The Celebration Of Christian Funerals

By DON FIER

Over the past several months, we have expounded extensively on the teaching of the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) with regard to how Christ and His Church provide so magnificently for the spiritual growth and sanctification of the faithful through the sacraments.
Moreover, we saw last week that we have also been given a wellspring of additional aids — in the form of sacramentals — to help prepare ourselves for the reception of God’s grace. In some ways, the two resemble one another, but as explained by Fr. John A. Hardon, SJ:
“[Sacramentals] differ from the sacraments in not being instrumental causes of grace. Rather, they arouse the faith of believers to better dispose themselves for the reception of grace through the sacraments” (The Faith, p. 141).
As indicated last week, they differ “in institution, cause, and effectiveness.”
Sacramentals confer grace in an indirect manner “by preparing us to recognize a source of grace and then to cooperate with the grace that the sacramental signifies” (ibid., p. 142). The Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCCC) identifies several types of sacramentals that form an important aspect of the Church’s life:
“Blessings, which are the praise of God and a prayer to obtain his gifts, the consecration of persons, and the dedication of things for the worship of God” (n. 351).
Holy water as well as blessed scapulars and medals are familiar examples of sacramentals. “We may say,” says Fr. Hardon, “that almost every respectable object can be used to give praise to God and can be a source of grace to those who believe” (ibid.).
Other forms of popular piety that accompany many faith-filled souls as they journey toward eternity include “the veneration of relics, visits to sanctuaries, pilgrimages, processions, the stations of the cross, and the rosary” (CCCC, n. 353). Solemn exorcisms to drive the evil spirit out of persons possessed by the Devil (which can be performed only by priests authorized by the bishop) also fall under the domain of sacramentals.
Part Two of the Catechism, which in essence covers the worship component of the Catholic faith, concludes with ten paragraphs (nn. 1680-1689) on the celebration of Christian funerals, a topic to which the 1983 Code of Canon Law (CIC) allocates nine canons (canons 1177-1185). It introduces the subject by reminding us that “all the sacraments, and principally those of Christian initiation, have as their goal the last Passover of the child of God which, through death, leads him into the life of the Kingdom” (CCC, n. 1680).
This hope-filled text provides a most fitting and natural segue to a discussion and catechesis on the Church’s rituals that facilitate the Christian’s final passage from this veil of tears into eternity.
“[Physical] death is the natural and inevitable end of life on earth” (United States Catholic Catechism for Adults [CCA], p. 153).
As the Old Testament Book of Ecclesiastes says, “There is . . . a time to be born, and a time to die” (Eccl. 3:1-2). And as the inspired author later writes: “The dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it” (Eccl. 12:7).
It is precisely the moment of death which marks “an end to human life as the time open to either accepting or rejecting the divine grace manifested in Christ” (CCC, n. 1021). Our final destiny has been determined for all of eternity. Yet, “there is much in our culture that distracts us from reflection about our final destiny. We are encouraged to think only about the present moment and to fulfill today’s needs” (CCA, p. 158), for so many believe that this fleeting life is all there is.
The faithful Christian, however, resolutely believes that physical death is only a transition. As stated in the Introduction to the Order of Christian Funerals (OCF), “in the face of death, the Church confidently proclaims that God has created each person for eternal life and that Jesus, the Son of God, by his death and resurrection, has broken the chains of sin and death that bound humanity” (n. 1).
“The Christian who dies in Christ Jesus,” explains the Catechism, “is ‘away from the body and at home with the Lord’ (2 Cor. 5:8)” (CCC, n. 1681).
Elsewhere, St. Paul says, “He who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus” (2 Cor. 4:14). As such, “the Christian funeral liturgy tells us that life is changed, not ended” (CCA, p. 159).
The Catechism goes on to instruct the Christian faithful that “the day of death inaugurates, at the end of his sacramental life, the fulfillment of his new birth begun at Baptism, the definitive ‘conformity’ to ‘the image of the Son’ conferred by the anointing of the Holy Spirit, and participation in the feast of the Kingdom which was anticipated in the Eucharist — even if final purifications are still necessary for him in order to be clothed with the nuptial garment” (CCC, n. 1682).
In other words, as long as a person departs this life in the state of grace, he or she can be assured of attaining Heaven, even though purification in Purgatory may be necessary.
Indeed, the celebration of the Rite of Christian Burial shows how the Sacraments of Baptism, Confirmation, and the Holy Eucharist reach their fulfillment in the person who has died in Christ Jesus. This is beautifully expressed in a touching paragraph of the Catechism:
“The Church, who, as Mother, has borne the Christian sacramentally in her womb during his earthly pilgrimage, accompanies him at his journey’s end, in order to surrender him ‘into the Father’s hands.’ She offers to the Father, in Christ, the child of his grace, and she commits to the earth, in hope, the seed of the body that will rise in glory (cf. 1 Cor. 15:42-44)” (CCC, n. 1683).
Three types of funeral rites are given in the Order of Christian Funerals corresponding to the three places where they might be conducted: at the home of the deceased (or funeral parlor), in the church, or at the cemetery (cf. CCC, n. 1686).
However, as Raymond Cardinal Burke emphasizes in his pastoral letter entitled On the Christian Burial of the Dead, “The Funeral Mass should never be considered an accessory rite for the deceased but rather it should be considered, as it truly is, the heart of the funeral rites (cf. OCF, n. 128).” It is important that “the body of the deceased member of the faithful should be brought to the Eucharistic Sacrifice one final time in order that the whole Church may pray that he or she who ate the Bread of Eternal life may now share in the eternal life of Heaven” (ibid.).
Note: Cardinal Burke’s pastoral letter can be read in its entirety at www.mariancatechist.com.
The order of celebration, which is common across all liturgical traditions, consists of four principal elements: (1) the greeting of the community during which relatives and friends of the deceased are welcomed with words of consolation; (2) the liturgy of the Word which should serve to illumine the mystery of Christian death; (3) the Eucharistic Sacrifice (when the funeral service is held in a church and the Mass is offered) during which the Church expresses her efficacious communion with the departed and asks the Father to purify His child of his or her sins and their consequences; and (4) the final commendation to God before the body of the deceased is transported to its final resting place (cf. CCC, nn. 1687-1690).
“The liturgy of the Word during funerals,” says the Catechism, “demands very careful preparation because the assembly present for the funeral may include some faithful who rarely attend the liturgy, and friends of the deceased who are not Christians” (CCC, n. 1688).
The Order of Christian Funerals provides guidance: “A brief homily based on the readings should always be given at the funeral liturgy, but never any kind of eulogy” (OCF, n. 141).
The General Instruction on the Roman Missal restates this prohibition: “At the Funeral Mass there should, as a rule, be a short homily, but never a eulogy of any kind” (n. 382).
As Cardinal Burke explains in his pastoral letter, “The central message of the homily is the mystery of the Redemption. In holding up this mystery for the faithful, the homilist will indicate signs of the redeeming love of God in the life of the deceased person.”
Archbishop Emeritus Daniel Pilarczyk of Cincinnati, Ohio, explicates: “The funeral liturgy is a celebration of salvation and mercy, of grace and eternal life. It is not meant to be a commemoration (much less a canonization) of the person who has died. Extended remembering of the deceased often results in forgetting the Lord.” The fitting time for a eulogy is either at the wake (or at a luncheon that follows the funeral).

Cremation

To close this column, let us briefly consider cremation, a practice that has gained popularity in contemporary times. “The Church earnestly recommends that the pious custom of burying the bodies of the deceased be observed,” states the 1983 Code.
“Nevertheless, the Church does not prohibit cremation unless it was chosen for reasons contrary to Christian doctrine” (CIC, canon 1176 § 3). Likewise, the Order of Christian Funerals states: “Although cremation is now permitted by the Church, it does not enjoy the same value as burial of the body” (OCF, n. 413).
Moreover, if cremation is chosen, the remains of the deceased must still be buried in a grave or entombed in a columbarium; the ashes must not be scattered or placed on a mantelpiece (cf. OCF, n. 417).

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(Don Fier serves on the board of directors for The Catholic Servant, a Minneapolis-based monthly publication. He and his wife are the parents of seven children. Fier is a 2009 graduate of Ave Maria University’s Institute for Pastoral Theology. He is a Consecrated Marian Catechist.)