In last week’s few words for the month of November, it was mentioned that there have been several images used for the completion of our journey to God.

An important image was precisely that of a journey.  Unsurprisingly, this journey was reflected in the Christian celebration of death.  So the view imaged in the journey was that the human life which the person had lived had to be completed in the course of their passing over from this life to life with God.  In it their conversion to Christ was completed.

Processions were an original part of the funeral service celebrated at the death of a Christian.  These processions from the house of the person to the Church, then from the Church to the place of burial were a practical necessity but at the same time were seen as symbolic.  They were symbolic of the journey to God which that Christian was making in their death.

The rest of the Christian community accompanied them on their journey.  They processed with them in prayer and in the awareness of their communion with the person who had died.  The whole community was on that journey just on a different stage of it.  But each person who died was not making that journey alone but surrounded by their fellow believers.  It is a pity that these processions seem to have dropped out of our funeral celebrations – even that of accompanying the dead person to the grave or crematorium after the Funeral Mass.

The community of believers on this side of death hands the person who has died over to the community of saints on the other side of death.

In the Commendation of the Dying – the true last rites – there is this beautiful and ancient prayer:

“Go forth, Christian soul, from this world in the name of God the almighty Father who created you, in the name of Jesus Christ, Son of the living God, who suffered for you, in the name of the Holy Spirit who was poured out upon you, go forth, faithful Christian.  May you live in peace this day, and may your home be with God…”

This prayer sends them off on their journey.

Then towards the end of the funeral Mass or Service, the whole community prays:

“Saints of God, come to his/her aid!  Come to meet her/him, angels of the Lord!  Receive her/his soul and present her/him to God the Most High.”

In this prayer, the whole community of faith hands over the person who has died into the care of the Church of heaven.

By Fr Frank O’Loughlin