The Sanctity of Bones

The relics of Saint Thérèse of Lisieux are coming to South Africa in June. If other countries are anything to go by, they will attract thousands of visitors, from devotees of the Little Flower to bemused, perhaps even sceptical, onlookers. Similarly, the remains of Australopithecus Sediba – or ‘the Boy’, as the staff of the Origins Centre at Wits University call him with affection – are the subject of visits by the curious, research and debate by the scientists, reports and articles by journalists, and fascination by the rest of us.

Why are we drawn to looking at bones, whether of saints or ancient hominids?

In a reinforced glass case, in a carefully lit temperature-adjusted room deep within the Origins Centre, lies Australopithecus Sediba. Nearly 1.95 million years ago he and his mother fell to their deaths through a hole in the ground at the Malapa Cave near Sterkfontein. Their misfortune is a blessing to the scientists and anthropologists who are trying to understand the evolution and origin of human beings. Though what ‘the Boy’ means in the great scheme of things is still being established, there is still a sense that he is a major find who will help us deepen our knowledge of ourselves.

What is also significant is the awe with which ‘the Boy’ is treated. Guides speak to visitor groups in hushed tones, almost as if they were taking them around a church. The day I was there one of the scientists who discovered Sediba was standing at the doorway looking at the glass casket in the middle of the room. I could not help but think of parents looking at a newborn baby – or a believer adoring an icon, a holy relic or the Eucharist.

Thérèse and Sediba’s bones intersect in the common sense of awe they inspire: a sense of the tremendous and fascinating mystery that they invoke in those who visit them. In coming to see the relics of Thérèse we are in the presence of what might be called ‘the remains of holiness’. They represent to us, in a sense, what Thérèse was: a devoutly holy person who lived her short life in full commitment to the reign of God. Though so very young, and living an enclosed life in a convent, she had a commitment to pray for the missions that has made her co-patron of missions (with globetrotter extraordinaire St Francis Xavier!). Her prayerful insights have made her a doctor of the Church. And for many who dream of change in our church, her open and un-hidden desire to be a priest has made her a patron of their cause.

Australopithecus Sediba arouses in us a different kind of awe. He is another piece in a great puzzle that seeks to interpret how we humans came to be here. So much of our prehistory is unknown. For those who believe, we see in Sediba a new insight into God’s incredible work in creation, a work that did not fall completed ‘from heaven into Eden’ but was part of a process of millions of years.é
Perhaps we might say that the bones of Australopithecus Sediba hint at where we come from; the bones of Thérèse remind us who we are called to be.