FUNERAL MASS (Specific Occasion)
1. Spiritual and Corporal Work of Mercy
1. Tobit 2:3-14 (Tobit burying the dead)/in verse 6, it is lamented in the words of Prophet Amos that your festival will be turned into mourning. (Mama died shortly after the Mother’s Day celebration.)
2. Tobit in Chapter 4:1-4 insisted that the son Tobias should give him a proper burial, with the money already saved in the hands of Gabael. (GNT says a PROPER burial, NAB says a DECENT burial, and the Community Bible Catholic edition says an HONOURABLE BURIAL. After a decent life, Mama deserves a decent burial. We thank Papa for this awesome consent, a mark of final love and honour.)
3. Ecclesiastes 6:3 We may have a hundred children and live a long time, but no matter how long we live, if we do not get our share of happiness and do not receive a decent burial, then I say that a baby born dead is better off.
4. John 12:7 But Jesus said, “Leave her alone! Let her keep what she has for the day of my burial. So Jesus was interested in a decent burial. It must not necessarily be luxurious. So they didn’t start using his corpse to play ball on the tarred road like we see today.
5. 2 Macc 12:37-45 (the community hopes that God will show mercy to the deceased).
6. 2 Tim 1:18 (Paul prayed for Onesiphorus, who had passed away.)
7. Luke 7:14-15 (the only son of the widow of Nain, Jesus says, “Young man, arise.”) Luke 15:17-24, the prodigal son came to his senses and said, I will arise and go back to my father,) from which we have that beautiful HYMN. YES, I SHALL ARISE AND RETURN TO MY FATHER. Hos 2:7 “You will pursue your lovers and not catch them until you return to your first husband. Isaiah 54:5: Your husband is your maker.)
2. THE GRAVE IS NOT OUR FINAL DESTINATION
1. John 14:1-3 (Jesus said it is God who exemplified it.)
2. Hos 13:14 (I will ransom them from the grave)
3. Luke 24:4-8 (Why are you looking for the living one in the cemetery?) The word “cemetery” comes from the Greek term “koimeterion” (κοιμητήριον), meaning “sleeping place” or “dormitory.” This etymology suggests that death is not an end, but rather a temporary rest or slumber. Like a hotel for lodging. You stay a while and go home. Even though the rite calls it a place of final rest …our actual final rest is Heaven. Hence Jesus refers to death as sleep (John 11:11-14). The apostle Paul wrote about believers who have “fallen asleep” (1 Corinthians 15:20, 1 Thessalonians 4:13-14). Even the QURAN 39:42 sees sleep as a temporal death; the soul departs at sleep, God returns it, and man is back to life, and when He retains it, it is death.
In all, death/grave is not the end. (UP FROM THE GRAVE HE AROSE)
3. Faith LegacyLegacy of Faith: we celebrate the journey of faith (of N…). Her rebirth with God—in the midst of sorrow, place of work, kingdom of Christ, and religion, we miss her laughter, her challenges, her weakness, her smiles, her activism, her kindness, her generosity, her care, a nurse with a difference, her tender voice, her presence… This is traumatic; it leads to SEPARATION ANXIETY DISORDER. You begin to hear her, dream of her, and see her in the room, on the bed, in the church, etc. May God bring us healing.
4. Family & Friends: Who shall live forever? Who shall climb the mountain of the? Ps 24:3-4 the man with clean hands and a pure heart.
