4th before Advent 2025
Betwixt All Saints and All Souls: The Holy Dead and the Beloved Dead
JOHN’S FUNERAL
When my friend John died in a tragic car accident at the age of 32,
none of us knew that he had planned his funeral down to the last detail.
He had requested specific vestments,
that the choir would sing Durufle’s Requiem,
and even who would preach the sermon.
What touched us most,
was his request that the collection at the service should be for the poor.
On reflection, this was typical John,
Who wanted his funeral to speak of his love for God, and of neighbour.
CULT OF THE SAINTS AND THE DEAD
‘Why can the dead do such great things? Asked St Augustine of Hippo.
As we keep All Saints and All Souls,
We remember the holy dead and the beloved dead,
not as a remembering of people in the past,
but of their presence and power in our lives today.
In doing so we make an important distinction:
We pray TO the saints, to receive the help of their prayers
We pray FOR the dead, that they may receive the help of ours.
But in the beginning, the veneration of the saints and the departed were one and the same.
As the Early Church was persecuted and many met their death as martyrs,
their fellow Christians would go out to the places where they were buried,
and continuing he pagan practices,
they held memorial meals and made offerings at the graveside.
Very quickly, this took on a specifically Christian form,
of celebrating the Eucharist and invoking a martyr’s name in prayer.
At this stage, there was no distinction between saints and the dead,
The martyrs were people they knew,
fellow Christians they had lived alongside and worshipped with.
Only gradually, did the categories of saint and departed become separated, time passed and new generations arose who didn’t know them personally.
YOUR FUNERAL
Let me return to my friend John.
All of us, as his friends, decided that the best tribute we could give,
Was to do what he did – and plan our funerals too.
So at this time of year, I suggest you to do the same.
Thinking about death – your own death – is not easy.
But there are two strong reasons for doing so:
First, as a witness to your faith.
Whether you choose to describe every last detail as John did,
Or just put down your favourite hymns and Bible readings;
It’s a way you can express your love for God.
Second, it is a blessing to others.
Planning your funeral is a great kindness to family and friends (who may not share your faith) to know they are following your wishes.
And like John, you might make a specific bequest to those in need,
or leave a legacy to your church
that your generosity may be a blessing to many.
Reflecting on death and funerals is not a morbid activity – quite the opposite – it is a meditation on our ‘sure and certain hope in the resurrection to eternal life’. Do get in touch with any of the clergy if you would like help with your planning, and we will keep your plan in a safe place until needed.
THE LIVING AND THE DEAD
However, planning our funerals is about more than just choosing some nice hymns – it’s about the very nature and form of the service itself.
Of all religions, Christianity has the most to do with bodies
And to understand what that means we have to go back to the first Christians, who had a radically different view of death from Jews and Romans.
In Jewish Law, any contact with a dead body made someone ritually unclean – the living and the dead were always to be kept absolutely separate.
Christ was crucified outside Jerusalem – and his tomb, like all burial places – was at a distance from human habitation.
For different reasons, the same was true of Roman religion – indeed, for both Jews and Romans, holy places were defined by their separation from the dead – whereas for Christians it was precisely the opposite – they went out to worship where the dead were buried, and later brought the dead into their places of worship and among the living.
The veneration of the saints began with honouring those martyrs
whose bodies had suffered so much for the faith.
And as Christianity spread and was tolerated
and then became an official religion,
the bodies of these saints were brought from their burial places in cemeteries beyond city walls, and into churches – often being broken up in the process – and sent out to various locations. These human remains (or relics as they came to be known) came to define a Christian place of worship – to the extent that it was required for every church to contain at least some physical remain of a saint, no matter how small – for it is upon their faith that ours is built.
A CHRISTIAN FUNERAL?
So what does that means for your funeral?
Often people say to me they would like a ‘Christian funeral’ –
But what exactly makes a funeral Christian?
It’s not just the hymns and readings,
But the type of event.
First and most importantly it means that a Christian funeral involves a body –
We are not frightened of bodies,
nor do we hide them away,
Instead we honour them
because God loves us body and soul.
He sanctified all of us through the Incarnation Jesus Christ,
and he will raise us up remade and renewed,
like the body of the Risen Christ.
Which was flesh and blood yet also a spiritual body.
The physical presence of our body at our funeral testifies to this hope and faith in the resurrection of the body and the life of the world to come.
Second, it means that a Christian’s funeral will normally take place in church – the house of God – and as a public event rather than a private affair – because the Christian should be joined by their fellow worshippers from the Christian community.
In all funerals in church,
the Easter candle stands beside the coffin of the departed,
just as it stood beside the Font at their Baptism –
for God’s grace is with us from the beginning to the end of our lives.
Another sign of that is when people request their body to rest in church overnight before their funeral.
It gives a chance for more people to come
and spend a longer time in prayer for you.
Third and finally, most Christians should want to have a Requiem Mass.
I encourage all of you to consider making your funeral also a Eucharist,
for it is in remembering the death and resurrection of Christ,
that our own death finds its meaning.
Whilst every Mass involves prayer for the living and the dead,
it is in a Mass of the Dead that this hope finds it most powerful expression, that through love and prayer,
the living and the departed are united as one Church.
THE EMPTY TOMB
So as we keep All Saints and All Souls, let us remember that the holy dead – both those we call saints and our loved ones, transcend time and space.
Their remains may be located in particular places.
But their powerful stories and effect of their prayers are universal.
Likewise, although they lived at a particular time,
and as ordinary human beings;
in the glory of heaven beyond all time, and for all time,
the saints and faithful departed of every age rub shoulders together.
Yet the most important tomb for us, is an empty one.
The shrines of the saints,
And the burial places of our dead,
point us to the empty tomb of the Resurrection,
And the hope of life with the Risen Christ forever.