Posted by BGH
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I swear, this will be the last post about this for a while, as some of you may know my dad passed away recently. I had to mention something interesting I noticed at my Father's funeral last week.
He was a catholic man his whole life, he came from a catholic family and still went to church regularly until his final weekend. He was not a 'devout' follower, he believed some of the doctrine and also disagreed with some of the tenets, but mainly remained catholic because that is how he was raised and it was comfortable.
As a by-product of being raised in catholicism myself I have attended many catholic funerals for family members. I know how the sermons usually are approached, the priest will relate a few memories of the deceased, mostly incidents of seeing them at church or discussions that were had, and then they will tie it into the gospel being read that day. This IS NOT how my fathers mass was officiated.
When the sermon began, the priest took a different tact shall we say. I will paraphrase how it went but, being fresh in my memory it should be fairly accurate, especially an exceptionally odd part.
He began:
"I like to ask a question quite often. Who here believes in Jesus? I do not mean that he was a good man who walked everywhere in sandals and did some good things, I mean who REALLY believes in Jesus? Who honestly in their heart of hearts can say that they believe without a doubt that Jesus was the son of god and sacrificed himself for us? I say to anyone here who does not fully believe in the Jesus that I speak of, you should get up from the pew and walk out of here right now. You should go out and buy things, and live your life anyway you want because if you really don't believe in Jesus your life means nothing anyway and you have nothing to look forward to without salvation."
That is a fairly accurate account of his sermon. There weren't remembrances of my father, no eulogizing of the deceased, just out and out prostylization.
I will admit that at first my initial offense at his words was because I am an atheist and I am sure my father would argue my life is worth something, but it goes beyond that. I started thinking about this the day after the services, if I removed my personal beliefs from the equation, what is the harm with what he said? Is there any other reason his sermon was out of place?
Of course there is, you see, my Dad may have had Jewish friends in attendance. Or Muslim. Or Wiccan, or Buddhist, or Hindu... or any other faith that is not Christian. What an inappropriate tact to use at a funeral with mixed faith company.
A funeral service should be about eulogizing the dead in a respectful and honorable manner, not trying to win souls for the Vatican. Maybe the church thinks this is a good idea, but I certainly think it is a severely flawed method.
I will remember the day with the military burial and the nice lunch afterward, but I will expunge the accusatory and irrelevant sermon from my memory.
Love ya Dad!!
----
"These things I'll carry on
And when you're gone I'll honor you
Each day, however long"
6 comments:
I'm sure you have other things on your mind, but for future reference I think you mean 'tack', not 'tact'.
Thanks, but I did mean "tact".
Second definition from Merriam-Webster.
tact
One entry found.
tact
Main Entry:
tact Listen to the pronunciation of tact
Pronunciation:
\ˈtakt\
Function:
noun
Etymology:
French, sense of touch, from Latin tactus, from tangere to touch — more at tangent
Date:
1797
1 : sensitive mental or aesthetic perception (converted the novel into a play with remarkable skill and tact) 2 : a keen sense of what to do or say in order to maintain good relations with others or avoid offense
What counts is that YOU were there to honor your Dad.
That priest is merely a brainwashed cult member who likely meant no harm. He is merely a tool of a cult (heck, all religions are cults in my opinion) that uses a hierarchy so the cult leaders can skim off the labors of the masses below them and not have to live by the sweat of their own brow.
I wonder how surprised the priest would have been if half of the church had gotten up and walked out. 'Inappropriate' is exactly the right word for his sermon. What a shame that he couldn't spare a few moments to talk about the wonderful man your father was.
I am sorry to hear of your loss. It sounds like you loved your father very much.
That was very insensitive of the priest. I would definitely remind him that a funeral is not about religion, it is about sharing a persons life and saying goodbye.
Once again, I'm sorry to hear of your loss.
The priest is quite obviously an insensitive clod.
He has the nerve to say things like that in front of grieving family and friends?!?
I'm impressed you didn't take him to task for it. You're a bigger man than he.
Looks like your father taught you well.
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