Week of April 6 (Lent 5)
Scripture: The Valley of Dry Bones - Ezekiel 37: 1-14
The hand of the Lord came upon me, and he brought me out by
the spirit of the Lord and set me down in the middle of a valley;
it was full of bones. He led me all around them; there were very
many lying in the valley, and they were very dry. He said to me,
“mortal, can these bones live?” I answered, “O Lord God, you
know.” Then he said to me, “Prophesy to these bones, and say to
them: O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. Thus says the
Lord God to these bones: I will cause breath to enter you, and
you shall live. I will lay sinews on you, and will cause flesh to
come upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you,
and you shall live; and you shall know that I am the Lord.”
So I prophesied as I had been commanded; and as I prophesied,
suddenly there was a noise, a rattling, and the bones came
together, bone to its bone. I looked, and there were sinews on
them, and flesh had come upon them, and skin had covered
them; but there was no breath in them. Then he said to me, “Prophesy to the breath, prophesy, mortal,
and say to the breath: Thus says the Lord God: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon
these slain, that they may live. I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and
they lived, and stood on their feet, a vast multitude.
Then he said to me, “Mortal, these bones are the whole house of Israel. They say, ‘Our bones are dried
up, and our hope is lost; we are cut off completely.’ Therefore prophesy, and say to them, Thus says the
Lord God: I am going to open up your graves, and bring you up from your graves, O my people; and I will
bring you back to the land of Israel. And you shall know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves, and
bring you up from your graves, O my people. I will put my spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will
place you on your own soil; then you shall know that I, the Lord, have spoken and will act, says the
Lord.”
For two very different musical interpretations of the "Dry Bones" story go to:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYeQUXXYvK0 (Dry Bones sung by the Delta Rhythm Boys)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8a25lQB6R6k (Dry Bones Music Video by Kyle Wisdom)
PWRDF Story: Excerpts from “An Easter Reflection by Suzanne Rumsey, Based on a Partner Visit,
March 2008”
“On January 6, 1990 a public vigil took place for the remains of Marcelo Gelman1. But before, his
mother Berta Schubaroff, asked to say good-bye to him alone. Behind closed doors in the offices
1
Marcelo Gelman was the son of renowned Argentine poet Juan Gelman and his wife, Berta Schubaroff. In 1976,
20-year-old Marcelo was disappeared together with his 19-year-old wife, Maria Claudia Irureta.
of the Team, thirteen years after having seen him for the last time, she kissed the bones of the
fruit of her womb.”2
Between 1976 and December 1983 the military dictatorship in Argentina kidnapped and executed
thousands of people who were interred as NN (John/Jane Doe) in cemeteries and clandestine graves.
In May of 1984, with democracy returned, seven members of the American Association for the
Advancement of Science arrived in the country at the invitation of the Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo.
Among them was Clyde Snow, a forensic anthropologist, someone who specializes in the identification
of human bones; “someone able to read in them signs of life and of death”.
In the months and years following, Clyde Snow gathered around him a team of young anthropology and
medical students to begin the painstaking task of exhuming and attempting to identify the remains of
some of the victims of Argentina’s brutal dictatorship, as the students learned a discipline at the time
unknown in the country. In the years since, the Argentine Forensic Anthropology Team (EAAF or
simply the “Team”) has become world-renowned, called on to work in such countries as Kosovo, Togo,
South Africa, East Timor, Paraguay, Guatemala, El Salvador, and most recently, Mexico...
During Holy Week I met Mercedes Doretti, one of the founding members of the EAAF, together with her
colleague, Sofía Egaña, in Cuidad Juárez on the Mexico-U.S. border... Since 2004, the two women have
been trying to identify the remains of some of the 450 women brutally murdered in that border city of
maquilas3, migration and drug trafficking, and in Chihuahua City to the south.
PWRDF partner, the Centre for Women’s Human Rights, based in Chihuahua City, actively lobbied to
have the Team come to Juárez and Chihuahua when it became increasingly evident that Mexican
authorities lacked both the capacity and political will to exhume, identify and return to the victim’s
families, the remains of their daughters, mothers, and sisters. Throughout their almost 25 years of work,
members of the EAAF have placed central importance on working closely with organizations in the
country where the exhumations and identification takes place. Alma Gomez, a veteran social activist and
founding member of the Centre for Women’s Human Rights, was therefore seconded to work with
Mercedes and Sofia, assisting in the detailed review of the mountain of legal documents of the (mostly)
unresolved cases of the murdered women, and helping to locate and accompany family members of
over 80 victims...
Mercedes and Sofia explained that in Ciudad Juárez and Chihuahua City, the challenging technical work
has been made even more difficult by a series of other challenges: a lack of cooperation and even
obstruction by Mexican authorities, interference by USAID that initially funded the project, a constantly
moving target of numbers and locations of remains, dates and patterns of murders, and incomplete and
“lost” documentation... “This is not a post-war situation. This is a country with huge [justice] systems
and [human rights] institutions in place. But despite this young, poor women are dying.”4
2
From: “El Rastro en los Huesos” (The Sign in the Bones), written by Leila Guerriero, published in Gatopardo,
No.88, March 2008, Mexico D.F., pp. 124-125.
3
Export processing manufacturing factories.
4
Interview with Mercedes Doretti, Sofía Egaña and Alma Gómez, Ciudad Juárez, March 19, 2008.
...DNA testing is helping to identify some of the remains, but even so, half of the approximately 80
remains are still unidentified and may remain so. However, with improvements in DNA technology, the
Team has been carrying out a pilot project it is beginning to apply on a much larger scale in Argentina:
massive DNA testing of all remains and all family members seeking their loved ones in the hopes that
eventually, this will produce a series of matches that were not possible previously...
Over the years, as I have read and written human rights reports, accompanied partners ...whose lives
and families have been threatened, and who have even been killed, I have found myself from time to
time pushed beyond professional objectivity to weep for these partners, colleagues and friends... I
cannot begin to imagine the gut-wrenching grief that a mother must experience as first her child is
disappeared and then years later, as she receives “the bones of the fruit of her womb.” And I cannot
begin to imagine the degree to which reading “signs of death and of life” in the bones of so many victims
of violence has impacted especially the women of the EAAF and those, including PWRDF’s partner, the
Centre for Women’s Human Rights, who have worked with them.
“...thirteen years after having seen him for the last time, she kissed the bones of the fruit of her
womb.”
To read the complete reflection, click here.
For Reflection: Ezekiel's Valley of Dry Bones offers a vision of hope for the future for the exiled people of
Israel. In its collaboration with the EAAF, the Women’s Human Rights Centre seeks to offer a vision of
hope for the future for the families of northern Mexico’s disappeared and murdered women. When in
your life have you been called to offer someone(s) a vision of hope or when has someone(s) offered you
that vision? How did that calling or offering impact and change you?
Concluding Prayer
A prayer to the God of Light, from a place where we find ourselves lost, by the Women’s Human
Rights Centre, Mexico
We have been snatched from our place and estranged from the essence of life
Which is liberty, love and family.
We are forced to live in a dark labyrinth
Where is it hard to breathe
And where we passionately search for the strength to return home.
But we do not stop, because we go forward holding Your hand God and we will not be overwhelmed.
With hope-filled faith we ask
For a way out and a re-encounter with life,
For the light that offers a glimpse of the path of our return.
We ask for the courage of love and hope, of support and being held,
By the many nameless people who have taken our names as their own cause,
So that in their own lives they can find peace, harmony and the justice
That results from their daily searching.
With Your infinite love, wipe away the tears of mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters and friends,
So that in their pain they are always able to find the way to and from You,
So that they do not fear, knowing that You will always be at the end of their journey.
Hold them lovingly so that they can enjoy the happiness of life and, in spite of the pain of our absence,
That they feel sheltered in Your mercy and accompanied by Your earthly guardian angels.
We ask for mercy for those who hate
For those who hurt others and who have subjected us to this twilight;
That You may touch their hearts, offer them the love they deserve, and make
Them responsible before You and those against whom they have committed injustices.
And if in this struggle,
Some of us should become disheartened
Offer us the final good fortune
To fall into immense happiness together with You.