Reflection 6 - 'My Soul'

The above quotation from the Prophet Isaiah comes to me just after I answered the hospital bleep at 3.30am. The Nurse from Accident and Emergency requests me to go to the Mortuary. Immediately I know it is not good news, and so I stroll down from the on call room half asleep; half awake and at the same time asking for the strength from the God of my understanding to face with courage and calmness what awaits me.

I go out into the night and I experience the dampness left by the rain that has been incessantly falling; the stillness and the silence – not a sound. All is dark; all is still such a contrast to the daytime experience in the same place. In the distance there is an ambulance; the light from the ambulance reflects against the glass of a window in the main building. The Ambulance personnel await me. We greet each other in the night’s stillness. There is respect and an unspoken understanding between us … “They are waiting for you inside, Father”. They explain the circumstances of death to me.

The outside light of the mortuary is on; awaiting my arrival, as it awaited the arrival of the young body just a little while before me. Security Personnel open the door to me and there awaits me - another young life; lying completely still on this very damp night - their natural life spent. Three of us gather to pray and we do so simply and reverently. This young person is safe tonight perhaps safer that they have been for a long time who knows? We pray for the repose of his soul. There is consolation in this prayer, for those he leaves behind and the horrific pain they experience. We bless the body with Lourdes water and end with the sign of the Cross. The one request of this young person’s parents to the paramedics was that ‘the priest would bless the body of their son’. Their request, simple, yet so important for them, is granted and the body of their son is honoured.

I come back out into the stillness and the dampness of the night and make my way to the staff tearoom. My desire is that of a cuppa and a chat with some colleagues about what happened - it matters not; just to be in the presence of others who understand in the silence. My stomach is so cold and my body shivers at yet the loss of another young life cut off in its prime; a life now ended yet a life now truly safe in the loving embrace of the Father. A soul at rest; a soul at peace.

Perhaps somewhere in the Book of Life we can take consolation with the Psalmist as he prays

"Truly, I have set my soul in silence and peace.
As a child rests in its mother’s arms, even so my soul”

Psalm130:3/4

Written by Frank DOWNES OP

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