Home > Coming Events > Memorial Day Mass 2007 > Homily

Homily given by Most Reverend Donald W. Wuerl, S.T.D.
All Souls Cemetery
May 28, 2007

As we come together at this cemetery to pray for the dead, we reflect on our faith and why we have this cemetery as sacred ground and the final resting place of those we love, in anticipation of the resurrection.

Our faith in new life is rooted in our profession of faith as part of God’s family. The creed professes our faith in “the communion of saints.” The Catechism of the Catholic Church reminds us that in a certain sense this article is a further explanation of what it means to profess our faith in the “holy catholic Church”: “‘What is the Church if not the assembly of all the saints?’ The communion of saints is the Church.” (Catechism 946, quoting Nicetas)

Just as eternal life begins in baptism, so our fellowship with the saints in heaven begins by our membership in the Church on earth. It is the same family bound together by one bond – the Holy Spirit – which finds its beginning here on earth and its culmination in glory. When we profess our faith in the communion of saints, we are really addressing the essence of the word communion: community.

Our bonds of community are not broken in death. The death of an individual must be understood in terms of the communion of saints. For the Church is not only the family of those living in faith here on earth, it is also an eternal communion of persons made blessed in the Holy Spirit. Such a family reaches into eternity, embracing also those who are already rejoicing in beholding God’s glory.

The entrance into eternal life of those we love has not ended their relevance to us. In a sense, by their passing on to glory we are somehow brought nearer to God. The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches that “the union of the wayfarers with the brethren who sleep in the peace of Christ is in no way interrupted, but on the contrary, according to the constant faith of the Church, this union is reinforced by an exchange of spiritual goods.” (Catechism 955, quoting Lumen Gentium 49)

It is because of this belief that the Church, in the full consciousness of this communion of the whole mystical body of Jesus Christ, has honored with great respect the memory of the dead. Because it is a “holy and pious thought” to pray for the dead “that they might be freed from this sin” (2 Mac 12:45-46), the Church offers her prayers for them.

A significant part of this long-standing tradition is the practice of having a Mass celebrated for the repose of the soul of a beloved deceased person. In this holy remembrance, we both pray for the dead and affirm our solidarity with them in Christ through the Eucharist.

Our faith in the communion of saints is nothing less than our belief in the enduring power of God’s promise, the life-giving gift of the Holy Spirit and the unity we all share. We are all in some way already one with each other through the grace of God’s life within us – whether we are still struggling in this temporal order, enduring purgation in anticipation of heaven or already enjoying the glory of the vision of God.

In an earlier age, before the Christian era, the classical Roman practice for concluding a funeral service included the salutation “ave atque vale” – hail and farewell. It symbolized the last greeting and then the departure of the deceased into an “everlasting sleep.” But that last greeting was unbearably sad. The deceased just passed beyond all hearing – in fact all being.

Our Catholic faith calls us to a belief that life exists after death. Christ is risen from the dead and so, too, shall we rise. The pledge of everlasting life is a part of our heritage. As the prayer for the Mass for the dead relates: “When the body of our earthly dwelling lies in death we gain an everlasting dwelling place in heaven.”

When Lazarus died, his sisters Martha and Mary sent for Jesus.

“When Jesus arrived, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days…Martha said to Jesus, ‘Lord if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that whatever you ask of God, God will give you.’ Jesus said to her, ‘Your brother will rise.’ Martha said to him, ‘I know that he will rise, in the resurrection on the last day.’ Jesus told her, ‘I am the resurrection and the life; whoever believes in me…will never die. Do you believe this?’ She said to him, ‘Yes, Lord, I have come to believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one who is coming into the world.’” (Jn 11:17-27)

Our Catholic faith urges us to profess as Martha did that “I have come to believe.” Our funerals reflect that belief.

At the conclusion of the funeral Mass, the priest sprinkles the coffin with holy water and incenses it because it has been a temple of the Holy Spirit and will be called to bodily resurrection on the last day.

Finally the body is taken to the gravesite for interment.

Catholic cemeteries continue to provide a ministry in the Church that recognizes the uniquely Christian understanding of death. They also provide us with holy ground where we can with some regularity remember our dead, recall their goodness to us and ask God’s blessing on them. We pray for the dead with the full awareness that we too shall follow in their steps.

Our presence here today then is more than just an act of piety, however noble in itself prayer for the dead is. It is also a declaration of faith in Christ’s victory over death, our share in that triumph, our belief in the resurrection of the body and the life to come.