When Should Vengeance Give Way to Mercy?

"There may not be a single cemetery in Massachusetts or in the entire country that is willing to be Tamerlan Tsarnaev's final resting place, a funeral director told CNN on Monday." This headline has been playing for a couple of days now on the CNN website. Tsarnaev is one of the brothers who carried out the Boston Marathon bombings. He died in a shootout with police, and his body lies in a Boston funeral home. Relatives came and washed and dressed the body in Muslim custom, and are anxious that his body be buried, which is an essential part of Muslim custom as well. But no cemetery wants his body. I have thought about it, and I can understand that burying his body in Cambridge may be too close to where his destruction was carried out, and would be painful for the families of those who died. But, at some point, can we Americans let go of the part of our anger that is vengeance, and allow his family to bury him somewhere within our borders? Since the events of 9/11/01, we have become much too accomplished at holding grudges and demanding no mercy. Remember the outcry when the proposed Islamic Center near, but not even visible from, the site of the World Trade Center, was announced? When Lee Harvey Oswald, assassin of President Kennedy, was murdered, he was buried in a Dallas cemetery. The only pall-bearers that could be found were members of the news media who were covering his burial. Years later, his body was exhumed, and, inexplicably, his burial vault was found to be broken and the casket had disintegrated. I cannot help but wonder if a cemetery worker got in a final act of vengeance before the grave was filled. But there was no outcry at the time of the assassination that demanded that his family not be allowed to bury his body in Dallas. The pastor in me says that we should allow all people to be buried, even those who have committed heinous crimes, so that their families may have some closure. Tsarnaev had few friends, and even his extended family here in the states wanted little to do with him. and yet, those same family members came and performed rituals that are essential to their faith. Tsarnaev is dead, and he will never be able to harm anyone ever again. His brother will likely receive either a life sentence, or the death penalty. Do we also need to refuse to allow his family to bury the older brother? At what point do we find room for compassion, if not for the perpetrators, then for their families, some of whom had nothing to do with their crimes? Before you answer, read the Gospel where Jesus talks about forgiveness, and how many times we should forgive our enemies. It is not easy to read, but it is necessary, especially during these days of violence, fear and vengeance.