A man has died and is being buried. The coffin is lowered into the ground.
A young boy, possibly his grandson, looks on with sadness, without understanding. What is Death?
Those around him — the coffin bearers, the relatives, the strange woman with the camera — most of them have had more experience of death than he has. But they don’t know any more what it is than he does.
Here in Dumaguete, a death in the family brings the whole family together, no matter what the cost. Workers in foreign countries at the far ends of the earth will do what they have to, spend what they must, but they will come. And if they can, they will come again, on the same day, a year from now. In Dumaguete, death unites a family against death, the common enemy that they all know, and even respect.
In America, many educated “modern” people see things differently. Death is something to be dealt with as quickly as possible, and then forgotten. Relatives who live far don’t attend funerals; in fact, they may not even be informed their relative had died.
Wakes are rare, people do not usually even view the dead before they are buried. To expose a body to public view is considered vulgar and tasteless.
This is not cold-hearted or unfeeling. These people suffer the loss of their loved ones as much as anyone else; but they are not religious people. For them, the dead is not the person they knew. That person has ceased to exist forever, and lives on only in their memories. A body is like a dead leaf on the ground, something to be swept away.
But here in Dumaguete, most people are Christians. For them, the dead person they bury continues to exist in some way beyond their sight; continues to exist even in a similar form to the person they knew in life. In reciting the Apostles Creed they say “I believe… in the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting.”
They may not know what death is, or why. But for them, the dead person is still part of their family, and always will be.
At a funeral, at a cemetery on All Soul’s Day, they are paying respect to someone they will see again, someone who is just out of sight for the time being. Personally, I hope they’re right.
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