The grim and not unexpected news came yesterday. The Malaysian government announced that there are no survivors of Flight 370. Today, people is Beijing stormed the Malaysian embassy saying they refuse to believe the news. There is no proof. There has been not one scrap of evidence of the downed plane. No bodies, no debris, nothing. It just disappeared. It is hard to believe that a plane, carrying 239 people, could just disappear into thin air. At the same time it is impossible to think that those 239 people are still alive having had no contact and no information that would support such a hope.
The news reports have left me thinking about the disbelief that comes with sudden and unexpected tragedy. The people simply cannot accept that their loved ones are gone.
Yesterday I went to the Funeral Home with a family as they said good-bye to their loved one who had died after a long illness. His cancer had left him with pain and diminished strength and ability. They had cared for him and nursed him in his illness until he had to go to Hospice where they stayed with him almost non-stop. Yesterday it was important for them to see his body. As they looked at him they spoke so lovingly that he looked at peace and that he was no longer suffering pain. I offered a blessing of the body and they told me how meaningful it was to hear those words, giving thanks for his physical body and then entrusting his soul to God. They told me that at the Hospice, when he died they opened the window of the room so that his soul could fly away. This very action made them feel a sense of healing. He was free.
While we know that our body is a temporary home, it seems that at death we need to see the body, touch the body, and say good bye to the body of our loved one. It is what has connected us. We are human, we are physical, but we are mortal.
My heart aches for those people who lost family and friends in Flight 370. They will not get the chance to see their loved one, and it makes the death so hard to accept. It has made me realize how limited our mind is in understanding the continuum of life and death. And how important hope is at such a time of grief.
