The news of the death of former Judge Ray Pace saddened me a lot.
I did not know Dr Pace personally. I have never had any conversation or communication with him. I do not know any of his family.
So you may ask why the news saddened. I try to answer.
All reports of his death make reference to the court case he was undergoing. One cannot expect otherwise. However Dr Pace was not just a former judge or someone facing grave accusations in Court.
Dr Pace was a husband and a father. The loss must devastate them. They shared with him nice moments and very difficult ones. They laughed with him and cried with him. Now he is no more. The emptiness that a husband leaves in the life of his wife and a father in the life of his children is a harsh emptiness indeed.
Justice parliamentary secretary Owen Bonnici is to be commended for his comment in timesofmalta.com. “This tragic affair just goes to show how delicate and sensitive a matter justice is – in this case a matter of life or death. My thoughts right now are with his family.”
May they mourn and cry as a loving wife and dear children naturally do. But may they then find peace in the remembrance of the nice moments they had with him, the love they shared and the solidarity they showed him in the hour of need. May his family be comforted by the solidarity, care and love of those close to them.
Besides being a husband and a father, Dr Pace was a fellow human being.
Like each and every one of us he had his great moments and his tragic ones. Like everyone else he did things that he was proud of and things he was ashamed of. We are all the same: strong and weak; lovable and mean; good and bad; positive and negative. Unfortunately we often forget our own weaknesses and are more than prompt to throw the first, second and third stone. We crave for forgiveness but are so stingy in giving it. It seems that we forget that the sins of some are, for one reason or another, more public and manifest that the sins of others; but sinners we all are.
Whatever wrong Dr Pace did he paid for it much more than a fair price.
Today he met His Creator who is more forgiving than all of us put together. Our merciful Father must have hugged him and dried all his tears. Is this not the message that the readings from St John’s have been giving us the last few weeks?
May his family find peace in the knowledge that their father is in safer and better hands today. Hi is in the hands of Our Father.
May Dr Pace rest in peace.