St. Pius V Corner: Where, Grave, Thy Victory

The perennial dispenser of light is the Christian Easter, ever since that fortunate dawn, prophesied and awaited for long centuries, which saw the night of the Passion transformed into a resplendent day of joy, when Christ, having destroyed the bonds of death, leaped, as victorious King, from the tomb to new and glorious life, freeing humanity from the darkness of errors and the fetters of sin. Since that day of glory for Christ, of liberation for men, there has never ceased to be the flock of souls and peoples to the One who, rising from the dead, confirmed with the divine seal the truth of his word: “I am the light of the world; he who follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life” (St. John 8:12). From every plague all those who love and believe in the light converge to Him, thirsting and trusting; those who feel the anguish of doubt and uncertainty weigh upon their spirits; those who are tired of the eternal wandering between opposing doctrines, those lost in the vain shadows of the world, those mortified by their own faults and those of others. In all those who, like you, have opened their minds and hearts to the divine light of Christ, the miracle of the resurrection has been renewed to new life, in joy and intimate peace. The Alleluia which the Church sings today everywhere on earth, and to which you exult yourselves, is the living witness that Christ is still “the light of the world”, and will be so until the end of time: the light of truth, of unity, of life for human generations. 

Easter Message of Pope Pius XII, 6 April 1958

Makoto Shinkai’s Children Who Chase Lost Voices marks a turning point in the direction of his films. Prior to that, they dealt mostly with teenage romance bluffs – The Place Promised In Our Early Days dealt with two boys who grew up together with a happy-go-lucky girl that one day disappeared, and 5 Centimeters Per Second faced the issue of unrequited, slowly-fading love. However, in this 2011 production, many began to notice his capability of producing films that didn’t handle that subject. In it, a girl named Asuna goes with her teacher, Ryuji, to a celestial afterworld named Agartha, home to an ancient civilization that, once the frontier of technological knowledge beyond man’s wildest imaginations, has been reduced to a rubble of its glory, its remaining inhabitants living in primitive, desolate conditions. Their traveling through Agartha doubles as a consideration of death and its effects, which becomes one that opens themselves to the thought of things like eternity, resurrection, and one’s state in life, just as the Traditionalist Roman Catholic does.

The Case Of Ryuji Morisaki

Ryuji, grieving over his wife’s death

The two main protagonists of Children Who Chase Lost Voices come from similar backgrounds with respect to the topic, despite their different ages. Ryuji, a war veteran with the Archangel unit, loses his wife Lisa to sickness and since then has spent his life solitarily. For that case, his motivations to get to Agartha are made clear in the very first moment that he approaches its gate: not to gain ancient knowledge to surpass his adversaries, or the secret to eternal life for himself as Shin, one of its residents, assumes; but only to seek the means to revive her. As he travels through Agartha, we are treated to seeing flashbacks of the final moments he spent with his late wife. where we see the vast difference in their philosophies, if you will:

Lisa: If you ever feel that way, can you promise me one thing?… That, even when I’m gone, you will keep on living a good life.

Ryuji: Lisa, listen; my next mission will be over soon. When that happens, let’s, you and I, go back to my country together and live happily there! If you do that, I’m sure your illness will abate –

Lisa: Please, listen. I know you’re scared that I’m going to pass on. But everyone does that. For some, it comes sooner; for others, eventually. I know my time is near, but I’m ready for it.

Ryuji: No… Lisa… don’t say that. I’ll always be by your side, and you with me. I can’t imagine a world where I have to live and die alone with you…

Ryuji and Lisa on preparation for death

True to her word, that unfortunate day comes. Ryuji comes home from a war front expecting to see his wife, but to his despair, the next scene sees him before her grave. As if he were driven insane by the trauma he ignores her plea to look for happiness elsewhere, developing a fascination with resurrection myths like Agartha. He devotes the next stages of his life to researching them. Even in the very first scene we meet him he is teaching Asuna’s class about a Japanese myth of Izanami and Izanagi: of a man who travels to Hell to bring his wife back to Earth, only to see her decomposed corpse and lose her forever. I can’t help but notice how intertwined are the stories of his life since then, and the expedition to Agartha he undertakes is since – it’s painful, as Ryuji fights against the emptiness in his soul and the harsh environment; tumultuous, considering the extreme measures he has had to employ; and ultimately, destructive to his soul, for he literally loses an eye, can never return to the surface, and turns him to a cold-blooded figure who will sacrifice anyone and anything just for his cause. His way of dealing with death is through reckless action and irrationality.

Lisa, on the other hand, knowing that there is no way around her condition, and aware of the shortness of her life, lives peacefully and contentedly, relishing every moment – big or small – with her husband, and choosing simplicity over extravagance. She is firmly at peace; her eyes are firmly set on the joy of a world to come.

The Case Of Asuna Watase

Asuna and Shun sharing a moment in the sunset

Asuna, with her teacher, also experienced the death of a loved one – namely, her father. However, the manner in which her remembrance of him is far more innocent and childlike; she keeps as a memento a radio receiver he made prior to his passing, and spends days listening to it. Like Ryuji, this comes at the cost of her being isolated; her mother spending long hours at her job, she has to take care of the house in her stead, and explores the wilderness by herself instead of with others. That changes one day when she meets Shun, a runaway Agarthan, and for the first time in forever shares a moment with someone other than herself, that when he dies, she becomes distraught and even in denial over the news. Encouraged by Ryuji, who she invertedly meets with at the gate to Agartha, she travels to that land, also exposed to the same harsh environment as he, with several near-death encounters and near-miss saves from Shin, Shun’s brother.

It is after the third time that he saves her that, following a moment of spiritual epiphany together, they come face-to-face with an entity known as the Quetzalcoatl, especially one which was close to death. Shin proceeds to explain the scene:

Shin: Did you know about them? It probably came here to die. Before they die, they sing a song that contains all of their memories, and it goes out, changing the form of things everywhere. We don’t realize it, but the vibrations emitted by it enter our bodies and intermix with us, in such a way that their presence will always remain somewhere in the world.

Asuna: I’ve heard this song before, long ago. It’s never left me since.

Shin describes the Quetzalcoatl’s swan song to Asuna

Asuna identified the melody emitted as the same as the one she heard years ago – but not just that; it was, in fact, Shun’s very own voice that she heard, as described in the beginning to the very person himself: as sounding like someone’s heart, and filled with an ethereal grace unlike anything on Earth. With this revelation, it marks the point where she and Ryuji finally divert in their perspectives on death. Ryuji saw death as a curse that disconnects people from each other; the moment they pass from the other world, that’s it, your time with them is over, and this thinking clouds his reality, and veils him from making something out of him. On the other hand, witnessing the Quetzacoatl comes as a blessing in disguise for Asuna, who realizes that death can take away the physical presence of the person, but never their legacy or their significance. This is what lifts its veil from her eyes, and pushes her to see the world uncloudedly.

Just as follows in the Agarthan mindset: their attitude towards death far closely resembles a spiritual tone that takes little consideration to material affections, or acts on irrational emotion. Yes, they see death as a loss; but at the same time, it is something that, so to speak, brings many a thought for the soul to bear: the secret to overcoming the mood is not by a Frankenstein-esque violation of nature.

The Folly Of Death’s Grasp

Ryuji and Asuna conversing with the village elder over the topic of resurrecting the dead

Being a somber kind of film, Children Who Chase Lost Voices could also double as a Lenten movie of sorts. After all, the season of Lent is indicative of this gloomy period of the Christian year – in the Tridentine Mass, no more is the Gloria or Alleluia sung, instead suppressed to remind us of the hefty weight that Christ’s death intones; and the Eastern liturgy reserves the celebration of the Divine Liturgy only to Sundays, the weekday services being replaced with miscellaneous penitential services. Thus we are called to look more inwardly during this time, and consider our mortality even more. From the first moment we receive ashes on Ash Wednesday, the words “for dust thou art, and into dust thou shalt return” (Genesis 3:19) are pronounced over us, cementing the theme. Within the annals of Catholic spirituality, considerations of how to react to thoughts of one’s imminent death are the first among a category known as the Four Last Things (followed by Judgement, Heaven, and Hell). In addition to accepting our eventual fate of such, and resignation to the time when God calls us to leave Earth behind, there also speaks a call to courage amidst this trial-some moment, and to not lose heart in the midst of these afflictions.

Jesus Himself served as this example: thrice did He predict His betrayal and death at the hands of His own people, and thrice did He pray to His Father in Heaven to be delivered from what was to come: “Father… let this chalice pass from me. Nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt… if this chalice may not pass away, but I must drink it, thy will be done.” (St. Matthew 26:39,42). Bravely did He stand before the accusing Jews and their blaspheming leaders, plus the civil authorities who bent towards their pressure and imposed the Cross and other brutalities upon Him; yet for all this, inside He remained strong and at ease as He could be in the ordeal. This, in contrast to Ryuji’s perpetual grief, that led him on the road of obsession and near-insanity. His refusal to accept the mortality of himself and others, renders him unable to honour Lisa’s admonition and inert desire to see him changed. Even the village elder is quick to point his aspirations out as blatant fallacy, which indeed it is! For, supposing he does reunite with his wife, and find a worthy vessel for her, what will happen when he is on the verge of death?

Did he not stop to consider his own life is temporary? Had not he the vision of his wife’s grief if he too were to pass? Nevertheless, in becoming master over death, the question remains: then what? Should he go on warring against this, a certain defeat against this endless cycle of repeated hopelessness and paranoia will await him. That’s the point which Christ’s Passion enables: it is strong enough to break this grip, and with it came fruits of renewal: the covenant with Abraham was perfected, man is sanctified and blessed through the merits of His Passion, and our way to Heaven has never been more clearer than in the past. By His death, no longer is death something we should morbidly fixate on. As recounted in the Jerusalem Matins, the Eastern Rite’s Good Friday service: “For the domain of death you do destroy now, and the dead of Hades You do make to arise. I have laid up your word on my heart, that I might not sin against you. Now we magnify you, O Lord Jesus, our King, and we venerate your passion and lament your entombment, for there with you have delivered us from death”.

Consider, that there is nothing more certain than death… The day will most certainly come, when thou, my soul, must bid a long farewell to this cheating world, and all thou hast admired therein; and even to thy own body, the individual companion of thy life; and take thy journey to another country, where all that thou settest a value upon here, will appear as smoke… Consider, that death… and the time and manner of it so uncertain, it would be no small comfort, if a man could die more than once, that so, if he should have the misfortune once to die ill, he might repair the fault by taking more care a second time. But, alas! we can die but once; and when once we have set our foot within the gates of eternity, there is no coming back. If we die once well, it will be always well: but if once ill, it will be ill for all eternity. Oh! dreadful moment, upon which depends an endless eternity! O blessed Lord, prepare us for that fatal hour!

Bp. Richard Challoner, Reflection On Death (from his book Think Well On It)

To Live Is Christ; To Die Is Gain

Asuna’s mother coming home from her husband’s graveside

Let us move to the topic of Asuna’s experience now. In the beginning, we see a flashback of her visiting her father’s grave, with her mother. The latter remarks that Asuna’s father would not have wanted to cheat death; and one can see that although she breaks down in grief over the loss of her loved one, she tries very hard to stay strong for his sake; as if to say, “This is what he would have wanted, so I shall acquiesce”. Later, she re-experiences this again, albeit implicitly the first time, and then finally for certain when she and Shin meet the Quetzalcoatl singing its final song by the cliffside, appropriately named “Finis Terra” – Latin for end of the earth, upon which lies the Gate of Life And Death, which indeed is the destination for us at the end of our earthly stay. That second moment is what I find most redeeming in her as she goes from the weak-willed, easily-defeated girl we saw at the Izoku’s hideout, and again moments before, cowering out from them after not wanting to scale the cliffs to the Gate of Life and Death; the very next instant, she becomes determined to stop Ryuji from seeing his folly to the end: fearless to face whatever danger lies.

In relation to this theme the Resurrection of Christ – which St. Paul describes as the source and summit of the Catholic Faith – comes to my mind, where He overshadowed the horrors of death and its consequences, first by bringing to eternal life the just who had preceded Him and then communicating it to who else but His Apostles, among whom St. Peter testifies: “Blessed be God… who according to his great mercy hath regenerated us unto a lively hope, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, Unto an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that can not fade, reserved in heaven for you, Who, by the power of God, are kept by faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time.” (1 Peter 1:3-5). The day that the Risen Christ appeared to His beloved friends, proving to them His identity by the marks of the Crucifixion, they understood finally all He prophesized before. It motivated them: “He conquered death, we too shall gain a life far greater than our own now! What would we have to lose by believing His every Divine Word?” Thus the Eastern Rite antiphon remarks the reality of Easter beautifully: “Christ is risen, from the dead; trampling death by death, bestowing life to those in the tombs.”

Elsewhere, the Agarthan village elder commented to Shin the significance of death of Asuna’s former cat companion, Mimi, how it became part of a greater reality. St. Paul speaks the same in regard with Christ’s Resurrection, how He has reconciled life by it: “…that, through death, he might destroy him who had the empire of death, that is to say, the devil: And might deliver them, who through the fear of death were all their lifetime subject to servitude.” (Hebrews 2:14-15). This poignant quote would become Shin and Asuna’s rallying cry in the above moment: to overcome death’s grip, allowing them to find peace with Shun’s death, both of whom they loved in different ways, that troubled them throughout, and find joy. So too did the Apostles feel this way in their final discourse with Christ, shortly before His Ascension. His presence, physically, would no longer be: but they knew greater things awaited them; so with His Spirit in tow and grace abundant, they became bolder in contending for the Faith, even if it meant surrendering their lives for His name. No longer were they the same bewildered, hesitant folks who abandoned Him the night of His arrest, or hid for fear of the Jews in the following days. Christ’s great Easter miracle wiped away any inkling to that.

Accordingly, dearly-beloved, throughout this time which elapsed between the Lord’s Resurrection and Ascension, God’s Providence had this in view, to teach and impress upon both the eyes and hearts of His own people that the Lord Jesus Christ might be acknowledged to have as truly risen, as He was truly born, suffered, and died. And hence the most blessed Apostles and all the disciples, who had been both bewildered at His death on the cross and backward in believing His Resurrection, were so strengthened by the clearness of the truth that when the Lord entered the heights of heaven, not only were they affected with no sadness, but were even filled with great joy. And truly great and unspeakable was their cause for joy, when in the sight of the holy multitude, above the dignity of all heavenly creatures, the Nature of mankind went up, to pass above the angels’ ranks and to rise beyond the archangels’ heights, and to have Its uplifting limited by no elevation until, received to sit with the Eternal Father, It should be associated on the throne with His glory, to Whose Nature It was united in the Son. Since then Christ’s Ascension is our uplifting, and the hope of the Body is raised, whither the glory of the Head has gone before, let us exult, dearly-beloved, with worthy joy and delight in the loyal paying of thanks. For today not only are we confirmed as possessors of paradise, but have also in Christ penetrated the heights of heaven, and have gained still greater things through Christ’s unspeakable grace than we had lost through the devil’s malice. For us, whom our virulent enemy had driven out from the bliss of our first abode, the Son of God has made members of Himself and placed at the right hand of the Father, with Whom He lives and reigns in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God for ever and ever. Amen.

Pope St. Leo I’s sermon on the Ascension of Jesus

Conclusion

St. John Chrysostom, Patriarch of Constantinople and spiritual father of the Eastern Catholic Church

Not many anime out there reflect the Catholic soul of Lent/Easter as well as Children Who Chase Lost Voices, in my opinion; in large part due to its story of characters overcoming fear or the tremors of death, something that is typically hard to pull off but Makoto Shinkai managed to capture that and plough in some spiritual weight to make it more affable to watch. So worthily and clearly does it capture the sentiments of such, like how St. Paul in his epistles surrounding eternity, summarized it this way: “For this corruptible must put on incorruption; and this mortal must put on immortality. And when this mortal hath put on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy victory? O death, where is thy sting? Now the sting of death is sin: and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who hath given us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (1 Corinthians 15:53-57) May this, and the words taken from St. John Chrysostom’s sermon, traditionally read every such Easter in the Eastern tradition, provide insights to rejoice upon as we open the bright weeks of Easter.

Come you all: enter into the joy of your Lord. You the first and you the last, receive alike your reward; you rich and you poor, dance together; you sober and you weaklings, celebrate the day; you who have kept the fast and you who have not, rejoice today. The table is richly loaded: enjoy its royal banquet. The calf is a fatted one: let no one go away hungry. All of you enjoy the banquet of faith; all of you receive the riches of his goodness. Let no one grieve over his poverty, for the universal kingdom has been revealed; let no one weep over his sins, for pardon has shone from the grave; let no one fear death, for the death of our Saviour has set us free: He has destroyed it by enduring it, He has despoiled Hades by going down into its kingdom, He has angered it by allowing it to taste of his flesh… O death, where is your sting? O Hades, where is your victory? Christ is risen and you are abolished. Christ is risen and the demons are cast down. Christ is risen and the angels rejoice. Christ is risen and life is freed. Christ is risen and the tomb is emptied of the dead: for Christ, being risen from the dead, has become the Leader and Reviver of those who had fallen asleep. To Him be glory and power for ever and ever. Amen.

St. John Chrysostom’s Easter Homily, pgphs #2,4

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