A Look at funerals.....

                                             

Ecclesiastes 3:1-2 "For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven; a time to be born, and a time to die."

In the hospice industry, obviously, I deal with a lot of death and funerals. I have had several people ask "What good is a funeral?" or "What is the purpose of a funeral?" I considered these questions and this is how I would answer. Besides the potential for spreading potentially contagious diseases, we dispose of bodies via burial or cremation as an act of closure. But the funeral, known as a post-death ritual and ceremony, provides much more for the living. The funeral itself is a form of therapy.

There is the therapy of language.- There are no silent funerals. Much of the language used in a funeral is repetitious. The bereaved vent their feelings through wailing, crying and sorrowful talk and find relief in the outlet.

There is the therapy of sharing. In almost all cultures, when a death occurs, the people gather together to give physical and emotional support to the bereaved. This is usually through physical and/or financial assistance, their presence, and physical help support for the bereaved.

There is also the therapy of activity. Funeralization for many persons provides routines by which they are aroused from immobility. The bereaved must be at the funeral home. They must speak to those who offer sympathy. They must arise and dress with appropriate clothing. They cannot withdraw; they must stay busy.

There is the therapy of viewing.--To some people, death is so disturbing that they find it difficult to accept it as reality or to view it in its proper perspective against the whole of their lives. The therapy of viewing allows these people to see that the person has, indeed, died.

Another aspect of the funeral is the therapy of the ceremony. For the bereaved the routines of ceremony in themselves represent the stability not only of the social and cultural customs but of the people themselves. Ceremony has the power to ennoble and to glorify.

There is the therapy of denial and suffering. -As the Apostle Paul wrote, "That which I should not have done; I did do. That which I should have done, I did not do." The funeral is a final summing up of accounts. It is an opportunity to say what has been left unsaid.

Lastly, the committal service.-- The committal service provides, as nothing else does so acutely and graphically, a symbolic demonstration that the kind of relationship which has existed between the mourner and the deceased is now at an end.

As I write this, it is my hope and desire that the reader will recognize that the funeral ritual is an excellent way to address all needs of the bereaved--spiritual, psychological, and social.

Psalm 116:15-"Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints."