The CRY of one with NO HOPE!
Do not grieve like the rest of men, who have no hope.
5:15AM July 18, 2006 I walked out the door, on my way to the clay courts for a set or two of tennis, my normal morning routine. As I walked out of the gate that encloses our yard, there stood a lone coffin. It was a strange site for that time of the morning but one that was not unexpected. A week ago our neighbor and her husband were involved in a truck accident on the freeway. She was killed, he was injured, smashing his right knee and breaking his leg in two places. Since last week the family has been in mourning. Daily rituals are carried out: burning spirit money, offering food and drink offerings, reading Buddhist scripture to call back the wandering spirit of the one who died and to appease the spirit of the deceased.
Her name is/was MayLee which means “Beauty”, and she was a beautiful young mother of two. MayLee was 33. In earlier years MayLee had come to Sarah’s “Moms Group” where the group of ladies worked through different books and topics about being a mom, a wife, how to raise children and other important family topics. After MayLee had her second child we seldom saw her. She and her husband moved to another house and his parents continued to live next to us. MayLee’s children would often spend afternoons at Grandma’s house and so we would see her coming and going when she was picking up the kids. Apart from a quick‘hello’in passing nothing of importance was said. She was busy, we were busy.
Today is day 7 of the funeral. The day she died her body was brought to her in-law’s home where it was put into a refrigerated coffin that looks like a chest freezer with a transparent glass top. Her body was covered in saffron and the family then spent the next week “living and sleeping” with MayLee in the living room of Grandma’s home. This is done to direct the spirit of the dead back to the home and to comfort the spirit of the person who died.
Yesterday the mortuary people came and set up the funeral tent for the last days rituals. The tent literally blocks one entire lane of traffic and this sort of arrangement is typical of funerals here in Taiwan. When someone dies the funeral is either done at the home or downtown at the city mortuary which we call the ‘funeral factory’ for daily the mortuary has 100’s of funerals in progress, each lasting at least a week. Because MayLee’s was a tragic death the fear is that the‘spirit’of MayLee would not be able to find the mortuary but would best know the way to ‘Grandma’s house’ and so the funeral is being held next door at Grandma’s.
I returned from the tennis courts knowing that the last day of the funeral would be a noisy and mournful affair. Wailers are hired who come and lead those present through a ceremony which includes the wailers representing family members crying into a microphone saying ‘Mommy, don’t go!’ or ‘Sister, I am so sorry!’ After the final rituals are done here at the house they will go to the crematorium where the metal hardware will be removed from the casket and the family themselves will push the casket into the furnace. After 3 hours the family will return to help collect the bone and ashes by using tongs and place the remains into an urn to be stored in either a family crypt or in a pagoda-like mausoleum.
Upon my return home I did some cleaning up in the yard. It was then I heard the cry of someone with no hope. I heard Mr Lin, MayLee’s husband crying and wailing the most painful sounding cry I have ever heard, the cry of no hope. He is normally a quiet, reserved man. He and MayLee were guava vendors and in fact were returning from their daily trip down south to pick up a load of guava from the orchards when the accident occurred. Mr Lin’s voice was loud and mournful and the sound of it almost brought me to tears knowing the pain and sadness he was facing. ‘ChuBing’ was the ritual that was taking place when I heard him wailing. ChuBing is when the family members personally lifted MayLee’s body from the glass covered freezer and placed it into the coffin in preparation for the final day of the funeral. As I heard Mr Lin wailing in pain I could only think of the Bible verse from 1st Thessalonians 4:
1Th 4:13-14
Brothers, we do not want you to be ignorant about those who fall asleep, or to grieve like the rest of men, who have no hope. We believe that Jesus died and rose again and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him.
Or to grieve like the rest of men, WHO HAVE NO HOPE. That was the exact sound that came from Mr. Lin’s heart, the sound of hopelessness and utter despair. Seldom does a day pass in our lives here in Taiwan that we are not reminded of the reason we are here: Sharing the message of Jesus Christ as Savior, the only One who brings hope to the hopeless; the only One who can comfort and bind-up the broken-hearted.
Lord, please use us as your servants here in this place that others may learn of you and your forgiveness; that they may have peace and hope and a future in heaven forever with you. For we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him. Amen
