O Death, where is Thy sting?

The 15th Antiphon sung at Matins on Holy Friday demonstrates the height of Christian irony. 

Today He who hung the earth upon the waters is hung on the tree,
The King of the angels is decked with a crown of thorns.
He who wraps the heavens in clouds is wrapped in the purple of mockery.
He who freed Adam in the Jordan is slapped on the face.
The Bridegroom of the Church is affixed to the Cross with nails.
The Son of the virgin is pierced by a spear.
We worship Thy passion, O Christ.
We worship Thy passion, O Christ.
We worship Thy passion, O Christ.
Show us also Thy glorious resurrection.

During Holy Week, I asked my eighth and ninth grade Latin students to read through the hymn and identify instances of the rhetorical figure of parallelism. The two parallel terms in this figure always have something in common. There is a spectrum of identification, from terms which are the most similar to terms which are only related in that they are opposites. In this hymn, all of the parallels dwell within the range of irony, with one word or image uniting two very different ideas, and as my students hypothesized, the intent is to highlight the sheer absurdity of the Passion of Christ.

He who hung the earth upon the waters could not possibly be hung on a tree.
How can the King of Angels be decked with a crown of thorns?
I refuse to believe that the one who wraps the heavens in clouds is wrapped in the purple of mockery.


To me, the last parallel is the most shocking, and even sickening. I did not dwell on this one with my students.


The Son of the Virgin- the Door through which no man can enter- is pierced by a spear.

The whole thing is just so ridiculous.  It's one thing to try to identify with the terrible suffering of Christ as a man. That is understandable. I can extrapolate from my own experiences to approach a deep sympathy with the sorrow and pain of his Passion. As horrible as it is, I can comprehend the crucifixion of an innocent man. But the hymn leaves me dazed. The irony is stunning. Nonetheless, We worship Thy passion, O Christ. In fact, it's all we can say. Show us also Thy glorious resurrection.

So then He does. But does the glory of the resurrection obliterate the irony of the Passion? In years before, if I had thought about it, I would have shrugged a yes. This year, however, after dwelling so much on the irony, I saw it again in the angelic pronouncement to the myrrh bearing women:

Why seek ye the living among the dead? 
Why mourn ye the incorrupt amidst corruption? 
Go, proclaim the glad tidings to the apostles!

One year, my friends and I jokingly ascribed to the angels a certain sarcastic tone-- Um... why would you do that? Duh. He's not dead! How could he be?

The sarcasm is very good-natured, because the joke is not on the women, but on Death. In contemplating the irony of the death of the Life-giver, we are stunned with grief. But on this side of the Resurrection, the absurdity of looking for the Life-Giver in the graveyard can only make us laugh! Before the Resurrection, How can it be? is denial. Afterwards, it's gladsome- in fact it's hilarious.