Posted on 12/16/2012 3:24:55 PM PST by NYer
Ecumenical ping!
What was her preference? It is sad when people don’t make these sort of personal intentions clear before they pass.
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Your grandmother would prefer a Lutheran funeral. When you die, you can choose a Catholic funeral. God doesn’t care how you worship him, only that you do.
The funeral is for the living. If you feel comfortable burying her as a catholic then so be it. Quite frankly I don’t care what the hell happens after I am dead, after all how you treat my body will have no bearing on my salvation.
I think everything Fr. Zuhlsdorf says makes good sense and is orthodox. They should respect their grandmother’s wishes. If she was Lutheran, then she should have a Lutheran funeral.
They can, as Father points out, also have a Mass or Masses said on her behalf at their own Catholic church. The dead person doesn’t have to be Catholic for that.
And they can all pray for her.
It’s too bad this priest’s otherwise good and wise advice was injected with this:
“... she is denied the benefits of a funeral. Yes, funerals benefit the dead!”
I’m not looking for a fight, but this is a clear example of Catholic tradition affirming something on its own, without any support from the word of God. I will readily agree that there is nothing said in the Scriptures about the proper rites of burial. There is nothing said, period. But to turn around in the face of that obvious and loud silence - silence! - and then confidently to attribute some kind of efficacy to funeral rites in order to comfort the survivors of the deceased strikes me as an accommodation to people’s feelings and emotions, and therefore their perceived needs (often just psychological/emotion) rather than to direct them to that which has the clear testimony of Holy Scripture, the confidence that comes to them from those plain clear testimonies of God, and therefore their real spiritual needs.
Proceeding from silence - no evidence - to affirm something rather than to proceed from certainty is a strange way to operate.
Just hope that those who plan the rites when it comes time to release YOUR soul show the same courtesy.
My soul is released to the Lord Jesus Christ; no ceremony of man makes any difference. I believe in honoring the wishes of the deceased, but let’s make that point very clear.
No ... the children did not say that. They did the proper thing and inquired as to who should oversee her funeral. The Catholic priest said that "grandma" should be given a Lutheran funeral.
Respect for her Lutheran faith should be given, and her funeral should be Lutheran.
BTW, Lutherans do not pray for the dead. Christ has saved them. No prayers are needed!
When my father died, my mother reached out to his side of the family and they had all started attending a Congregational church with a woman pastor. She was more then happy to preside over the service. My father had told my mother to do whatever she wanted, he was dead, it didn't really matter he'd already be gone from this earth. He even said if a Priest helps you, use him! While this is true, it would have been easier for my mom if my dad had specified what he wanted.
And as Christ himself said, “for God is not a God of the dead, but of the living.” For those who are dead to this world are alive in Christ.
II Maccabees 12: 44-45
“For if he were not expecting that those who had fallen would rise again, it would have been superfluous and foolish to pray for the dead. But if he was looking to the splendid reward that is laid up for those who fall asleep in godliness, it was a holy and pious thought. Therefore he made atonement for the dead, that they might be delivered from their sin.”
In other words, it was in the Bible - until Protestants dropped it from their canon of scripture.
The saddest part is not that you most likely didn’t know about the verse, but that it was most likely prejudice
that kept you from knowing about the verse.
A prominent Lutheran attorney (who was married to a Catholic) was killed in a tragic accident with his son a few years ago in our town. None of the Lutheran churches were large enough for his funeral. His funeral was held at the Catholic Church, but the Tabernacle was removed from the room for the service. This solution pleased all, including the Bishop.
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