Shouldn’t It Change Everything?

Death is not an ending but a transformation. A return to the endless cycle of matter and energy that makes up our universe.

I've always been struck by a peculiar contradiction at Catholic funerals. Death comes. We're taught that it's merely a passage to eternal life, a joyous reunion with God in heaven. The teaching is clear. Yet our funeral practices tell a different story. We dress in black. We speak in whispers. We weep openly, as if facing an ending rather than a beginning. If we truly believed in the promise of eternal life, shouldn't our response to death be radically different?

This isn't to dismiss grief. The pain of separation is real, regardless of our beliefs. But perhaps our current funeral practices reveal that our intellectual beliefs about the afterlife often struggle to overcome our visceral, emotional response to loss.

What if we reimagined funerals as celebrations of eternal life rather than mourning death? A gathering where black is replaced with vibrant colors, where tears of grief mingle with laughter as loved ones share stories of adventures shared, lessons learned, and lives touched. Never denying loss, but with a deeper embrace of what we claim to believe. That death is not the end.

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