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Powers in the Catholic Church in Australia are making a bid to reclaim the traditional Catholic funeral service at the expense of a personalised one. They are concerned that the telling of a person’s life story and displaying memorabilia somehow distracts from the message the church exists to proclaim. These things, it is argued, are better suited to a wake or other gathering, but not the funeral service itself. I think the Catholic church is badly mistaken.
God has revealed himself through human stories: the Bible is replete with them, each serving as a doorway for us to experience and know God. It is the task of the church at the time of a funeral to allow each person’s story to be told, and to let it serve as a doorway into human understanding of God. To set the church’s needs and the needs of the family and friends in conflict is to marginalise each other, and have a detrimental impact on the mission of the church.
That people who do not otherwise attend church ask for a church funeral service is an indication of a desire to find a connection with matters of faith at a critical time. By offering a pre-packaged service disconnected from the particular circumstances of the people, the church is showing no compassion. Isn’t it our desire to be remembered, and part of the gospel story that we are remembered by God? Shouldn’t the funeral service reflect this memory: that this person and his/her deeds are remembered by God and us?
This artificial distinction between rites of the church and human experience undermines the power of the gospel message, and of the human story to reflect and encapsulate it.
Posted by gary at January 22, 2005 11:11 AM
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