The Thirty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time (A)
Dear brothers and sisters,
This month of November is traditionally given over to praying for the dead, both our own beloved dead and the dead who have been sadly forgotten, as well as to caring for their graves.
When he presided over a Mass offered for the Bishops and Cardinals who died this past year, the Holy Father Pope Francis noted that “the Lord halts before the tragedy of death.”[1] He offers this reflection concerning the raising of the dead son of the widow of Naim (cf. Luke 7:11-17):
He is called Lord – the God who exercises lordship over all things – in the very act of showing compassion for a widowed mother who lost, along with her only son, her reason for living. Here we see our God, whose divinity shines forth in contact with our sorrow and grief, for his is a heart full of compassion. The raising of that young man, the gift of life that overcomes death, has its source precisely there, in the compassion of the Lord, who is moved by death, the greatest cause of our suffering. How important it is to communicate that same look of compassion to all those who grieve for the death of their loved ones![2]
This widow’s son was not a close friend of Jesus, as was Lazarus, at whose death he wept (cf. John 11:35). Even so, Jesus clearly interrupts his life to show compassion to this woman. This is part of the example of love he has left us (cf. John 13:34, 15); it is part of what has always distinguished Christians from those who do not know him.
Our care for the dead does not end with the conclusion of the funeral liturgy or even with the burial; rather, our care for the dead must continue until the Lord Jesus returns in his glory. This is so because, as Saint Augustine said, “a man’s body is no mere adornment, or external convenience; it belongs to his very nature as a man.”[3]
The Church looks to cemeteries, where the bodies of her children are buried, as places of “rest and hope” for the same reason: cemeteries are those places where the mortal remains of the baptized, the temples of the Holy Spirit, are placed in reverential honor until they are re-enlivened by the breath of God on the last day.[4] The very ground of Catholic cemeteries is blessed so they also become places of prayer. Saint Damien, for example, prayed his daily rosary within the cemetery of his deceased parishioners.
It is unfortunate that “cemeteries, which once surrounded the local church and were truly ‘holy ground’ and indicated the link between Christ and the dead, are now located at some distance outside of the towns and cities, since urban planning no longer includes the provision of cemeteries.[5] The removal of cemeteries from the central area of our daily lives has likely lead to a lessening of our attention to the dead. “The Christian, who must be conscious of and familiar with the idea of death, cannot interiorly accept the phenomenon of the "intolerance of the dead", which deprives the dead of all acceptance in the city of the living.”[6]
It was once common for Catholics to visit the graves of their family and friends at least in the month of November, keeping in mind that “the ties of friendship and affection which knit us as one throughout our lives do not unravel with death.”[7] It was once common to leave flowers at the graves of family and friends throughout the year as tokens of love. It was once common to regularly clean the graves of family and friends. How I wish each of these customs were revivified in our day.
While the Church tolerates the cremation of her sons and daughters – unless cremation is chosen to deny the resurrection of the dead – she much prefers and strongly encourages the burial of the body. As Christians, we cannot forget that, in memory of the death, burial and resurrection of the Lord, the mystery that illumines the Christian meaning of death, burial is above all the most fitting way to express faith and hope in the resurrection of the body.”[8]
In either case, the Church requires the mortal remains of the baptized to be interred in a cemetery or other blessed location, such as a columbarium, to encourage “family members and the whole Christian community to pray for and remember the dead, while at the same time fostering the veneration of martyrs and saints.”[9] At the same time,
through the practice of burying the dead in cemeteries, in churches or their environs, Christian tradition has upheld the relationship between the living and the dead and has opposed any tendency to minimize, or relegate to the purely private sphere, the event of death and the meaning it has for Christians.
Death does not separate the living from the dead; indeed, gathered around the altar of the Lord we are always very near to those joined to Christ, whether living or dead.
Because the Church does not wish us to forget the dead but to remember them in our prayers, she grants a plenary (full), “applicable only to the souls in purgatory, is granted to the faithful who, on any and each day from November 1 to 8, devoutly visit a cemetery and pray, if only mentally, for the departed.”[10] A partial indulgence is available on any day of the year to encourage visits to cemeteries and prayers for the dead.
Let us, then, not be afraid to halt before death with the Lord Jesus. Let us not be annoyed to let death interrupt our lives in order to show care to the faithful departed. Remembering our beloved and the forgotten dead to God, let us pray:
Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord.
And let perpetual light shine upon them.
May they rest in peace.
Amen.
May their souls, and the souls of all the faithful departed, through the mercy of God rest in peace. Amen.
[1] Pope Francis, Homily, 3 November 2023.
[2] Ibid.
[3] Saint Augustine of Hippo, The City of God, I.13.
[4] Blessing of a Cemetery, 1432.
[5] Directory on Popular Piety and the Liturgy, 259.
[6] Ibid.
[7] Vigil for the Deceased, Order of Christian Funerals, 71.
[8] Ad resurgendum cum Christo, 3.
[9] Ibid.
[10] Manual of Indulgences, 29 §1.
No comments:
Post a Comment