"If You Have No Head You're Dead"

That was my 7 year old niece's assessment of our first chicken beheading, plucking, etc. last week (we spared the children the beheading though they did see the second beheaded chicken that day flapping headless).

My first thought went to the girl's astuteness and poetic wit and the rich metaphor involved. Her sound-bite is a multi-layered metaphor on life!

E.g. without the Papacy (and Holy Orders generally) there is no organic unity or clear direction in the Church or in the world! No head, you're dead! (N.B. "Cephas" [Hebrew for "rock"] was the name given Simon ["Peter" in Latin and Greek: cf. Matthew 16:18], which also means head in Greek. Both "Cephas" and "Peter" are thence used in the Greek New Testament to refer to Saint Peter, thus the head and the rock of the Church.)

A significant historical coincidence is that Cephas--"The Head"--was not beheaded in his execution (as neither had Christ Himself been--the invisible Head of the Church [from the Ascension onward]--of Which Peter is the visible Head [Christ's representative: "The Vicar of Christ on Earth"]). Both were crucified, Jews and non-Romans that they were. Pope Francis is Peter. He still has his head!

The girl's observation made me next think of Saint Denis, the famous cephalophore, patron and first bishop of Paris.

Saint Denis and his companions were so effective in converting people that the pagan priests became alarmed over their loss of followers. At their instigation, Roman Governor arrested the missionaries. After a long imprisonment, Denis and two of his clergy were executed (c. 250 AD) by beheading[4] on the highest hill in Paris (now Montmartre), which was likely to have been a druidic holy place. The martyrdom of Denis and his companions is popularly believed to have given the site its current name, derived from the Latin Mons Martyrum "The Martyrs' Mountain",[1]

After his head was cut off, Denis is said to have picked it up and walked ten kilometres (six miles) from the summit of the hill, preaching a sermon the entire way, making him one of many cephalophores in hagiology. Of the many accounts of this martyrdom, this is noted in detail in the Golden Legend and in Butler's Lives Of The Saints.[7] The site where he stopped preaching and actually died was marked by a small shrine that developed into the Saint Denis Basilica, which became the burial place for the kings of France. Another account has his corpse being thrown into the Seine, but recovered and buried later that night by his converts.[2][4]

So, the rebuttal to my niece's "if you have no head you're dead" is "unless you're a saint." Saints have walked carrying their heads in their hands! They are the cephalophores. Nothing is impossible with God.

P.S. There's a great idea for Holloween--All Hallowed's Eve--a very refined way to sanctify and rechristianize the gore! Have the kids dress as cephalophores this year. All you need is a portable head!