These last two weeks we have been fielding a lot of funeral requests across our parishes, so I figure now is an appropriate time to do some catechesis on funerals.
What is a Funeral?
Canon 1176.2 says “In these funeral rites the Church prays for the spiritual support of the dead, it honors their bodies, and at the same time it brings to the living the comfort of hope.” Note that central part, “honors their bodies”: there are lots of ways to pray for the dead and comfort the living, but, strictly defined, funeral rites require a body to be present.
What are the Parts of a Funeral?
Remember that we are a world-wide church, and ceremonies around death and dying are often profoundly linked to culture and tradition. So the Church has tried to create funeral rites that are broad enough to encompass every expression of death rituals that are compatible with Christian faith. To that end, the Church foresees and recommends three funeral rites: the Vigil, the Funeral Mass, and the Burial.
The Vigil
When someone dies, many cultures keep the body in the home while well-wishers cycle through to comfort the immediate family (think of an Irish wake). Other cultures, like ours, entrust the body to funeral professionals, but still have a “visitation” or gathering at the funeral home (or sometimes the church). The Vigil ritualizes these gatherings in the presence of the body.
Many families have begun to skip the Vigil, or replace it with a rosary or open casket before the Mass. My theory is this is because we have over formalized it. We think of it as just another thing to plan after death, and we wish to simplify by eliminating it. But the desire to gather and pray together, around the body, is deeply human and natural, and often happens organically. Whenever and wherever this gathering happens, the Church has ritualized prayers that can be used by the family or a parish volunteer or, if held in a church, a priest or deacon.
The Funeral Mass
The Funeral Mass is the central liturgical action following death. In the presence of the body, the Christian people gather to commend the deceased into the hands of their merciful Lord, and to seek comfort in the hope of Christ’s resurrection.
Whenever possible, Catholics always seek to offer a funeral Mass because, short of martyrdom, we always assume the dead require some purgation before heading to Heaven, and we, the living, want to assist them with our prayers. The Mass is the most powerful prayer we have in Christianity, and we Catholics should feel obliged in charity to ensure that everyone who dies has at least one Mass offered for the repose of their soul.
More than just a Memorial Mass, which is any Mass offered for the dead, the funeral also contains special prayers and songs that commend the dead into the hands of the Lord; and contains an incensing of the body to honor it as sacred, even in death.
The Burial
In one sense, the Burial is not a separate rite, but the ending of the Funeral Mass (the Funeral Mass does not end with a blessing, like most Masses, but with the invitation “Let us now take our brother/sister to his/her place of rest”). This is why police processions used to be so common and helpful: because there was supposed to be a liturgical procession to the cemetery immediately following Mass, and in the era of cars there was the desire to maintain the spirit of processing together. Unfortunately, these processions are extremely rare in Western Washington.
The Burial itself involves more prayers, both for the living and the dead, including a blessing of the grave with holy water, as a sign that bodies are holy and tombs are holy. In addition, the default practice is to lower the body into the ground in the middle of prayers, while the family looks on; I find this more helpful than walking away before the burial, as there is an air of finality in witnessing the burial itself, and it allows us to pray for each other during such a stark moment.
“Ad resurgendum cum Christo”
In 2016, the Vatican published a document called Ad resurgendum cum Christo which reiterated and clarified a few issues surrounding burial.
- Cremation – #4 states: “The Church continues to prefer the practice of burying the bodies of the deceased, because this shows a greater esteem towards the deceased. Nevertheless, cremation is not prohibited, ‘unless it was chosen for reasons contrary to Christian doctrine’.”
There is also an assumption that the cremation will happen after the funeral liturgy: “In the absence of motives contrary to Christian doctrine, the Church, after the celebration of the funeral rite, accompanies the choice of cremation, providing the relevant liturgical and pastoral directives, and taking particular care to avoid every form of scandal or the appearance of religious indifferentism.”
- Burial is Required – #5-7 (too long to reproduce here) make clear that burial is required for all Christians, even those cremated. Ashes must never be kept in a home, spread into nature, or divided into keepsakes.
Receptions
As we have moved away from traditional funeral practices, receptions have taken on greater importance. I think a lot of this has to do with the lack of Vigils, since the Mass itself is sometimes the only place when out of town guests gather. Nevertheless, for the liturgical reasons above and for the priests’ schedules (so they can reserve an unbroken block of time), I have been really pushing us to return to the traditional practice of going directly from the Mass to the burial, and then the family can choose to have a reception at their home, a restaurant, or back at the church.
Fr. Moore 