The traditional liturgy reminds me of a pomegranate. The gems are hidden inside, wrapped in fold after fold of membrane. It takes work to get at the fruit, and one cannot be unaffected at the end of the labor: one’s fingers are sticky and stained. Its fruit, a symbol of fertility, is plentiful and sweet to the taste. The juice is dark and rich, like a drink produced by distillation. The reformed modern liturgy, on the other hand, reminds me of the plastic cup of pomegranate seeds one can buy at the store, prepared and packaged for easy consumption. Sure, a person gets to eat the seeds quickly and readily; but does he appreciate them as much? Does he get a sense of where they come from? Could he ever know from the convenient plastic cup how a pomegranate even looks, or why it is an apt symbol of fertility—and, indeed, of Christ Himself?
With the help of Louis Charbonneau-Lassay
The French author Louis Charbonneau-Lassay (1871–1946; hereafter C-L) was one of the most fascinating, versatile, and erudite researchers of Christian archaeology and symbolism that the world has ever seen. Unfortunately, a large part of his work—and we’re speaking here of tens of thousands of drawings, notes, and other items—was never definitively assembled into the series of books he had planned out. The one major work he did publish in his lifetime, The Bestiary of Christ, has appeared in English only in an abbreviated version. The finished manuscript of his magnum opus, The Vulnerary of Christ, on the five wounds of Jesus and the long history of devotion to the Sacred Heart, was stolen shortly before his death. Only recently, thanks to a painstaking reconstruction by Gauthier Pierozak, was it possible to publish it in French; in January Angelico will publish a deluxe, copiously-illustrated English translation, of which I had the privilege of reading the page proofs, and which I mostly highly recommend.
I am therefore delighted that Mr. Gauthier, who is in possession of C-L’s archives, responded enthusiastically to my inquiry to him as to whether C-L had left behind any notes and sketches concerning this fruit. He obliged with the material that follows, which I have slightly edited and arranged.
An emblem of fecundity
As we have seen, the pomegranate is an emblem of fecundity, as it contains in its perfectly round fruit a multitude of seeds.
In a letter to C-L dated April 1925, René Guénon suggests that the pomegranate is an emblem similar to the pine cone, which is also a symbol of fecundity. According to the scholars Nelson and Dietrich, the pomegranate, as well as the egg and wheat, had the meaning, in ancient times, of the gift of regeneration, because they contain in themselves some vital force in large proportion. In ancient Greece, pomegranates in a basket symbolized fecundity/fertility.
In ancient times, the pomegranate was a fruit dedicated to Juno, goddess of marriage and fertility. Some representations of Venus have been found in Sardinia where she holds a pomegranate that is open. A similar meaning is at work in the custom in China of offering pomegranates as an engagement gift. They were an omen of good luck for having children.
C-L’s notes about the pomegranate contain a number of biblical references to the spiritual fecundity of God or of Christ:
- Isaiah 66, 9: “Shall I bring to the birth, and not cause to bring forth? saith the Lord: shall I cause to bring forth, and shut the womb? saith thy God.”
- Isaiah 27, 6: “He shall cause them that come of Jacob to take root: Israel shall blossom and bud, and fill the face of the world with fruit.”
- Deuteronomy 8, 7–9: “For the Lord thy God bringeth thee into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and depths that spring out of valleys and hills; a land of wheat, and barley, and vines, and fig trees, and pomegranates; a land of oil olive, and honey; a land wherein thou shalt eat bread without scarceness, thou shalt not lack any thing in it; a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills thou mayest dig brass.”
- Song of Solomon 4, 12–15: “A garden inclosed is my sister, my spouse; a spring shut up, a fountain sealed. Thy plants are an orchard of pomegranates, with pleasant fruits; camphire, with spikenard, spikenard and saffron; calamus and cinnamon, with all trees of frankincense; myrrh and aloes, with all the chief spices: a fountain of gardens, a well of living waters, and streams from Lebanon.”
- John 1, 1–3: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.”
- 1 Kings 7, 18–20: [About the construction of Solomon’s Temple] “And he made the pillars, and two rows round about upon the one network, to cover the chapiters {capitals} that were upon the top, with pomegranates: and so did he for the other chapiter. And the chapiters that were upon the top of the pillars were of lily work in the porch, four cubits. And the chapiters upon the two pillars had pomegranates also above, over against the belly which was by the network: and the pomegranates were two hundred in rows round about upon the other chapiter.”
In a way, the pomegranate symbolizes the source of multitude, like the horn of plenty, but also, more generally, the Word of God. The Pomegranate contains all the possibilities of creation, just like the mind contains the potential for all thoughts until they are expressed with words.
An emblem of union, charity, love, and humility
The pomegranate is also an emblem of the papacy because it conveys the union of all the children of the Church within its maternal fold. With the same idea, it is also a symbol of the Church itself, symbol of the union of all the believers in Christ.
The pomegranate is also an emblem of humility, because its succulent seeds are hidden behind a rough, unprepossessing exterior.
The pomegranate is an emblem of charity because it gives of what it contains that is most delicious and precious: it gives itself just like Christ did in his infinite charity through his Eucharist, born in his heart—that heart which he allowed to be opened for us through the striking of the spear of the soldier during his Passion, that the divine red liquid might flow forth.
Saint Francis of Sales (1567–1622): “Thus love is oftentimes represented by the pomegranate, which, as it takes its properties from the pomegranate-tree, may be said to be the virtue of this tree; so again it seems to be its gift, which it offers to man by love; and it is its fruit, since it is eaten to please man's taste; and finally it is, so to speak, its glory and beatitude, since it bears the crown and diadem” (Treatise on the Love of God, book 11, chap. 19).
