The bones of each “case” are carefully laid out on tables. The skeletons are reassembled and slowly take the shape of a person. And then, under the careful eye of the lab scientists, the bones begin to speak and tell the story of what happened. The story of the dead bones is then matched with the stories of friends and family who still remember the atrocities. This match-making is done through extensive interviews by cultural anthropologists in the field. Eventually the bones are reconnected to their names and are ultimately returned to the families for burial.

The day we arrived at FAFG they showed us a particularly complicated case that involved the remains of a family (of four, I believe). We were shown the skeleton of a mother carefully laid out on a table. Next to her was her son. Beginning with the mother, Jennifer pointed out the trauma to the skull (meticulously reassembled with glue). She pointed out the entrance wound to the front of the head and the exit wound to the back of the head. She slowly scanned down the body where even our untrained eyes could make out the massive fractures to the ribs, arms, and legs. She showed us metal fragments. Based on what we saw, she asked us what we thought might have happened. We rightly guessed that there was a grenade involved as well as a gun to the head. We saw the same in her son who lay next to her. It is still too early to tell but the rough outlines of a theory have begun to emerge. Either each member of the family was shot in the head and then a grenade was exploded or the grenade was exploded and then each member shot in the head to finish them off. Perhaps it is just our need to turn these martyrs into heroes, but given the way the bones were traumatized there is evidence that the mother was trying to cover the grenade to protect her children all of who were eventually shot in the head.

Once the bones have said all that they can say, Jennifer brings in Rob to document the story with photographs. These are then archived for evidence in case of a future trial. When we walked into Rob’s very simple office we saw photos of skeletons revolving continuously on his desktop monitor. He had a small photo table off to the side where he documents the evidence. The office was strangely peaceful with beautiful classical arias playing in the background. Rob is meticulous about his work. He needs to be. He shared with us that one of his greatest joys in his work is when the Foundation finishes all its forensic work and finally returns the bones to the family members – most of whom are Maya campesinos who live in the hill country. I have asked Rob to write a reflection on this, but the short of it is that when they return the skeletal remains to the families of the victims, the FAFG staff do what he called “dressing the bones” according the Mayan culture concerning the dead. The image is as intense as it is intimate. The family insists on re-dressing the skeleton with clothing – a painstaking process as you might imagine. What used to be just a pile of unidentified bones in a mass grave, denied the dignity of their name and story, let alone, their very lives, are now not only reassembled and named, but they are carefully clothed…I’ll let Rob share his experience of this first hand.

Returning to our rooms that night I noticed that the lectionary text for that week was Ezekiel 37:1-14. It is Ezekiel’s prophetic vision of the Valley of Dry Bones where God breathes into the bones the breath of life and they becoming living persons again. I don’t think I’ll ever read that passage quite the same.

I am grateful for the work of FAFG who are reconstructing and telling the stories of the dead to the living and dressing their bones. What was denied in life is given in death – not unlike the Gospel promise. May we honor the living with as much respect as FAFG honors the dead and may it teach us something about what it means to preach a Gospel of peace in a violent world.