But we must celebrate and rejoice, because your brother was dead and came to life again; he was lot and has been found. (Luke 15:32)
This is a scene in a funeral home in a big city. There was a rumble with a street gang; leaving two young men gunned down and three injured and hospitalized. Everyone is distraught. Authorities are wringing their hands over the whole affair, families desperate.
They arrive at the door of the funeral home, just off the street with the wounded dead body. Funeral plans are very skeptical. The grandmother steps in begging clemency. “Could the funeral be deferred so her son, the boy’s father who was deported back to Jamaica possibly come?” She kept saying, “Other Jamaicans’ have done worse things; let him come back to bury his son. We will wait!”
Next the visitation. The two grandmothers intervene. One grandmother states, “No religious symbols, no prayer.” The other grandmother, “Yes, there will be prayer. The Lord is here.” Family, friends, street gangs wander in red-eyed and angry. Misbelief and belligerence their only weapon. One woman collapsed and an ambulance was called. Distress, despair, hopelessness clung in the atmosphere.
The outcome. Due to the great Christian charity and mercy of the funeral home the young man’s body was preserved for one month, awaiting word from immigration.
I reflect on this funeral today, one month later. Did the father come? I don’t know. You are wending your way Jeff toward a church to his final resting place, and peace at last.
Due to grandmother the words of Luke have been fulfilled. He was lost and has been found.
Eileen Foran, CSJ