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The Catholic Way of Dying
by Most Rev. Donald W. Wuerl, Archbishop of Washington D.C.
A number of years ago a book titled “The American Way of Dying” called attention to the rather extravagant way in which Americans lavish all types of creature comforts on a corpse. Unlike the tradition of memorializing a person or his or her accomplishments with a monument or even a tomb, the current practice seems to be to provide for the “comfort” of the deceased persons as if, the book states, “to deny that death has occurred.”
Perhaps it is an expression of our increasingly secular age that funerals no longer mark a passage from this life to eternal life, but rather signal the hopelessness of human life and the futility of the human condition. The resultant aberrations speak of a lack of faith in any life to come.
In an earlier age before Christianity took hold, the classical Roman concluded his funeral salute with the words “ave atque vale,” hail and farewell. It symbolized the final greeting and the departure of the deceased into “everlasting sleep.” The pathos of such a salutation was contained in the desire once again to greet one’s friend or loved one, but at the same time the recognition was futile because the deceased had passed beyond all hearing - in fact, all being.
Burials Are Acts Of Faith
Our Catholic faith presents us with a completely different view of human mortality. As the preface for the funeral Mass tells us, we believe that “life is changed not ended.” And in the firm faith and full expectation of the resurrection, we bury our dead. Christian funerals and burials are acts of faith not declarations of despair.
From baptism through every stage of the believer’s life, Christ is present in His church, blessing, anointing, healing, saving, ministering, instructing, guiding and caring for each of His disciples. There is no more appropriate conclusion to a Christian life than a Catholic funeral in the deceased one’s parish church followed by burial in ground that has been blessed in anticipation of the resurrection.
Each of us will enjoy our own Easter day. Just as on the first resurrection morning Christ broke the chains of death and rose from the tomb to a life that would have no end, so too do we, followers of Jesus and believers in His word, look forward to a personal resurrection of the body. This is not a casual hope or extravagant expectation but rather a firm conviction tied primarily to our faith in the Risen Lord.
The “Catechism of the Catholic Church” tells us, “The Christian creed ... culminates in the proclamation of the resurrection of the body on the last day and in life everlasting” (988). It goes on to proclaim, “We firmly believe, and hence we hope that, just as Christ is truly risen from the dead and lives forever, so after death the righteous will live forever with the Risen Christ and He will raise them up on the last day” (989).
Faith In Bodily Resurrection
Catholic teaching on what it means to be a human person, and on the power of Christ’s resurrection, calls for faith in our bodily resurrection. All of us, both those who are saved and those who have rejected salvation, will rise again with our own bodies. Those who have died will receive new life. The church firmly believes and steadfastly teaches that on the day of judgment all will appear before the tribunal of Christ with their own bodies to give an account of their deeds.
The Second Vatican Council’s “Dogmatic Constitution on the Church” reminds us “before we reign with Christ in glory we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ so that each one may receive good or evil, according to what he has done in the body (2 Cor. 3:10), and at the end of the world they will come forth, those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of judgment (John 5:29; cf. Matt. 25:46” [LG 48].
What is equally marvelous in this understanding that we will someday he raised from the dead is the recognition that we are already participating in the new life that will last forever. The seeds of eternal life are already sown in us. Through baptism we have already put on the Risen Lord. In the Eucharist we nourish our growing spiritual life. This life, already within us, will continue after we walk through the doors of death in a way that we cannot even begin to imagine. Then it will reach a fullness that will be sustained forever.
Praying For The Dead
Our belief in the resurrection of the dead accounts for our ancient practice of praying for those who have died in anticipation of the resurrection and also for our practice of burying the dead after having commended them to God in a solemn funeral liturgy. While we await the resurrection of the body, the earthly remains which housed the gift of God’s spirit and was a temple of the Holy Spirit are treated with respect, buried with dignity, and recognized as that portion of the person awaiting resurrection.
Our respect and reverence for our earthly remains is testimony to our profound faith that the God who created body and soul from nothing will restore these remains even as they return to dust so that they might eventually be united with the soul and enjoy new life with God in eternity.
If our many beautiful churches throughout the diocese are a sign of our living faith, surely our cemeteries, both parish and diocesan ... are a testimony to our deep faith in the life to come. May God bless all who work so hard in our parishes and at The Catholic Cemeteries Association to carry out the church’s mission of comforting those who mourn, burying the dead and caring for their final resting place.
* This article first appeared as an editorial in the Pittsburgh Catholic on November 7, 1997.
“While we await the resurrection of the body, the earthly remains which housed the gift of God’s spirit and was a temple of the Holy Spirit are treated with respect, buried with dignity, and recognized as that portion of the person awaiting resurrection.
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