Saturday, April 22, 2017
Youcat commented through CCC – Question n. 278 - Part I.
(Youcat
answer) A Christian funeral is a service performed by the Christian community
for the benefit of its dead. It expresses the sorrow of the survivors, yet it
always has a Paschal character. Ultimately, we die in Christ so as to celebrate
with him the feast of the Resurrection.
A deepening through CCC
(CCC 1686) The Order of Christian Funerals (Ordo
exsequiarum) of the Roman liturgy gives three types of funeral
celebrations, corresponding to the three places in which they are conducted
(the home, the church, and the cemetery), and according to the importance
attached to them by the family, local customs, the culture, and popular piety.
This order of celebration is common to all the liturgical traditions and
comprises four principal elements:
Reflecting
and meditating
(CCC Comment)
(CCC 1687) The greeting of the community. A
greeting of faith begins the celebration. Relatives and friends of the deceased
are welcomed with a word of "consolation" (in the New Testament sense
of the Holy Spirit's power in hope) (Cf. 1 Thess 4:18). The community
assembling in prayer also awaits the "words of eternal life." The
death of a member of the community (or the anniversary of a death, or the
seventh or fortieth day after death) is an event that should lead beyond the
perspectives of "this world" and should draw the faithful into the
true perspective of faith in the risen Christ. (CCC 1688) The liturgy of the Word during funerals 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. The homily in particular must "avoid the literary
genre of funeral eulogy" (OCF 41) and illumine the mystery of Christian
death in the light of the risen Christ.
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