We remember our dead, our "living dead" for they are part of our lives. Perhaps the veil which hides them from us is most transparent at sunset, or sunrise.

In the full light of day we are filled with what our eyes can see, our energy can effect. Our vision then is local and limited, but at sunset we can again reach back in time through the hundreds--thousands--millions of years of a life chain that gives US breath NOW. Life, on THIS part of this green living earth.

We remember our living dead who gave us the life WE now carry, cherish, and pass on, written in each cell of our bodies. THIS drop in the river of time, inexorably flowing, flowing. THIS place throbbing, groaning, blossoming with life. THIS little 'NOW' where I dance in a pinpoint of time. Tomorrow, -others. We remember our living dead Death may mean a disturbing, wrenching change, a loss of familiar supporting contact, but it does not mean 'END' in Christian or Xhosa world view. "Do not let your heart be troubled....I go to prepare a place for you. I will come again to take you to myself that where I am you too may be" (Jn14)

There is a knowing that our beloved dead have gone to God's company, God's house, and yet that they are still very near, and can even show their care for us. Places are sacred, carrying the memory, of their presence. This makes "Forced Removals" of people from their land an abomination, disturbing the link of life-flow from generation to generation. A parent's grave beside the house, in the household is a natural and beautiful tribute to the person and to the earth that nourished her, giving a sense of continuity with the present, not gone, not over. An unbroken chain of life,

We know there is a God of LIFE the "WHO IS", especially since that God in Jesus choose to walk on our earth, to be alive as we are with the grass, the birds, the animals. The "PLACE" of our life is sacred, as is the "TIME", culmination of a - how long stretch of time which formed our DNA, moulded us, as it moulded Christ, as EARTH people! But there is no "NOW" without our ancestors, -striving and straying, struggling and singing, people reaching back and back and back........
This is the first thing we know about Jesus, his ancestors!

An old blind Xhosa man recited for me his ancestry, dozens of ancestors. He was an 'illiterate' and ragged old man of great dignity. A proud link in the chain of time, in touch with his living dead.

A month, maybe a year after death, the family and community come together to "bring home" the one who has died. There is a slaughtering and eating of meat, and a drinking of beer. It is time now for the ancester to come home and rest.

We Catholics also presume that God gives us some time after death. We pray for the dead ones that they might see God's face and rest in peace. Even time is in God's hands, in his mercy. We remember with gratitude our living dead.

Sr Kathleen Keary, OP