Mabel looked fine, at peace, despite the fact that was dying, and would be dead by the time the sun set. But her daughter Rose Marie was not fine. Not at peace. In fact, she was the opposite of at peace, she was scared witless, about to lose her mom and desperate to stop that from happening.
Mabel was old enough that the thoughts of dying had occureed to her, especially when her husband had the by-pass and when they found that lump on her breast. But watching Rosemarie slowly fade away from her was entirely too much and shook from the inside out and couldn;t stop the tears.
And her husband wasn’t much help, or at least she wouldn;t let him be, as she pulled away from him and just shook all by herself.
So I walked over to her, hugged her and Mike and then took her hand and placed it on her mom’s under mine and reminded her that God loved her so much that he made her Mabel’s daughter. She kinda gasped and then just kept staring at Mabel, over whom we were both bowed, and she sobbed.
At which, with my free hand, I took my ritual book from my right pocket and started to pray:
Go forth, Christian soul, from this world
in the name of God the almighty Father,
who created you,
in the name of Jesus Christ, Son of the living God,
who suffered for you,
in the name of the Holy Spirit,
who was poured out upon you,
go forth, faithful Christian.
May you live in peace this day,
may your home be with God,
with Mary, the virgin Mother of God,
with Joseph, and all the angels and saints.
And you know, when it was over, I looked over at Rosemarie, who hugged me. She was still weeping and stealing glances over her shoulder to see if Mabel was still there, but then she turned to Mike and fell into his arms.
I went over and stood in the corner for a while, prayed for a few minutes and then said my good-byes. But, as it had a few hundred times before, the prayer of the Church had done its work in echoing Jeremiah, while saying to hearts that are frightened
“Be strong, fear not! You God comes with vindication; with divine recompense he comes to save you.” For the eyes of the dead will not forever be closed, but soon will be opened, when he comes in glory to judge us all.
And on that day the eyes of the blind will be opened, the lame leap will like a stag, the tongue of the mute will sing. Streams will burst forth in the desert and the thirsty ground will flow with springs of water.”
For the Lord who died and rose for us is standing right there beside you. “Be strong, fear not! He comes to save.”
