How do you comfort the broken heart in this case? You can't tell them that their loved one is in Heaven and they will see him there some day. And it would just seem cruel to tell them the truth, that their loved one will suffer an eternity of torment because he loved his sin more than he loved his soul.
Re: “how do you comfort the broken heart in this case?”
Funerals are done all the time where the minister does not personally know the deceased or even the family all that well or not at all - but for whatever reason, they came to you to officiate the funeral of their loved one. If you determine that the diseased was probably not a Christian, you focus on the Gospel, that all of us will face death and judgement, but in spite of our sin there is hope for us through the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
In other words, you focus on the needs of the living - and what they need is the Gospel.
You never know who will be in the audience and as human beings, we do not know the eternal destiny of anyone except ourselves - none of us knows the hearts of anyone else except God alone. That is why only He can make eternal judgements.
It’s our job to deliver the good news. What they do with it is Gods problem, not ours. It’s not for us to deliver the hell, fire and brimstone. It’s our job to simply present who God is by the life that WE lead and the love that WE give.
In bible times the law was that you couldn’t work on the Sabbath day. So what did Jesus do? He worked on the Sabbath day. And what man would not rescue a lost sheep if he fell into the Water Well on the Sabbath. So what laws are we demanding of people? Who among us can throw the first Rock at the adulteress? Who are we to judge another persons repentance towards God?
God loves the world so much that even while we were still sinners he gave his only son in exchange for our eternal lives.
That’s the good news, so spread it.
In these harsh times it’s hard enough to just deliver that without trying to notch up your bible.
And to answer your question more directly: I don’t know...
Maybe just share with him the burden that he’s lost a human being that he loved. That’s enough to melt the stony heart.
That’s how I’d do it anyway.