The Last Look

Tomas King SSC

70% of National Budget is spent on Defence and
paying off the international Debt...
3% on Health and Education

THE LAST LOOK

Tomas King SSC

In all my time in Pakistan, many things have happened. There have been many painful and joyful encounters. Some stand out: they are special and call for deeper reflection and silence.

One in particular is still very much with me. It happened when I went to preside at the funeral of a one-week-old baby girl.

We had said the prayers at the house and in the midst of crying and wailing, the men carried the little body wrapped in a white cloth to the graveyard, leaving the women to mourn at home. The little grave was dug. The body was placed in the grave. And, as is the custom, the face of the child was uncovered to allow the grieving family and friends one last look .

I was standing on the edge of the grave looking down on the body of the child wrapped in a simple white cloth lying in the earth. The face of the child was uncovered. There before my eyes, was the most beautiful smile that I've ever seen on the face of any human being. I was awestruck. How could this be? Such beauty on the face of a dead child?

This child was one of many who shouldn't have died. If the mother had had proper pre-natal care, the child might not have died. If the government hadn't spent 70% of its budget on defence and paying off the foreign debt and only 3% on health and education, the child might not have died. If there was no corruption, there might have been enough facilities at the local hospital and the child might not have died. There are many reasons why the child shouldn't have died. In its brief life the child was a victim of many injustices that reign in this world of ours. It certainly wasn't the will of God that she died. Yet despite everything she smiled through it all. She revealed beauty. Where did the smile come from? The only answer I can give is that she's seen something that you and I still have not seen. She's broken through the pain, the brokenness and injustice of this world and encountered the Fullness of the Mystery. She's seen the face of God and lived.

About half the funerals I've presided over in my time in Matli have been those of children. To visit the graveyard and to see all the small mounds of clay makes a painful and poignant scene. Every 2nd of November, All Souls' Day, the Eucharist is celebrated in the graveyard in the evening. I always find it a moving liturgy. It finishes as the sun sets. After the Mass people go to their loved one's graves, light candles and incense sticks and place them on the graves along with rose petals. They then pray in silence.

The setting sun, the lighted candles pushing back the falling darkness, the rising smoke from the incense sticks and the fragrance of the rose petals as the people pray: a mystical experience in the midst of so much pain and brokenness.

Far East Magazine - November 2005