Chad Bird's post on ChurchPOP makes for fun reading about that which we all fear: funerals. Like other life celebrations--weddings, graduations--these events have become so scripted and filled with bland assurances that the events--as rituals--have been drained of meaning. No wonder Donald Trump is doing so well in general election polls: all the institutions that once underwrote American cultural meaning(s) have been shown to be unloyal, unworthy of trust, and quite corrupt in themselves. So why not bet all the money on something new that promises a fix? (That, btw, is a great story in itself; read that here.)
not my image--from the internet
So do funerals matter? Absolutely--and not, as the old saying goes, for the living only. The dead, Bird reminds us, still care. Bird:
They say the dead don’t care, but I’m not dead yet, so as long as I’m still alive, I’d like to have some say in what goes on at my funeral. And, truth be told, I think the dead do care. Not that they will be privy to the details of what happens at their own funerals, but they still care about the world, about their family, about the church. The saints in heaven continue to pray for those who are still on their earthly pilgrimage, so how could they not care about them?
