Behind the Image: Yet Another Easter Story…

 

Photographed by Fr. Rashmi M. Fernando, SJ | April 21, 2019 

St. Sebastian's Church, Katuwapitiya, Negombo, Sri Lanka

Behind this image, a story breathes—

As powerful and unfathomable

As the Resurrection of our Lord.

It bears the silence of screams,

And the weight of a nation’s broken prayer.

 

It speaks of Easter Sunday 

April 21^st, 2019

When Heaven met horror 

And the sanctity of the Day was defiled

On the Island Nation of Sri Lanka

And in Katuwapitiya’s holy place,

In the heart of Little Rome—my hometown.

 

A series of coordinated bombings

Tore through the Day’s holiness,

Cutting the breath of prayer,

And giving way to flesh and blood,

What a terrible tremor in the soul,

And disturbance to Alleluia, our Easter Song

 

Though I detested capturing any pain

What I saw in the lectionary was an image 

I could not turn away.

Lying open in the wreckage—

Covered with shards of glass, 

The dust of fallen ceilings,

And the tender, unspeakable remains

of those who came to rise with Christ—

Were the pages whispering the Psalmist’s prayer 

And the eternal truths,

Though difficult to comprehend then,

That remains in my soul until this day: 

"Lord, send out your Spirit and renew the face of the earth.”

"The earth is full of the goodness of the Lord." 

 

Six years have passed.

And on this Easter Monday morning, 

Yet, another April 21^st,

I wake to a different grief:

The Holy Father—Pope Francis

The only Jesuit pope in our history

Returned to the Eternal.

 

A dear friend of mine from Omaha writes to me:

"I know today is a very difficult day, Rashmi.

I can’t help but think

All the beautiful Sri Lankan martyrs

Ran to him and hugged him in heaven."

Yes…

Rest now, dear Papa Francis, 

In the embrace of those who bore the Cross of Christ in your time.

You were indeed an instrument of God's Spirit,

 Renewing the face of the Church and of the earth,

And showing the fullness of His goodness 

To those most in need, the vulnerable, and the marginalized,  

In the far ends of the world. 

 

දෙව්ලොව ආසිරි ලැබේවා දිව්‍ය පාමුලේ: Loving Homage To All Who Died In Easter Bombings in Sri Lanka