This morning I really had a wonderful time "settin' a spell" with Mom at the Grave. This is part of my (masculine?) ritual: visiting her Grave, twice daily, once in the morning, once in the evening; sometimes in between as well.
But the point is to recognize both that she is here; and that she is not here. For I just plain don't agree with those who say of the dead, "they're gone, they're not here, they're somewhere else ..."
In a sense that's true: the soul is (we hope) in Heaven.
But the body is here. And since I'm a Catholic Christian, and believe that the Person is both Body and Soul ... and indeed Spirit ... it's true to say of my Mom that she's here, in her Grave; and at the same time that she's there, in Heaven, as I hope.
This afternoon, when I visited Mom's Grave, earth had been added to its sunken surface: the first since she was buried on 8/27. Her Grave looks nice. And praying there when a recording of Taps began, carrying from a military section of the cemetery, this was really very moving for me. Then when I got up, a flock of about a dozen geese took flight from the row of trees a short distance away. Sometimes I wonder, like Seymour, if people ... or God ... is not conspiring to make me happy despite myself.
May God bless us all ... and may God grant you Rest in Peace, Mom.
Charles Delacroix
Feast of St Matthew
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment