Some months ago, a migrant friend here in Hong Kong texted me with the request that the Columbans hold her husband’s cremains in our chapel until she could bring them back to his home country for burial in the family plot. I was surprised that she did not want to keep the cremains in the house where she and her husband had lived for many years. However, when I asked her about this, she told me that while she had no difficulty in doing so, many of her neighbors would not come to visit her if they knew that her husband’s cremains were in the house, since they believed that it might bring them misfortune. I understood then her dilemma and readily agreed to hold her husband’s cremains in the Columban chapel.
This Easter my friend here in Hong Kong will take her husband’s cremains from the Columban chapel and bring them back to his home country for burial. Even though she is a devout Buddhist, not only did she ensure that her husband received all the sacramental support of his Catholic faith throughout his prolonged decline and final illness, but she now wants to ensure that he receives a final Christian farewell with the hope of being re-reunited with him one day.
Columban Fr. Tim Mulroy lives and works in Hong Kong.