Kevin McGinnell
Music & Liturgy 49.3 (November 2023)
Funeral booklets these days, Catholic or other, are so often titled ‘A celebration of the life of N’ that it is a
challenge to ask that we also print ‘Requiem Mass to pray for the soul of N’. We do truly celebrate the life of
the deceased, with all the ups and downs that belong to every human being’s span on earth, but as the Order of
Christian Funerals (note 1) says, ‘The Church through its funeral rites commends the dead to God’s merciful love and pleads for the forgiveness of their sins’ while offering thanks ‘for the gift of a life which has now been returned to God, the author of life and the hope of the just’ and bringing ‘hope and consolation to the living’ meeting ‘the human need to turn always to God in times of crisis’. (2)
We are coming to the month of November when there is a strong tradition of praying for and remembering our
own dead and bringing all who have died before God. It fits with the drawing-in of the days and the Church
closing its year with Matthew’s account of judgement and beginning a new year with Mark’s call for us to be awake for the coming of the Lord. The reality of the shortness of our lives is a natural part of Christian spirituality
while death is something society in the main avoids. This is evidenced in the language used for death such
as ‘s/he passed’. Death is an unavoidable fact of life for every human being. How we mark that moment in time
is an important part of our faith and also something which we can perhaps offer as a gift to the world.
“In the face of death the Church confidently proclaims that God has created each person for eternal life and that Jesus, the Son of God, by his death and resurrection, has broken the chains of sin and death that bound humanity.” (3)
Being aware of and preparing for death has been expressed in many different ways throughout our history, but never avoided. It is no coincidence that the modern hospice movement has its roots in the Catholic community, with antecedents in other Christian institutions. St Mary’s Catholic University hosts the Centre for the Art of
Dying Well (4) and its development has found a parallel now in the secular world’s ‘death cafés’ where people
gather to speak together openly about our mortality.
Our rites in the Pastoral Care of the Sick (5) journey with those who are approaching death with differentiated prayers and scripture for those in extreme or terminal illness, with the celebration of Viaticum as ‘food for the passage through death to eternal life, the sacrament proper to the dying Christian’ (6). All Eucharistic Ministers are commissioned to take the eucharist as viaticum to the dying for it is an integral part of the Church’s provision. Prayers for the Commendation of the Dying and after death continue this pastoral care. Then the Order of Christian Funerals comes into play.
The structure of the Order of Christian Funerals marks the possible stages of funeral liturgy. We need to re-examine our current practice as the pandemic severely limited what we were able to do. There are perhaps four moments we can use:
1 Prayer after death and before the funeral service: this is immediately after death and then in the days between death and coming to church (or in some cases cemetery or crematorium).
2 The funeral service which can begin with a Vigil or Reception some time before the funeral liturgy in church (or elsewhere) which may be a Requiem Mass or a Liturgy of the Word.
3 The committal of the body by its burial or the burial of ashes (Cremation itself merely prepares for the burial of ashes. We will consider this elsewhere).
4 Remembering the dead: traditions of month’s mind (7), anniversaries, parish gatherings in November or at other times.
More and more we need to help people understand how this process proclaims our Christian paschal faith. Formation will help us see how it is the right of the baptised to lead these liturgies where it is appropriate rather than assuming it always belongs to the ordained. Family, friends, those who have accompanied the dying person may be the natural choice.
As November approaches perhaps it is an ideal time for parishes and communities to reflect on their care for the dying and how funerals are understood, prepared and celebrated by the community.
Notes
1 Order of Christian Funerals (1990 Geoffrey Chapman)
2 ibid n.6, 5 and 7
3 ibid n.1
4 artofdyingwell.org
5 Pastoral Care of the Sick (1983 Geoffrey Chapman)
6 ibid n.175
7 ‘A month’s mind is a requiem mass celebrated about one month after a person’s death, in memory of the deceased. In medieval and later England.’ (Wikipedia)
Mgr Kevin McGinnell is a priest of the Northampton Diocese and former Chair of the Society of St Gregory.