COMMEMORATION OF ALL THE FAITHFUL DEPARTED

Sunday, November 02, 2008

Wisdom 3:1-9
Romans 6:3-9
Luke 24: 13-35

Has anyone you love died? How are you dealing with the death? Today, the church comes together to celebrate the memory of all those who have gone before us. On this Sunday, the day that is always the liturgical renewal of Easter, we depart from Ordinary Time and celebrate the Feast of All the Faithful Departed, all those who are our ancestors in the Faith. Whether you are newly bereaved or have been dealing with the loss for some time, let the feast and these readings remind you.

Remind you? Of what? Let these readings wash over you and remind you of what you believe as voiced in the last phrases of the Creed you recite every Sunday following the Liturgy of the Word. We believe in the communion of saints, the resurrection of the body, and life everlasting.

I have no idea at how many funerals it was my privilege to preside in my 43 years of priestly ministry. I say privilege conscious of the fact that that was without exception what I felt each time I began the funeral liturgy and greeted mourners bearing the body of their loved one to the church. We met at the font and these were the first words uttered as I sprinkled the body with baptismal water: I bless N.’s body with the holy water that recalls his/her baptism of which the apostle Paul writes: All of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death. By baptism into his death we were buried together with him, so that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might live a new life. For if we have been united with him by likeness to his death, so shall we be united with Christ by likeness to his resurrection.

The mourners would be in varying degrees of composure depending on whether the death had been sudden and out of due time or expected, whether the deceased was a youth or of advanced years. No matter. Death is the greatest challenge to faith. Each person has to ask: What do I believe has happened here? Each time I would hand the white pall to the family and would assist them in dressing the coffin with this reminder of the garment that the deceased was clothed in that day when s/he came out of the waters that are our tomb and our mother. And so, following the Easter Candle being borne aloft, we would process through the assembly to the area of tables of the Word and the Eucharist. Most often we would sing Amazing Grace as we processed. Amazing grace, indeed. If the signs are believed, it is all amazing. One of the survivors would place a crucifix on the coffin and there we would have it. The sign of contradiction is in place. There is no denial of the reality of death but it is always death in union with Christ’s. The Easter Candle burns near the coffin. The Easter Candle is the first light that comes into the church shrouded in the night that is Holy Saturday and becomes the great sign of Christ’s resurrection. Standing there the Candle now attests to the faith-fact that those who die with Christ will rise with Christ in glory.

The truths we cling to during individual funerals are the truths we proclaim regarding all the faithful departed whose feast we celebrate today. We need to be reminded. Remembering is at the heart of our faith experience. It is what Eucharist is about. Remembering.

Two disciples that same day, the first day of the week, were making their way to a village named Emmaus…. So begins one of the gospels that might be read today. The two are going away from Jerusalem, downcast and broken in the aftermath of Jesus’ crucifixion. The fact that they are called disciples means that they had made the decision that Jesus was the Messiah, in their words, the one who would set Israel free. Apparently their vision of Messiah was that of a triumphant warrior who would drive out foreign rule and set up a mighty kingdom that would last. That kind of messiah would not die on a cross. As they trudge along deep in their discussion, a Stranger approaches them and asks them what they are preoccupied with? It is the resurrected Jesus but the disciples do not recognize him. The two speak to him about defeat. The Risen One invites them to see the crucifixion, indeed all that Jesus suffered, from a different perspective, their faith tradition as contained in the Scriptures. Did not the Messiah, the Christ, have to suffer these things and so enter into glory?

What Jesus invited the two disciples to do, he invites us to do each time we are confronted with the reality of death. Remember our tradition as it is contained in Word and Sacrament. The reading from Wisdom says: They seemed, in the view of the foolish, to be dead; and their passing away was thought an affliction and their going forth from us, utter destruction. Remember! But they are at peace.

Remember the horrors of September 11. Unbelievable horror and destruction. Lives were lost. The word tragedy was used to describe the events of that day. I remember angering some when I said I would not use that word in that context because tragedy implies defeat and brings with it hopelessness. Horrendous? Of course. Terrible? Indeed. But tragic? Only if we forget that we believe in the resurrection of the body and life everlasting. In the immediate aftermath, almost before the dust settled, tales of heroism began to emerge. People caught in those collapsing buildings laid down their lives for their friends. People on one those careening airplanes became the valiant who sent that potential missile of destruction crashing into an open field and prevented it from exploding into a major building that would have caused many more deaths. Many died in the towers and in the Pentagon. Many died in that plane crash. But were they defeated? Not ultimately. If we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him. Having made the ultimate sacrifice we believe they receive the ultimate reward. Christ defeated death, his own and ours. Do you believe that?

After their daylong discussion, the three in the evening sunset came to a fork in the road. It seemed that the Stranger would go in one direction and they in another. They could not bear a parting. Stay with us. It is nearly evening – the day is practically over. And so they sit at table together. It is then that the Stranger takes bread, says the blessing, breaks the bread and begins to distribute it to them. And we, looking on, recognize those words as Eucharistic. With that, the gospel says, their eyes were opened and they recognized him. But he vanished from their sight.

The pericope captures our Sunday experience. With retrospect, the two disciples said: Were not our hearts burning within us as he talked to us on the way and explained the scriptures to us. That’s the work of the Liturgy of the Word, to break open the Scriptures and help us to see life’s events and even death in that context. The hearts of believers burn in recognition of the truth and their hope is renewed. Just think of it. Because of that explanation given on the road to Emmaus, suffering was no longer a punishment for sin. An instrument of excruciating suffering became a sign of hope. We glory in the Christ’s cross.

And so it is that we always proceed from the Liturgy of the Word to the Liturgy of Eucharist. We take bread, bless it and break it. We take a cup and bless and distribute it. We hear Jesus command us: Do this in my memory. And we recognize him in the breaking of the bread.

Death, where is your victory? Death, where is your sting? Faith makes the difference. We weep when someone we love dies. But as Paul admonished us, we are not to yield to grief, as those do who have no hope. Our commemoration today is of all those who have died in Christ. Our sure and certain hope is that they, in Christ, will rise again. And so one day, as God wills in Christ, will we who walk with Christ on The Way.

Sincerely,

Didymus