10. Friedrich, the main character

In February so far we have recollected two birthdays and discovered a gravestone in a cemetery, which led us to consider not only the death but also the Good Friday birth of our "main character," Friedrich Treuthardt.   We have remembered (with fondness) the Krieg family authorities who were the children of Gottlieb and Ida Krieg, and grandchildren of Friedrich and Anna Treuthardt.   

You observe that I have not given you detailed or burdensome information.   In this my introduction (10 posts), I have not told you much at all.    That's because I am leading you into the history the same way I got into it, a little bit at a time, without complete facts and dates, not knowing what to expect out of the effort.    You don't know what you are getting into, any more than I did.    But ... hang on.    For you it will be a far more greatly accelerated process than it was for me.

Friedrich is our "main character."   Around him, all my Treuthardt family history revolves.    Even before learning anything at all about him, I have always felt that my great-grandfather would be a worthy and significant subject for study.   He was the mysterious one that nobody in our branch of the family knew anything about, except that in Switzerland his occupation was foreman of a powder factory.   What sort of powder was a bit troublesome to determine, though several suggested it could be gunpowder.

There will be no exams in this course.   The only expectations for you are (as follows:)

• to begin to feel a kinship with the land of our ancestors, Switzerland;  
• to know where Switzerland is located and recognize the Swiss flag;  
• to sadden when the story calls for shedding a tear at hardships and drama;   
• to admire our ancestors for having produced a bunch of Texan [et al] descendants, namely us;  
• to smile frequently about learning something new about your family.  

8. Good Friday, 1834

Maybe the Scripture engraved on Friedrich's tombstone in 1907 was a purely random choice on the part of Friedrich or his wife.   Maybe it never occurred to them that he had been born on the anniversary day of Jesus' crucifixion, Good Friday, 1834.   If so, it is one of those mysterious ways of God, that 106 years after Friedrich's death, I wondered about the correlation between Jesus' last words on the cross, and that Friedrich's birthday occurred on Good Friday.   My curiosity is whether he expected anybody to observe it, since it was such a rare event.   On only one other occasion in Friedrich's lifetime, in 1902, did his birthday occur on Good Friday.

7. "Father, into Thy hands"

While the image and wording of Friedrich's tombstone is still fresh in your mind, I want to point out a major feature.  You cannot easily read the small inscription at the bottom of the stone;   we took a piece of paper and penciled over the words on the stone to make sure we were reading them correctly.   Most people recognize those as Jesus' last words as he was dying on the cross, recorded in Luke 23:46 (King James Version), as follows:

"And when Jesus had cried with a loud voice, he said, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit: and having said thus, he gave up the ghost."
   
What is the significance of Friedrich's tombstone inscription?     I thought this was Friedrich's Christian testimony, his witness to the world that he believed in Christ.   I figured he had attended divine services all his life and that he knew the crucifixion story by heart, from his earliest childhood.  He sang Lenten hymns many times.  

For instance, he certainly knew the famous and favorite hymn, O sacred Head now wounded, by Paul Gerhardt.   Based on a Latin poem written around the 12th century, this hymn is reserved for Holy Week leading up to Easter Sunday, the day of Christ's resurrection.    Specifically, this is a Good Friday hymn, sung to express the supreme sorrow of the day that Christ died on the cross bearing the sins of the whole world.   These stanzas, 8, 9 and 10 are from the "old" Lutheran Hymnal.   Friedrich may have sung the German (or even the French!) versions, but for a few years in Texas, he may have heard and sung the English version too.     

O sacred Head now wounded (excerpt)

8. What language shall I borrow
To thank Thee, dearest Friend,
For this, Thy dying sorrow,
Thy pity without end?
Oh, make me thine forever!
And should I fainting be,
Lord, let me never, never,
Outlive my love for Thee.

9. My Savior, be Thou near me
When death is at my door;
Then let Thy presence cheer me,
Forsake me nevermore!
When soul and body languish,
Oh, leave me not alone,
But take away mine anguish
By virtue of Thine own!

10. Be Thou my Consolation,
My Shield when I must die;
Remind me of Thy Passion
When my last hour draws nigh.
Mine eyes shall then behold Thee,
Upon Thy cross shall dwell,
My heart by faith enfold Thee.
Who dieth thus dies well!

--The Lutheran Hymnal, Hymn #172

Text: Is. 50: 6

Author: Paul Gerhardt

Based on the Latin poem "Salve caput cruentatum"

By Bernard of Clairvaux, 1153, asc.

Translated by: composite

Titled: O Haupt voll Blut und Wunden

Composer: Hans L. Hassier, 1601

Tune: Herzlich tut mich

This is appropriate, marvelous Scripture for a tombstone -- short, comforting, and an entire sentence, at that, expressive of Friedrich's Christian beliefs.

Because we are in the 2013 Lenten season, I have been remembering the dates for Ash Wednesday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter.    Easter this year is early, March 31, 2013.  

Tonight as I was planning this post, all of a sudden a poignant wonder jumped out at me.    Friedrich was born on March 28, a Friday.   Consulting two Easter date tables online, I discovered that Easter of 1834 was on                                

                        30th March 1834

Our Friedrich was born on Good Friday!