The Reliquary of an Old Jedi Master

There was a familiar motif in the expanded universe novels that often frustrated me:  the long journey to an uncertain destination.  There are quite a few examples.  In The Approaching Storm, Obi-wan and Anakin meet up with Luminara Unduli and Barriss Offee to trek across a desolate planet for many days.  Come to think of it, the same story element appears in the movies as well.  Why did the AT-ATs land so far from Echo Base?  Seriously, if they had landed a few kilometers closer far fewer transports would have been able to escape.

            Nevertheless, I am sure there are good tactical (or literary) reasons for these story elements.  But there is a reason I started thinking about this in the past week.  Last Monday night we were treated to a Rebels episode that briefly featured Luminara.  This great Jedi master of the Clone Wars was shown as a prisoner of the nefarious empire.  Kanan, the crew of the Ghost, and we the viewers, believed that we were on a quest to free her from captivity - only to be shocked and disappointed to find that she had met her demise.

     

       In a masterful piece of storytelling, which is only available in the Star Wars world, our new heroes make their way to Stygeon Prime, a snowy planet, to rescue an imprisoned Luminara.  Once they gain access, they arrive at her cell.  They enter and are faced with the image of the great Jedi master - but something is wrong.  There is a distant look in her eyes, as if she were not present for the events that are happening.  The image walks to a sarcophagus and melts into a mummified corpse.  What our heroes are too late to recognize is that this is a hologram and Luminara has been dead for quite some time.  Nevertheless, her mortal remains have some residual presence in the force.

            The long journey ends with disappointment, as Kanan and Ezra are now in danger of their own.  Enter the Inquisitor and the fight of their lives. 

            For our purposes here, let’s look at the power that Luminara was emanating.  Kanan felt her presence in the Force through he knew something was amiss.  She had gone on to be unified with the Force in death, but there was something beckoning about her remains.  There was some sort of power in them.  Her mummified body still had some connection to the soul she possessed. 

            In the ancient Christian traditions, this same thing is present.  Let’s take a quick look at a few moments in history.  In the early days of the Church, Christians were not allowed to worship in public or to build their own temples.  So they took to the catacombs to escape detection.  No government official was going to chase them into the sewers and graveyards.  While down there, the Christians celebrated the divine services on the relics of the holy ones who had gone on before them.  This is very important to understanding the relationship that the living Christians had with the saints before them, and therefore to Christ. 

            To this day, all altars in the Orthodox Church (like I have said, I do not know what other communions do) have relics of saints upon them.  There is a cloth that is given by each bishop that has sewn within it the relic of a saint, and usually a martyr to boot.  This cloth is opened up for the celebration of the Divine Liturgy. 

            The relics of the saints beckons us to the holy places - to the churches, on pilgrimages and to foreign lands.  We are called because there is an inherent holiness associated with the bones of the saints.  Not for morbid reasons or for the sake of nostalgia.  It is much deeper.  People of faith gather because there is the belief that the Lord has promised something much deeper.  He has promised redemption and resurrection.  On the day of resurrection, the soul will be rejoined to the body, albeit in a glorified state.  The relics we have now are reminders of what is to come.

            How silly a phrase:  reminders of what is to come.  And yet it is completely apt.  Jesus promised all of these good things to come.  With Himself being truth, His testimony is necessarily true.  Therefore, it will happen and we hope on this with a hope deeper than the word itself can contain.

            Kanan showed up on Stygeon Prime with a doubting hope, one that was unsure and full of self doubt.  Nevertheless, through the interaction with the great Jedi master who had gone before him, the next step in his development was begun. 

            We are all the inheritors of the great people who have gone before us, regardless of their ending.  We hope that someday all things will be set aright and good will triumph over evil.