Funeral for homeless people (Rozhivka, Kyiv region)

Representatives of Kyiv Vincentian Family visited the Northern Cemetery in the village of Rozhivka, Kyiv region, on November 4.  At the cemetery, there is a burial place for homeless people, right at the end.  So we had to cross the whole cemetery to get to that place. Getting through different cemetery sections, we saw nice statues and crosses; there were candles and lamps still burning at some graves, and there were flowers beside. We could see that people buried there were remembered by their relatives and friends. When we arrived at the cemetery section with burial places of homeless people, the whole view changed radically. There were no statues, just solitary crosses at some graves, burial palaces overgrown with weeds, and there were only metal plates at most graves. Those solitary plates indicated first and last names of deceased persons. But mainly it was just a number, an estimated age and a specification: male or female. Typically, those were graves of young people, and plates indicated their approximate age was about 30-35 years, 40-50 years. Just like those people’s lives that often were nameless, needed by nobody, forsaken by the society, their graves were abandoned in the same way. Finally, a murder of crows flying over a nearby garbage damp added to the tragic atmosphere of that place. The cemetery has its outskirts as well, where we need to go and show mercy.

We should show mercy not only to living people, but also to deceased persons. Corporal and spiritual works of mercy are very clear about the duty to bury the dead and to pray for them saying: “To bury the dead” and “To pray for the living and the dead”… Dignified burial of the dead is our human duty. In the Catechism of the Catholic Church, we read: “The bodies of the dead must be treated with respect and charity, in faith and hope of the Resurrection. The burial of the dead is a corporal work of mercy; it honors the children of God, who are temples of the Holy Spirit” (CCC 2300).  Wiseman Sirach teaches: “My son, let your tears fall for the dead, and as one who is suffering grievously begin the lament. Lay out his body with the honor due him, and do not neglect his burial” (Sir 38:16).

We live in hope for meeting the dead in the life to come, among those who are saved. Jesus is risen, and due to this fact, human death and burial do not mean the end of life. “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live,  and whoever lives and believes in me shall never die” (Jn 11: 25-26).

We entrust human soul to God, and his or her body we commit to the earth. This is our duty originating from our respect to the body which will reach the glory of resurrection someday.

November is the time when the Catholic Church prays for the dead in a special way. For this reason, we also wanted to perform the last service for those people. There, at their burial places, we performed a rite usually done at a Christian funeral. As they were being buried, probably no one prayed. When looking at those graves, you can see those people were not buried with a proper respect. On that day, their Christian funeral took place.

Let us not forget in our prayers those deceased people who are remembered by nobody. Eternal rest grant onto them, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them.

5/11/2017