Funeral Homily - Liturgical Preaching Class

Funeral Homily for John Jones

On behalf of the Pastor, the staff and all of us here at St. Julia's, please accept our deepest condolences on the loss of your husband, your father and your friend. It is always a sad time to say goodbye and we have missed and will miss John’s familiar presence in our liturgies here.

Carol, Michael and William, John’s immediate family, gather with the rest of us to acknowledge a hole in our lives where John used to be. This Mass is for John but it is also about us.  We miss John, we know that he has died and will not be here with us again.  But, we are Christians and we have hope.

There are three symbols here today that remind us of John’s baptism.  In Baptism, the Pascal candle was lit, a white garment was placed on John and holy water was poured over him three times.  In that baptism, John joined with Christ as part of the family of God.  Today, we placed a white cloth over John once again and we sprinkled Holy water on him in memory of that Baptism.

Behind me today is the third symbol, the Paschal candle, burning brightly once again with the light of Christ. It is a reminder to us of the suffering, death and most importantly, the resurrection of Jesus Christ. We have in Christ, a God who suffered. We have in Christ, the light of the world, an image for us of the first fruits from death. We believe that Christ rose from the dead and He promised us everlasting life with Him. This is our hope. This is our strength to go on. There is more to our existence than these few years here on this earth.

Through our faith, we have confidence in life after death. Through God's mercy, we hope and pray that John is even now on his way to his eternal reward, completely sound of mind and body. We know that John believed, so we know that he will have eternal life. He may have died to this existence, but he lives on in the life of Christ.

Our belief in eternal life will comfort us, perhaps not today, but in time.  Today's first reading reminds us that “The Lord God will wipe away the tears from all faces.” Nobody expects today to be a time without tears, but the time will come when the tears will subside. Not because we love John less, but because we have come to accept our loss and realize that he is likely waiting for us to be reunited with him in the place God has prepared for us all. I am sure that with some time, today's loss and pain will be replaced with your best memories of the man you all loved. 

We pray for John, now beyond this mortal world, that he may be reunited with his God.

We pray for those of us left behind in this mortal world.  May we console each other in our grief, allow the tears to flow and bring all of our grief, pain and suffering to our God who can help us bear it all.

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