DAWN!

La Morte non e' la fine,
Ma l'alba della vita.
Death is not the end
But the dawn of life.

So goes the verse in the Capuchin Crypt at the Santa Maria della Concezione dei Cappuccini in Via Veneto area of Rome, commissioned in 1626.

Lovers of the macabre will be thrilled! The crypt (actually a collection of several crypts) bears the skeletal and mummified remains of over 4,000 Capuchin monks (and others), all arranged in intricate patterns and on display. Vertebrae, clavicles, scapulas, foot bones, hand bones, jaw bones (I know this reads like an old spiritual), pelvises, skulls, sternums—they’re all there. A fascinating tableau of elaborate, ornamental design. All with bones. There is a “Crypt of the Skulls,” a “Crypt of the Pelvises,” a “Crypt of the Leg Bones and Thigh Bones,” etc.

Apparently the monks would come to this odd place to pray and reflect on their mortality before retiring for the night.

Who did all this and why, is lost in the murky depths of history. One theory asserts this was the work of an escaped convict who joined the order. Apparently he wanted to atone for his sins, so he spent a lifetime making “art.”

Lovers of cappuccinos, though, will not be thrilled at all. (The name “cappuccino” actually comes from these Capuchin friars, probably from the coffee-color of their habits and their tonsured white scalps rigned by brown hair). Coffee afficionados will forever associate their morning beverage with this grotesque pageant of death.

But it does remind one of one’s mortality. In the final crypt underground, one reads these words:

Quello che voi siete noi eravamo,
quello che noi siamo voi sarete.

What you are we once were,

What we are you will be.

Creepy. But true.

It’s not entirely a bad thing to be reminded of one’s death periodically. However, it is not THE END.

The apostle Paul taunts death …

O Death, where is your victory?
O Death, where is your sting?
1 Corinthians 15:55

Taunt death? How could he, knowing he himself would succumb to it one day?

The sting of death is sin,
and the power of sin is the law;
1 Corinthians 15:56

Death, the Bible says, is the result of sin, a violation of the divine standard (“law”). That is what resulted in death, both physical, as well as eternal death, away forever from the presence of God.

But this was not to be the end.

… but thanks be to God,
who gives us the victory
through our Lord Jesus Christ.
1 Corinthians 15:57

Jesus Christ, God incarnate, paid the price of the sins of mankind, in your place and mine.

He made Him who knew no sin
to be sin on our behalf,
so that we might become
the righteousness of God in Him.
2 Corinthians 5:21

A magnificent exchange was effected: our sins accounted to Christ and his righteousness accounted to us.

And for all who believe this grand transaction, accomplished by work of Jesus Christ, eternal life guaranteed, and death now becomes only a dawn, a doorway, a portal to a better world.

For God so loved the world,
that He gave His only begotten Son,
that whoever believes in Him
shall not perish,

but have eternal life.
John 3:16

And one day, there will be a resurrection—bones and all!

Behold, I tell you a mystery:
… the trumpet will sound,
and the dead will be raised imperishable,
and we will be changed.
1 Corinthians 15:51–52

The monks were right. Enjoy your cappuccino and reflect on the dawn.