Past a grassy knoll, in the heart of the labyrinth’s circuit,
sits the ancient, jagged stone of Mother Earth,
in a pool formed by the spill of water
forever flowing from her rocky eye.

from The Eye That Cries by Anne Whitehouse

The Eye That Cries is a memorial sculpture, by Lika Mutal, Dutch-born Peruvian sculpture.  It was built in 2005 and powerfully evokes the suffering of all Peruvians who continue to struggle through painful reconciliation in the wake of the terrorism and violence from the early 1980’s until the mid-1990’s.   The conflict claimed almost 70,000 lives, and destroyed and displaced entire communities.  Some 15,000 people are still missing.  The vast majority of those who lived in terror and with terror were indigenous peasants of the Peruvian highlands, physically and socially quite distanced from the dominant Peruvian metropolis of Lima.

The memorial is surrounded by a labyrinth of stones with the names of victims inscribed on them.  One of these victims, is Australian, Sister Irene McCormack, a Josephite. In may 1991, Sendero Luminoso members stormed the hill-top village of Huasahuasi, near Tarma, looting homes and terrorising the townspeople.  Sister Irene, who was home alone at the time, was ordered to come out of her home and was taken to the town square where 300 people had gathered.  Four local men were also brought to the central plaza and in the glare of spotlights, Sister Irene and the men were tried in a “Kangaroo Court” and sentenced to death.  Irene was accused of dispensing American Food (Caritas Provisions) and spreading American ideas by providing school books.  Amid cries of “She’s Australian, not a Yankee” and “Why kill these innocent people?”, these people were executed. Sister Irene was buried in the Huasahuasi cemetery, in a niche donated by a parishioner.

Irene McCormack was ordinary, with human frailties, like the rest of us.  She was vibrant, determined, caring and fun-loving and, as well, she was feisty, difficult, and very brave. In a retreat before she died, participants where ask to make something which spoke of the reality of their lives, where they had been living.  Irene made a kangaroo with a joey peeping out of the pouch.  Being a ‘Joey’ herself, she had the sense of being able to dive back into the safety of God’s loving pouch when threatened or in danger.  This image was prophetic because the group with carried out the execution of Irene and her friends conducted a ‘Kangaroo Court’ before that final act which allowed them to go forever into the loving arms of God.

We gather at this memorial on Saturday 22nd September to pray Sister Irene McCormack and her family,  for all those who died and their families who miss them, and for those who are still missing and for their families who are still fighting for the search to continue.