Funeral Homily
Genesis 2:7 and Romans 14:7-9
“—then the Lord formed man from the dust of the ground; and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and the man became a living being” (Gen. 2:7).
From the dust of the ground we were created, the Hebrew word for ground is adamah, the Hebrew word for us human beings, adam, reminding us of this rather inauspicious heritage. The ancient wisdom reminds that from the very beginning without God’s breath, breathed into us at the creation of the world, we are nothing but dust. We are nothing in this life save we share the very life breath, the very Spirit (in Hebrew, ruwach, is translated both breath and Spirit) of the Creator of all that is.
In your mother’s final days among you she journeyed to return to her Creator, who gave her life and breath and Spirit, all of which she shared so abundantly with all of you who loved her. It was in that Spirit breath where she placed her final hope and faith for her eternal care.
The last days of her journey, as difficult as they were, were shared by you who loved her best and especially those of you who quite literally shared with her the breath of life, the Spirit of the Living God. You whose hearts literally beat with hers for the many months and days you shared her body and her blood, and who journeyed on with her across these many years; the loving and the crying, the raising and struggle, the praising and the problems which are the common lot we all share in love and hope in the Spirit of this life for which we were created.
Her fear of this final journey, I believe, was not of dying but of struggling into death, of fighting for breath against all hope and all will of her own, all the while wanting only to return to the life of the Spirit who created her and whose very breath had sustained her all the living of her days.
In those final days among you, her hand frail and strong upon your chest, a gesture of her love and faith and hope in the life, which she mourned to leave you, yet which she longed to share again with those who loved her and had passed this final journey years before. Hers a gesture of what love would do when the beloved can no longer find within the strength to sustain the breathing and the living and longs the Spirit’s final breath from this life unto the next.
Her frail hand in final strength upon her heart which trusted in all hope that her life among you would not cease with the passing of her breath, but would beat on in the beauty of the hearts she shares with you and the Spirit of the living God to whom she has returned. She lives on in faith and in the beauty of the lives you shared with her in the living of her days and which lives always on in your loving memory of her who gave you life and who lives forever with the Giver of all Life.
St Paul writes to a congregation of the faith in Rome, “We do not live for ourselves, we do not die for ourselves. If we live, we live to the Lord, if we die; we die to the Lord, so whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s. For this end Christ died and lived again so that he might be the Lord of both the living and the dead” (14:7-9).
So she who lived and loved and breathed in the Spirit of the Lord is safely at rest with him and all with whom she shared life and breath and love and Spirit with whom she has now shared faith’s ultimate life journey.
For those of you who remain among the living, who will grieve deeply for her passing and will suffer sorrow for the loss of her in the days and months a head, find comfort with one another—in your sharing of the memories and the loving, the living and the telling of all the joys and sorrows, the laughter and the pain that were the breath she lived among you and in which her spirit still remains. In these find breath, and hope and loving, and the comfort they contain for nothing can separate them from this Life—the Spirit of the risen Christ. In this Spirit’s breath she now rests and it lives among you all your days in the loving and faith and hope you share with one another in the speaking of her name upon your breath and loving Spirit. Amen.
“—then the Lord formed man from the dust of the ground; and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and the man became a living being” (Gen. 2:7).
From the dust of the ground we were created, the Hebrew word for ground is adamah, the Hebrew word for us human beings, adam, reminding us of this rather inauspicious heritage. The ancient wisdom reminds that from the very beginning without God’s breath, breathed into us at the creation of the world, we are nothing but dust. We are nothing in this life save we share the very life breath, the very Spirit (in Hebrew, ruwach, is translated both breath and Spirit) of the Creator of all that is.
In your mother’s final days among you she journeyed to return to her Creator, who gave her life and breath and Spirit, all of which she shared so abundantly with all of you who loved her. It was in that Spirit breath where she placed her final hope and faith for her eternal care.
The last days of her journey, as difficult as they were, were shared by you who loved her best and especially those of you who quite literally shared with her the breath of life, the Spirit of the Living God. You whose hearts literally beat with hers for the many months and days you shared her body and her blood, and who journeyed on with her across these many years; the loving and the crying, the raising and struggle, the praising and the problems which are the common lot we all share in love and hope in the Spirit of this life for which we were created.
Her fear of this final journey, I believe, was not of dying but of struggling into death, of fighting for breath against all hope and all will of her own, all the while wanting only to return to the life of the Spirit who created her and whose very breath had sustained her all the living of her days.
In those final days among you, her hand frail and strong upon your chest, a gesture of her love and faith and hope in the life, which she mourned to leave you, yet which she longed to share again with those who loved her and had passed this final journey years before. Hers a gesture of what love would do when the beloved can no longer find within the strength to sustain the breathing and the living and longs the Spirit’s final breath from this life unto the next.
Her frail hand in final strength upon her heart which trusted in all hope that her life among you would not cease with the passing of her breath, but would beat on in the beauty of the hearts she shares with you and the Spirit of the living God to whom she has returned. She lives on in faith and in the beauty of the lives you shared with her in the living of her days and which lives always on in your loving memory of her who gave you life and who lives forever with the Giver of all Life.
St Paul writes to a congregation of the faith in Rome, “We do not live for ourselves, we do not die for ourselves. If we live, we live to the Lord, if we die; we die to the Lord, so whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s. For this end Christ died and lived again so that he might be the Lord of both the living and the dead” (14:7-9).
So she who lived and loved and breathed in the Spirit of the Lord is safely at rest with him and all with whom she shared life and breath and love and Spirit with whom she has now shared faith’s ultimate life journey.
For those of you who remain among the living, who will grieve deeply for her passing and will suffer sorrow for the loss of her in the days and months a head, find comfort with one another—in your sharing of the memories and the loving, the living and the telling of all the joys and sorrows, the laughter and the pain that were the breath she lived among you and in which her spirit still remains. In these find breath, and hope and loving, and the comfort they contain for nothing can separate them from this Life—the Spirit of the risen Christ. In this Spirit’s breath she now rests and it lives among you all your days in the loving and faith and hope you share with one another in the speaking of her name upon your breath and loving Spirit. Amen.
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