A Funeral - December 28th, 2007

People in Brafoyaw and at the District Center wanted me to come back for a few days during the Christmas Holiday so I decided that I would bring in the New Year there. In all I spent four days there relaxing and catching up on a lot of internet browsing. Unfortunately, my time there began in a rather sad way.
For those of you who don’t know, there is a small community of Jesuits that live on the same property that the Holy Cross District Center and the Institute for Continuing Formation are located. On the 24th of December they lost one of their young Scholastics to cancer. He was 27 years old. So on the night that I arrived in Brafoyaw they were going to hold the wake keeping in our chapel.
I spent some time helping to set up the chapel with extra chairs since the number of family members and well wishers gathered had far exceeded the capacity of the chapel. When the Mass finally began there were a number of people forced to sit around the outside of the chapel, myself included. There were other Jesuit priests present from Accra and also some that had come from as far as Nigeria and Zimbabwe. Also, the Jesuit Provincial Fr. George was present.
Fr. John Ghansa gave the homily and used the opportunity to tell everyone about his experience with Alexis, the deceased. Alexis was your typical Jesuit candidate, a true scholar, a man who lived in awe of God, a man who left a loving impression upon all he met, anything but average really. The most wonderful part of Fr. John’s account was when it came to the times of suffering. He recounted the times when Alexis had to travel to Nigeria and back to Ghana amidst the agony of his illness, but he always tried to smile. The most moving part of his testimony came when he was by Alexis’s bedside the night before he died. Alexis was given his ‘final’ mission which was to pray for the Society of Jesus. On that night before he died he was praying for all the Jesuits that he knew by name. He died in peaceful suffering.
After the Mass there was a viewing of the body at the Jesuit chapel on the other side of the property. After a few short prayers, led by Fr. Donald Henfie, there was a short period of silence. It was after this silence that the sounds heard at most Ghanaian wakes were heard. The women of the family wailed under the night sky which showed few stars. The men sobbed with their faces in their hands as they moved out of the chapel. The scene was so dramatic it was as if their wails and their cries could have been easily organized into an African poem of lamentation. The sorrowful moaning tugged at my heart.
The funeral Mass was said the next morning by the Jesuit Provincial who was incredible. Everyone was prepared for another day of sorrow, but Fr. George wasn’t about to allow it. I remember when said with such incredible enthusiasm, “No more tears of sorrow for today is Resurrection Sunday. Today is Easter Sunday.” With such conviction and joy in his words he reminded me and all of us that Alexis was a young men of great Faith and that he is with the Lord in paradise.
After the Mass we processed out to the burial site just off to the side of the entrance to the property. There were at least 200 or so people gathered around the grave. There was a large pile of earth next to the open grave and a small canopy over it. It didn’t take long for the challenging event of watching your child be lowered into the ground to overwhelm the mothers there. Once again the wails were heard and the tears flowed. It was a completely different kind of grief.
I stood with a few others as the gravediggers began to finish their day’s work. Eventually, the only people left were me, a few Jesuit priests, and two boys. These two boys were the youngest brothers of Alexis. They watched with deep sadness as the Earth consumed their brother. Fr. Donald Henfie went up to each of the boys and whispered in their ears. I am sure he told them exactly what they needed to hear at that moment. I know what I would have said.