The Mystery of Death and Christian Funerals
Scholars of the Bible, the liturgy, and theology speak about the paschal mystery What is the paschal mystery? The phrase refers to the death and resurrection of Christ. He is the lamb whose blood was shed on the tree of the cross. He is the risen one who lives among us still. When people are baptized, they participate for the first time in the paschal mystery by walking down into waters (death) and by rising up out of the waters (resurrection). Christians continually die and rise with Christ in daily life. We celebrate the paschal mystery when we gather for the weekly meeting and share the paschal meal that is Eucharist.
When Christians die, we surrender our very selves into the embrace of the triune God. The act of dying is the final act of surrender in a life lived in Christ. The act of dying is our last earthly act, the final time in this life for participating in the paschal mystery. The liturgies of initiation, daily prayer, and the Eucharist shape us and create a spiritual rhythm of dying and rising. At death we enter fully into the paschal mystery.
Every once in awhile we take time to acknowledge the pathways of dying and rising, milestones of meaning in life. We name the rhythms that occur when God raises us up out of the troubles we've seen, the travails we've embraced, and the rocky roads we've trod. When we let God into our quotidian lives, when we leave room for the Spirit to breathe, to inspire and to guide, we find that the paschal mystery is not something we do alone. It is God's doing, God's patching together the pieces that make up the quilt of our lives. Paschal mystery is a quilting bee. It involves God and us, together with other persons and events. It is stitched together in the Spirit. This means paying attention to our patterns of desire, and decision, dying and rising. The experiences of life, large and small, mirror and manifest God's hand molding the clay that, when fired and refined, is each person's unique share in the paschal mystery.
Where do we find the paschal mystery? Saint Bernard wrote about the rhythm of dying and rising that he observed in the fields and farms of France. He said that the winter reminded him of the passion of Jesus. The earth is hard, the clime is cold, and the skies are gray. One trusts that seed and soil, asleep now in the earth-womb, germinate silently and unseen. Finally comes spring, mud-luscious and puddle wonderful reminder of Christ's resurrection. Fields and flowers flourish. Creation awakens to a freshet of loveliness, a birth of brilliant colors, and a garden of glorious growth. Bernard read the book of nature as a sign of paschal mystery. We read the book of our lives a sign of the paschal mystery. We die and rise when wintry dreams kindle hope, when family losses become second chance, when addictive desperation leads to one-day-at-a-time sanity, when tears yield to hearty gratitude, when serenity and peace replace fear and insecurity. "Dying you destroyed our death, rising you restored our life, Lord Jesus, come in glory." Amen, let it be so, amen!