In Christ, all will be made alive

Here is the text of the homily I prepared for the funeral of a lady who sat in one of the front pews in our church - every week.  Now having completed her journey home, her family gathered today to assist her on her journey Home with our prayers.

Funeral homily for Evelyn Gooding

Carol and Judy, your brothers and sisters in faith have assembled here today to express our condolences to you and to your family.  Together, we join our voices to implore the gift of mercy from our God for your mother, our sister Evelyn, and we celebrate the fact that the promise of life that was first made to her on the day of her baptism is now fulfilled.

Our presence here today is an act of faith.  The words first spoken by Saint Paul to the early Christian community at Corinth still bear the same truth that was proclaimed to them when he first wrote them: we are not all going to die, but we will all be changed (1 Cor 15:51).  Human hearts who are experiencing the pain of being separated from someone we have known and loved may find it difficult to believe these words, but there is deep truth in them.  God’s dream for us, for his people, has always been that we should live, that we should know the fullness of life.  Our lives here on earth, whether they be for eight decades or for longer, give us a chance to practice the virtues that will be perfected in heaven.  It is only when we go to heaven, when we live fully in Christ, that we ourselves will be made fully alive, so the moment that is referred to by human logic as death is only a change for the believing soul that is finally reunited with God who created it in the first place.

This gathering is therefore a celebration.  We rejoice with Evelyn today, for in the twinkling of an eye (1 Cor 15:52), she has been freed from all the limitations she experienced in this life, and is now restored to wholeness.  Finally reunited with her beloved husband Ken and her cherished daughter Barbara, she has been welcomed into the loving arms of God who is the author of all life.

While she was here on earth, Evelyn taught you about Jesus.  She introduced you to the life of faith, and she provided you with the example of her faith.  She in turn had learned her faith from her own parents, but it was in the depth of prayer that she deepened this faith, that she heard the voice of Jesus saying to her as he had once said to his own disciples: I have come from heaven, not to do my own will, but to do the will of the one who sent me (Jn 6:38).  The world around us would have us believe that each of us should have the right to do whatever we please, but Jesus tells us that we are sent, like him, to do the will of the one who sends us.  Mothers and fathers who have been blessed with children therefore have a responsibility to do the will of the one who has created each of the treasures they have received, teaching them all to believe that whoever sees the son and believes in him shall have eternal life (Jn 6:40).

Not only do we celebrate today because Evelyn has now entered into eternal life, where a banquet of rich food awaits her (cf Is 25:6); we also give thanks because she has done the will of God who entrusted her with three beautiful daughters, and blessed her with six grand-children and eight great grand-children.  Having completed the work of introducing you to Jesus, of helping you to see the son and to believe in him, she has now fallen asleep, but she still waits for the day when we shall all be raised to eternal life, the day when we will see her again.