a follow-up to yesterday's reflection

As a follow-up to yesterday's reflection, let me add the correction that the name of the little one who died is Gabriela, and that it is her mother's name that is is Ruby, and her father's name Gabriel.

In my scheduled ecumenical meeting with the Catholic priest and the Methodist minister, I discovered that the funeral was to be at 2.00 pm, and so Sandy and I attended the requiem mass. Fr. Chris invited me to speak, as there were about 12 students from the Anglican school who were first cousins of baby Gabriela in attendance at the service with their families. I brought the condolences of the parish, and of the school principal, teachers, and students.

I understand from the priest that over the ten years he has spent hear he experiences more funerals for young people than he would in his native Illinois. We also share another similar experience. After 10 years in Corozal, he took a year of sabbatical for study and pilgrimage, and describes to me a little of his experience of Holy Week in Taize last year. We settle on an ecumenical Taize service for Monday of Holy Week, and the possibility of a monthly Taize to share among Catholics, Anglicans, and Methodists on a rotating basis.

We walked in procession to the cemetery. As with my home-parish experience of Lasqueti Island, a pick-up truck acts as the hearse, and others follow behind, either walking or driving, and everything is done by human hand and appears to be with community-based organization rather than professional services. The burial took place in customary form with a newly-consecrated above-ground grave of concrete blocks, covered with a tin roof supported with rough wooden planks, and plastered over with a dozen buckets of hand-mixed concrete. We all looked on either in profound silence or with tears and sighs and deep feeling. "Life is not ended, but it is changed", the liturgy proclaims. Faith and grief walk hand in hand in a deep intimacy that these dear people Of Corozal, it seems to me ~ as an observer and a guest in this culture ~ know kinesthetically and intuitively.

Our regular Wednesday morning services (6.30, 8.30, and 9.15) included prayers for the family, and I took the opportunity to speak to the 180 students at our two chapel services about the kind of feelings I was experiencing in terms of the traumatic events we had had all heard of or witnessed. We also talked about the fears that teachers, parents, and I have about safety for pedestrians and cyclists. There are so many of our children who cycle on busy streets to and from school daily from the age of 5 onwards, and many of us as adults, teachers, and parents, share a sober fear for their safety.

May the deepening of Lent deepen our spirits in the mystery of life, love, and Divine presence in the midst of experiences and sufferings for which words fall short or even fail us altogether.