Video Transcript
Emily: If you’ve ever had to say goodbye to someone before you part for a long time, you know that with limited time together, you choose your words with greater intention.
Edmund: At the Last Supper, Jesus knew His time on earth with the disciples was ending soon. He spoke very directly to them, and His last teachings are very important. At one point, He describes Himself as the true vine, and his disciples as branches on this vine. He says that apart from Him they can do nothing, and if they abide in Him, they will bear much fruit. (John 15:1-11)
Emily: The word “abide” is important here. It means to make a home or to dwell. Jesus wants us to be continually united with Him in this intimate way. And if Jesus is the vine, and we are the branches, then what is the vine giving to the branches?
Edmund: The vine provides water and nutrients — life — to the branches so they can live and bear fruit. The branches share in the life of the vine and all the other branches connected to the main vine. And what is the fruit that we will bear as disciples? The fruit that comes from Jesus sharing His divine life with us.
Emily: The sacraments unite us to God and allow us to abide in Him here on earth through the Holy Spirit. Jesus is the vine sharing His divine life with us through the sacraments. This sacramental life we are called to live is a life of hope in Jesus’ resurrection and life everlasting in heaven. We hope for heaven where we will no longer need the sacraments to abide in Jesus for eternity.
Edmund: To live in Christ through the sacraments also means to die in Christ at the end of our sacramental life. At the end of our sacramental life here on earth we begin the last leg of our journey to “abide” with Jesus Himself in heaven. A funeral is not a sacrament. But a Christian funeral is a meaningful way the Church celebrates the sacramental life of hope we’ve lived on earth.
Emily: This is why we celebrate and honor those who have died with the celebration of a Christian funeral. And this is why we say funerals, even though they are a sad event, are also a celebration of our hope in Christ. The Church, in celebrating a funeral, recognizes the fulfillment of the deceased person’s sacramental journey of hope that began at Baptism.
Edmund: The catechism reminds us in paragraph 1681 that “The Christian meaning of death is revealed in the light of the Paschal mystery of the death and resurrection of Christ in whom resides our only hope. The Christian who dies in Christ Jesus is “away from the body and at home with the Lord.”’
Emily: At a funeral, we pray for the dead because we cannot know their hearts and what state their souls were in right before they died. But we pray in hope that their sacramental life has brought them into the arms of God in heaven. If they are in purgatory, we are praying for their journey to heaven through the purification of purgatory.
Edmund: When possible, we participate in the Eucharist during a funeral because it is the visible sign of our hope in the resurrection. Jesus in the Eucharist also reminds us that we live in communion with those in the Church who are deceased. All the parts of a funeral remind us of Jesus’ promises and the call to remain in Him on earth in hope we will be with Him in heaven. We hope our deceased loved ones are now abiding with Jesus, the true vine, in a new way. In this way, the Sacramental life means we are born in Christ through baptism, and die in Christ at the end of our sacramental life here on earth.
Emily: Jesus invites us to abide in Him, the true vine, through the sacraments here on earth. And we are called to live this sacramental life in hope. With God’s grace, we can face our death and the death of our loved ones with hope that we will abide directly with Jesus in heaven.
Edmund: Jesus has conquered sin and death through his death and resurrection. We hope for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. And this is why living in Christ means dying in Christ at the end of our sacramental life.
