Accompany those who mourn

It’s Easter Monday. I had intended to take a day for relaxing, reading, and praying. But God has other plans.

About 10:30 am, I got a call from someone in San Marcos Pavas asking me if there were some provisions to help a family whose son had died since they didn’t have enough for the food for the vigil. (The custom is to have food for the all-night vigil.) 

I went to the parish and got some stuff and arrived at the village about 2 pm. 

But it wasn’t a normal death.

This morning, about 8 am, a body was found in the coffee field across from the church. Carlos Arturo, a 36 year old man with epilepsy had been killed.

When I arrived the police were there investigating, taking pictures and talking with family members.

I brought the provisions to the family who were gathered just outside the church. The mother was there as well as at least one brother, Gennaro, who is a delegate of the Word in the community. 

I spoke with the mother and we prayed.

Later I went to look where the body was, covered with a plastic tablecloth, and blessed the body. 

I decided to stay and be present. 

 After a while the Fiscalía [the public prosecutor’s office] and the medical examiner arrived. They moved the body out of the field and laid in on the road in front of the church. A crowd gathered.

It was gruesome to watch as they examined the body – but I tried to be close to the mother and brother. We prayed a few times and before they took the body to Santa Rosa I blessed the body again. 

People spoke well of Carlos Arturo and have no idea why he was killed or who did it. But the body showed signs of three or four slashes with a machete. 

Such wanton violence.

What can one do? At this point, all I could do was be there. 

I will go tomorrow morning to take the brother and two others to Santa Rosa to get the body for the vigil and funeral in the village. (It’s about two hours from the village to Santa Rosa.) I hope the pastor can come for a funeral Mass, but I’ll be available if he can’t. 

It’s the Easter season – but Good Friday continues to touch the lives of the poor.