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n 267 CHAPTER 12 Giving Thanks: Dando Gracias I am not a Catholic myself, I was not brought up in that faith; but at least one-third of my army are Catholic and I respect a good Catholic as much as a good Protestant. Proclamation of Brigadier General Steven W. Kearney, to the people of Las Vegas, August 15, 1846, Plaza Park West, Las Vegas, New Mexico He who learns must suffer. And even in our sleep, pain which we cannot forget falls drop by drop until, in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom through the awful grace of God. Robert F. Kennedy, quoting Aeschylus’ Agamemnon on the death of the Martin Luther King Jr., April 4, 1968 When you are joyous, look deep into your heart and you shall find it is only that which has given you sorrow that is giving you joy. Kahlil Gibran There can be no comfort in the thought that we shall be immortal in our children and that our work will last forever, for the end is coming to all consolations that are in time. Apocalypse is a paradox of time and eternity that cannot be expressed in rational terms. And when the end comes there shall be no more time. And therefore we must paradoxically think of the end of the world both as in time and eternity. The end of the world, like the end of each individual man, is an event both immanent and transcendent. Horror and anguish are caused by this incomprehensible combination of the transcendent and the imminent, the temporal and the eternal. Nicholai Berdyaev 268 n Chapter 12 The apocalypse is considered the end in all perspectives of racial or cosmic immortality; at the apocalypse the entire world faces the judgment of eternity. In this final reflection, I present the themes of despair and transcendence as another facet of the ciclo de vida y muerte. I expand the dualistic metaphor of el ciclo de vida y muerte but recognize that there is a need to reintroduce the idea of resurrection as a trifocal view. I also look at the question of an Hispano eschatology. “Eschatology” refers to the “the last things,” for example, heaven, hell, and redemption. In this chapter we take up the question of what a folk psychology says about the last things. During my research for this chapter, I found three Hispano “end of the world” texts that deal with “last things.” These texts are interesting in their own right, and I discuss them after I develop the idea of dando gracias. In the last section of the chapter, I take a closer look at several Hispano views of apocrypha. Berdyaev reminds us that the “apocalyptic mood is one in which the thought of death reaches its highest intensity, but death is about the death that is experienced as a way to a new life” (1959, 260). I begin by considering the simple ceremony of dando gracias, thanking both the deceased for his or her life as well as the community for the good things it has done for a bereaved family. Dando Gracias at the Cemetery Dando gracias, the giving of thanks at the burial site at the cemetery, is an important event. It is the act of giving thanks for the person’s contribution to the community as a person, father, mother, employee, and other roles. During the eulogy, the person’s talents and good traits are extolled. Perhaps this is the first step in “soul making.” The last official act by a family in the funeral rites is to give thanks to those who brought food, provided care and love, provided prayers on behalf of the loved one, and gave the eulogy. The burial site is usually the place where the family gives thanks to members of the community for their help. The family invites everyone to come to the house or a local hall (e.g., Veterans of Foreign Wars) for a gathering of friends for a repast. This last rite might be called dar gracias, but it is more than that when we extend the definition. Dando gracias is the giving of thanks not only to the community, but also to God for a life and a soul that manifested itself among us. In an interview Medina (1983) proposed that “las gracias son a Dios por una vida, por una alma que se revelo adelante de nosotros como una encarnación” (thanks are given...

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