Thomas Pauli Prayer Vigil

The prayer vigil for Thomas Pauli was held on March 21. The service is listed below:

A SERVICE OF THANKSGIVING FOR THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAULI AND ALL THOSE WHO HAVE BEEN ABANDONED IN LIFE AND IN DEATH

Opening Sentences

Jesus said, “I am with you always, to the end of time.”

In the tender compassion of our God the dawn from heaven will break upon us, to shine on those who live in darkness, under the shadow of death, and to guide our feet into the way of peace.

Let us pray.

We thank you. O God, that for Thomas all isolation, pain, rejection and suffering are ended and that death itself is conquered. Give us the courage to seek justice in his name for all persons; help us to channel our anger into action, our sorrow into challenge, our grief into hope, retaining confidence that all life finds its fulfillment with you in the joy of your eternal reign. Amen.

A Reading from the Christian Scripture: Letter to the Romans 14:7-12

"We do not live to ourselves, and we do not die to ourselves. If we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord; so then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s. For to this end Christ died and lived again, so that he might be Lord of both the dead and the living.

Why do you pass judgement on your brother or sister? Or you, why do you despise your brother or sister? For we will all stand before the judgement seat of God. For it is written,
‘As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall give praise to God.’
So then, each of us will be accountable to God. "

A Reading from the theologian-author, Henri J.M. Nouwen Here and Now: We are God’s Beloved Children

"During our short lives the question that guides much of our behavior is: “Who are we?” Although we may seldom pose that question in a formal way, we live it very concretely in our day-to-day decisions.

The three answers that we generally live – not necessarily give – are: “We are what we do, we are what others say about us, and we are what we have,” or in other words: “We are our success, we are our popularity, we are our power.”

It is important to realize the fragility of life that depends on success, popularity, and power. Its fragility stems from the fact that all three of these are external factors over which we have only limited control. Losing our job, our fame, or our wealth often is caused by events completely beyond our control. But when we depend on them, we have sold ourselves to the world, because then we are what the world gives us. Death takes it all away from us. The final statement then becomes: “When we are dead, we are dead!” because when we die, we can’t do anything anymore, people don’t talk about us anymore, and we have nothing anymore. When we are what the world makes us, we can’t be after we have left the world.

Jesus came to announce to us that an identity based on success, popularity, and power is a false identity – an illusion! Loudly and clearly he says: “You are not what the world makes you; but you are children of God.”

Reflection

"We are here today because our community has a problem it refuses to engage. We are here because despite prodigious efforts and many, many things done right for the homeless, poor, disenfranchised, and ostracized, we have not been moved to address a double-bind and fix it.

Thomas Pauli was caught in a double-bind. He had a past that has come today to be a mark of Cain—he had committed an act we rightly condemn, many years ago, and with circumstances and details nearly lost to memory. But it was a guilt he did not deny, which translated into a shame society has elected to ratify as one of the few categories beyond redemption, beyond the possibility of transformation. Science and almost superstitious prejudice warns us, by nature and nurture, there are predators that must be driven beyond the Pale.

I am not here today to deny the reality of such brokenness or to talk about a wicked hypervigilance that would protect the many by callously sacrificing the few. I am here to say that whatever the solution a society constructs for its protection, it must be just, if we are to be judged just; and it must be merciful if we are to be merciful—it must allow for the possibility of redemption if we are to hope for our own redemption and it must be wise if we are to rise above brutish indifference as well as the retaliateive violence—requisite for the social triumph of a people able to live together in peace and good order.

The death of Thomas Pauli makes our failure to do these things vivid and undeniable. We have allowed a human being to be so beleaguered that he found it ultimately easier to kneel down and die alone than try one more time for a place to live among us. I cannot imagine the mental calculus that finally caused him to neither go to the hospital, go to the jail,or just go to one of the unlocked vehicles in this lot seeking shelter, but rather to simply drop to his hands and his knees and await death.

Cold and alone was how he died—but cold and alone was the situation he had been driven to as a C.S.C. ex-offender (Criminal Sexual Conduct). Today there is no “ex” to the CSC. It is the mark of Cain that follows one across the country, makes employment, housing, access to healthcare and shelter extremely difficult and makes other human beings—caring and compassionate people, inured to the suffering of people bearing this stigma.

I believe Thomas’ death caused his stigma to become the Stigmata, the visible wounds of Christ’s suffering, and sacrificial redemptive death, apparent for this community—a city on a hill, that in so many ways strives to be a descent, compassionate, good city. We have received our challenge. We can not let the current conditions stand, whether it is the changing of the law that prohibits offenders from entering existing shelters or the raising up of some alternative descent site, or some other unseen accommodation, we must do something and it begins today.

No human being will suffer being denied the right to life itself, by structural onundrums. No human being will be driven out of our presence to die, and have the response be indifference.

Grand Rapids must make a plan and bring it to life if we are to be a just and decent people. Henri Nowen spoke true when he reminded us we are ALL Children of God. Let us go forward living into that identity. Amen. "

Prayers of the Faithful

Jesus who loved the lepers whom others called unclean,

Give us the faith to broaden our vision of the reign of God.

Jesus who loved the ill woman, long ignored and thought to be intrinsically disordered,

Give us hearts large enough to embrace those whom the world declares bent over and unworthy.

Jesus who loved the tax collector whom others feared,

Enable us to put down our fear of those who differ from ourselves.

Jesus who loved the enemy, the foreigner, the oppressor,

Help us to love those who make exiles of the poor, the ill, and the ignored.

Jesus who loves us in our humanness, in our glories, in our despairs,

Enable us to love those whose glories we have failed to see.

Jesus who loved his own, Thomas, who knew well his frailties, yet loved him to the end and beyond,

Give him eternal peace and give us your bold Spirit that we might confront rejection, ease loneliness, calm fear, raise up the dignity of every human being, leaving none abandoned or left to die alone and without respect.

Concluding Prayer

Let us pray.

O Loving God, we lift up to you this night, Thomas, and all who have been rejected and despised in this world. He is beyond the reach of despair but not beyond your reach of care and love. The ending of his earthly life seems senseless and we cannot fathom his suffering. Forgive us those times and ways wefailed him. Help us to forgive him for any hurt he may have inflicted; help us to forgive ourselves for any harm that we may have caused him or any beloved sister or brother.

Show Thomas the path of life and lead him gently to walk in your presence in that place of eternal life. Amen.

Sending Forth

Go in peace that you might be peacemakers in a violent world.

Go in hope that you might be a light to illumine the greed, prejudice and fears in a broken world.

Go in joy that you may bring joy to a world caught in despair.

Go in love that you might bring love to the unloved, comfort to those in need and confrontation to those caught up in greed.

We go in peace; we go in hope, we go in joy; we go in love for all, without hesitation, without reservation. Amen.