FUNERAL RITES

The Greco-Roman funeral procession—the funus — what everyone understood to be the funeral, was adopted by Christians as a metaphor for their journey as earthly church toward the heavenly Jerusalem. They spoke of this journey and its expression in the funeral procession as "going to Christ" (ire ad Christum ). For ancient Christians, the mystery of divine incarnation and the promise of resurrection in the likeness of the risen Christ transformed superstitious concerns about the lot of the dead. Belief in the sacredness of the human body, the mystery of Christ's incarnation and resurrection, and the resurrection of the dead traditionally found expression in the care taken to prepare the bodies of the deceased for burial. The body that participated integrally in all the expressions of sacramental life became the primary object of liturgical attention in funeral liturgy. The prayers and ritual gestures of Catholic funeral rites affirm the Church's reverence for the mortal remains of her decreased members. Whatever form human mortal remains take, they are due Christian respect as the final form of the flesh and blood person who lived and died and will rise in relationship with God.

A Brief History. In the Greco-Roman culture of earliest Christianity burial and cremation existed side by side. Christians followed the Jewish custom of burial. By mid third century, burial became the preferred proper ritual attention to the dead, necessary to secure happiness in the afterlife. Throwing a handful of earth on the corpse or, in the case of cremation, cutting off a small bone to be buried later were essential rites. Even the dead stranger was to be given a ritual burial, and, when cremations did take place, burial of the ashes in the earth or a tomb was the norm.

The earliest Christian writings include examples of prayers and hymns for use at funerals, marking the beginning of the Christian obsequiae or services for the dead. Long before Christians had churches, they buried their dead brothers and sisters and kept their memory alive in their cemeteries (koimeteria or dormitories for the dead [see burial ii (early christian)]). Later they constructed their first basilicas over the site of Jesus' death, burial, and resurrection and over the graves of martyrs. In time the Christian funeral developed into rites that took place "at church," and burial in the churchyard or entombment in or along the walls of the church building itself became the tradition. These cemeteries are iconographic witnesses to Christian care of the dead. Their funerary decorations proclaimed that the dead had gone to the Paradise of the Shepherd, to the place of refreshment, light, and peace. They linked the "refreshment" of the funeral meal with the Eucharist, the food of life. Other decorations reflected singing and prayer on the part of individuals and the community.

In like manner Christians invested other funeral practices with their religious memory and faith. Activities,

such as washing and anointing of the dead, the solemn funus or funeral procession to the cemetery, and the tomb itself, became symbols of liturgy. To the Hebrew psalms they added Christian hymns; the eucharistic banquet came to supersede the memorial funeral meal; Jewish and pagan funerary art inspired still newer Christian representations expressing the mystery of redemption. Prayer for the dead became a duty in Christian charity. Augustine, for example, taught that prayer, almsgiving, and especially offering the Eucharist were efficacious for the dead before the judgment seat of God. In time, two attitudes of Christian faith, one hopeful of God's mercy, the other fearful of God's justice, marked the increasingly familiar ways Christians translated that faith into worship and constituted the origin of a Christian funeral liturgy.

Orders of funeral service survive from the ninth century. They reveal a pattern of prayerful preparation of the corpse (washing, clothing), vigil or wake with psalms, hymns and Scripture readings, a procession with the body to the church complex for burial to the accompaniment of psalms and prayers. Gradually, the celebration of Mass, associated with Christian death from the beginning, became a formal part of the funeral rites themselves and the church, the focal point of the liturgy. Throughout the Middle Ages, despite the different customs from region to region and between cathedral and monastic practices, a threefold structure of the classic Catholic funeral evolved as the norm. The Rituale ordered by the Council of Trent made it the universal practice of the Church. The Order of Christian Funerals (OCF) embodies this tradition as Vigil and Related Rites, Funeral Liturgy, Rite of Committal, like three panels of a triptych, and thus preserves the spirit of the funeral as metaphor for the Christian journey to Christ.

Vigil and Related Rites. The Vigil and Related Rites and Prayers are opportunities for liturgical prayer that may be celebrated during the time between death and the principal Funeral Liturgy or committal. They enable the specifically Christian expressions of faith and hope to find an appropriate place in the earliest moments of leave-taking. Although the term "vigil" in the OCF designates a particular liturgical rite of "vigil for the deceased," the whole time span surrounding death is a liminal time of "vigil" or wake. Its purpose is to offer the Church's supportive ministry of gently accompanying the mourners in their initial adjustment, cognizant of their need to express the sorrow of bereavement and to enjoy the treasure of consolation their faith holds for them.

The Vigil for the Deceased is the principal celebration of the Christian community during the time before the funeral liturgy (or, should there be no funeral liturgy, before the rite of committal). It may take the traditional form of a liturgy of the Word or of some form of the Office for the Dead. The latter also introduces the community to the psalms, particularly the lament psalms, which effectively permit the bereaved to own the reality of grief in the context of faith and hope.

Custom and pastoral need determine where the vigil takes place. For bereaved confined to their homes or other residences, celebrating the vigil there may be preferred; for others, the vigil at the parish church (where the body might "be waked" until the Funeral Liturgy) will be the best solution. Finally, the funeral home, where the body has been prepared and laid out for visitation and last respects, offers a convenient, familiar location.

The vigil for a deceased child differs slightly from the vigil for adults. There is greater flexibility to adapt the rite to suit the occasion, with more appropriate texts, specifically adapted to the needs of the family suffering such a tragic loss. The Church commends the child to the love of God the author of life, and prays for the consolation of the immediate family.

The OCF restores the vigil as an integral part of the Catholic funeral, and the models proposed are familiar to today's faithful. The Church gathers to share the pain and suffering of the family by allowing the Word of God to transform their grief and to pledge support for them in the times ahead.

Besides the Vigil for the Deceased and the devotional prayer of parish groups (such as the traditional Rosary) during the wake, there are other critical times in the period soon after death when the Church wishes to pray with the family and close friends of the deceased. The OCF provides for this opportunity by including Related Rites and Prayers as models of liturgical pastoral care to be adapted according to the circumstances of time, place and culture. These moments include prayers after death, gathering in the presence of the body, and the transfer of the body to the church or place of committal. They are times when the intimate family and friends of the deceased ordinarily begin to confront the reality of death and loss and may start to feel grief and pain deeply. At such moments the OCF recognizes the need for paschal faith and the consolation of Christian hope as well as the support of the entire community embodied in the presence of those who gather.

The Funeral Liturgy. As Catholic leave-taking, the principal funeral rite in the church stands in direct continuity with the vigil and related rites during the time following death and presumes movement to final closure at committal. With its unique prelude (Reception of the Body) and postlude (Final Commendation and Farewell) the Funeral Mass is the principal Catholic funeral event: Eucharist, at one with Jesus dead and risen, toward which all has pointed, and from which closure and a new relationship with the deceased follows. The symbols surrounding the deceased are reminders of a living faith that cannot be quenched by death. Sprinkling with holy water, placing of the pall, lighting of the Easter candle are all signs of baptism. They mark the rite of passage not from but into the land of the living.

Models for Funeral Liturgy for both adults and children follow traditional patterns while still incorporating options for celebrating the Rite of Reception earlier at the Vigil liturgy as well as celebrating the Final Commendation later at the place of committal. Two forms accommodate pastoral circumstances: "Funeral Liturgy" (including a funeral Mass) and "Funeral Liturgy outside Mass," with all elements of the former except the Eucharist. In all circumstances, a funeral Mass is preferred, and the OCF invites all to celebrate Mass soon in association with the death, whatever the circumstances of the funeral may have been. For the Eucharist is the sacrament that connects the mystery of the death and resurrection of the Lord to the death of this Christian.

The Final Commendation is very simple: an invitation to prayer, silence, signs and song of farewell, and prayer of commendation. Yet its explicit commendation of the deceased into God's hands at this closing moment of the Funeral Liturgy profoundly professes Christian belief that the living God, not the destruction of death, has the last word for this person of faith.

The Rite of Committal and Beyond. Nowhere do the paschal faith of Christians and the cross of human mortality meet more explicitly than beside an open grave or other final resting place. It is the authentic tradition of the Church to be present there. The liturgy of committal thus expresses the consolation of faith that gives meaning to this seemingly most meaningless experience of human loss and promises the continued presence of the Church.

What happens at the cemetery is a natural continuation of the funeral liturgy at church. The church complex and the cemetery form a liturgical unity, even when they are separated by time or distance. Formerly a short procession with the corpse from the church to the place of disposition—together with the prayers, psalms and rituals of committal—functioned primarily to conclude the rites of leave-taking. Today the procession with the body from the church is the same procession that enters the cemetery and proceeds to the grave or mausoleum. In this procession to the place of committal the OCF has restored the spirit of the classic Christian funeral. It is not distance but the movement of the Church with the deceased (ire ad Christum ) as liturgical action that creates a "funeral" procession.

Rites of committal themselves follow the familiar pattern of spoken word and acted sign: gathering (preferably at the site of interment or preservation of cremated remains), short Scripture verses, prayer and, where pastorally appropriate, lowering the coffin into the grave or placing the cremation container in its resting place. The OCF affirms, "Through this act (of committal) the community of faith proclaims that the grave or place of interment, once a sign of futility and despair, has been transformed by means of Christ's death and resurrection into a sign of hope and promise" (209).

The liturgy now points beyond the funeral and professes the commitment of the assembled Church to walk with the bereaved on the long, often painful process of healing. In short, committal rites serve to bring the funeral liturgy to closure and open the official time of mourning.

Bibliography: national conference of catholic bishops, Order of Christian Funerals, 1989, including Appendix on Cremation. Available from three publishers: Catholic Book Publishing Co., The Liturgical Press, and Liturgical Training Publications. v. k. owusu, The Roman Funeral Liturgy: History, Celebration, and Theology (Nettetetal 1993). f. s. paxton, Christianizing Death: The Creation of a Ritual Process in Early Medieval Europe (Ithaca, NY 1996). g. rowell, The Liturgy of Christian Burial (London 1977). a. c. rush, Death and Burial in Christian Antiquity (Washington, DC 1941). r. h. rutherford, The Death of a Christian. The Order of Christian Funerals (Collegeville, MN 1990). d. sicard, La liturgie de la mort dans l'église latine des origins à la réforme carolingienne (Münster 1978). j. m. c. toynbee, Death and Burial in the Roman World (London 1971). f. van der meer and c. mohrmann, Atlas of the Early Christian World (London 1966).

[r. rutherford]