (I can’t resist stopping here to point out some interesting aspects of the Latin: “swallow up” is the translation of absorbeat, or, as we’d say, absorb; so a transliteration would read “Don’t let hell absorb the righteous.” “Hell” is actually tartarus, a word that occurs only once in the Bible but which derives from the Greek word for the underworld. In case you wonder, as I inevitably did, if there’s any relation between this horrible region and the stuff your dentist scrapes off your teeth, well, apparently not. The Greeks called the crusty deposits on the inside of a barrel of wine tartaron, with, it seems, the resemblance to tartarus being completely coincidental. Those deposits are the source of the baking essential cream of tartar, and while your dental deposits aren’t chemically the same thing, the superficial resemblance was apparently enough for the term to become attached to them. Cream of tartar is potassium hydrogen tartrate, while the stuff on your teeth is basically calcium carbonate.)
The dismal situation waste and wild,
A dungeon horrible, on all sides round
As one great furnace flamed, yet from those flames
No light, but rather darkness visible
Served only to discover sights of woe (Paradise Lost, Book 1, lines 59-64)
The dichotomy of light and darkness symbolizes an even deeper one: God as the great and terrible Judge but also the only source of mercy. So, on the one hand we have the earth trembling “when the Judge descends from heaven to examine all things closely.” Those that He accuses will be “confounded, and doomed to flames of woe,” on a day of “tears and mourning, when from the ashes shall arise all humanity to be judged.” And yet this “King of tremendous majesty” is the same one “who freely saves those worthy ones.” The “righteous Judge of vengeance” is asked, “Grant me the gift of absolution before the day of retribution.” Two conditions are necessary for this deliverance to take place. First, God’s mercy–”Spare us by your mercy, Lord, gentle Lord Jesus, grant them eternal rest.” Second, man’s repentance–”I kneel with submissive heart, my contrition is like ashes, help me in my final condition.” The entire work ends with the words “because You are merciful,” leaving the listener to contemplate not man’s role in salvation, but God’s.And that about wraps up the Requiem, if so profound and glorious a work can ever be fully described and discussed.
I am indebted to the excellent translation copyrighted by the Memphis City Schools, 2002, for the English versions of the text given here.
