April 15, 2007
Clothed in Mercy
Elsa was a poor woman of about 30 years of age who, with her six children, floated in and out of our lives here in Honduras for the past three years. There was something evasive about her, and she always seemed distracted and preoccupied and unable to think and communicate clearly. Apart from her children, she was all alone; their father was in jail, and Elsa’s own father had passed away not long ago.
Their family situation became acute last summer when the staff at the St. Benedict Joseph Medical Center informed me that Elsa’s youngest child, Benjamín – just six months old, was badly undernourished and was suffering from other serious medical problems as well. Apparently Elsa would go out early each morning to work and leave Benjamín and three other siblings in the care of her eldest daughter, Karina, 14 years old, in their one-room, dirt-floor adobe shack that had no running water. Karina would drag the other children along with her as she begged for food in the neighbourhood. Elsa’s second oldest daughter, Fiama, 12, had fled from the youth home in which she had been placed and was living on the street. Because Benjamín’s life was endangered we had to intervene with the help of the state child protection agency, removing the children from Elsa’s custody and entrusting them to the care of two different Catholic orphanages.
About two months ago we were informed by a neighbour that Elsa was very thin, weak and sick. The friars took her to the medical center where she was examined and had several lab tests done. Her diagnosis remained elusive. Eventually she was admitted to the local public hospital, but her health continued to decline. More tests were ordered, still without any clear results. She was going to have to be moved to the main public university hospital in the capital. I anointed her and brought some of her children to see her. Suddenly her condition began to deteriorate rapidly. She was rushed to Tegucigalpa in an ambulance with Br. Matteo following. In the university hospital emergency room the doctors tried to stabilize her, but it was too late; Elsa was dying and there was nothing they could do.
It was Friday evening of the fourth week of Lent, and we were praying the Stations of the Cross in our friary cloister. Outside we could hear the megaphone of the local parish community making the Way of the Cross in the streets. At the beginning of the Stations Br. Matteo called to say that Elsa was dying. When we arrived at the 12 th Station, Jesus Dies on the Cross, he called again to tell us that Elsa had just died.
Later Br. Matteo related to us that when she died – amazingly – Elsa was wearing a shirt with an image of the Divine Mercy and the words “Jesus I Trust in You” on it. As it turns out, Br. Damiano had given her that shirt some time earlier. Shortly before she passed away Br. Matteo prayed the Divine Mercy chaplet with Elsa. When they ended, he encouraged her to continue to pray. As her strength ebbed she lost her voice but continued to mouth the prayer: “Jesus I trust in You.” Those were her last words. She died praying, clothed in mercy.
Later that night Fr. John Anthony drove to Tegucigalpa with a coffin to bring back the body; he and Br. Matteo arrived back after midnight. In the early hours of the morning the women lay Missioners of Christ prepared Elsa for burial with a love and reverence that strikingly resembled the holy women caring for the dead body of Jesus. She was waked in our friary chapel, in the presence of the Eucharist, and was buried after the funeral Mass the next day about noon. Despite the sadness that surrounded her death, there was also a sense of serenity. The quizzical look that always seemed to be inscribed on her face had been replaced by peace.
Fr. Herald Joseph Brock, CFR