Historical Origins And Development Of The Funeral

Christian rituals related to death did not begin at the funeral service. Dying itself was surrounded by many Christian rites. During the Reformation, Protestants' sharp attacks on the medieval beliefs in purgatory and intercession for the deceased eventually shifted attention in the modern world away from a preoccupation with death to a widespread ignoring of the reality of death.

Death in Human Cultures Rituals are formative experiences—the means by which a community expresses for itself and hands on to others its significant beliefs. The funeral, encompassing all of the rites related to death and burial, embodies a community's understanding of death and the afterlife. An historical survey of the funeral properly begins with the anthropological data on the burial customs of indigenous peoples of undeveloped areas of the world. Like those peoples whose artifacts date back to antiquity, these peoples often view death with fear, not hope, and look upon the corpse with aversion, not affection. Since the human unconscious cannot fathom the possibility of its own death, it generally attributes the ending of life to some malicious intervention. Even though death is feared in all cultures, in less complex societies people have developed a distinct pattern which helps them cope with the inevitability of death—not tribal customs, but personal rituals which have taken shape over the course of time. Sensing death's approach, the person calls for family and friends to assemble. Gathering around the dying person, they listen attentively to his or her last words, recognizing them to be words filled with wisdom, either accumulated over the years or inspired in the moment. At the gathering, the business of distributing property is first attended to, and then the person assumes the posture for quietly awaiting death. When the person dies, the family usually buries the corpse out of superstition, not respect. Some believe that an unburied corpse cannot rest in peace, and is consequently doomed to wander the earth, presumably haunting friends and relatives. Others fear that evil spirits inhabit the corpse, and therefore want those evil ones put underground as soon as possible and kept there. It has even been suggested that the tombstone originated as an added precaution to prevent roaming corpses. Death in Judaism Although there are no written records of a Jewish liturgy of burial dating before the ninth century a.d., what scattered references there are to burial rites in Judaism always reflect realism and simplicity. Jesus, for example, was buried according to Jewish custom. Although the nearness of the Sabbath, coupled with fear of the authorities, prevented his friends from anointing the body in the usual way, both the synoptic and the Johannine gospels, while differing in specific details, record that his body was wrapped in linen, with myrrh and aloes between the bands (Matt. 27:59; Mark 15:46; Luke 23:53, 56; 24:1; John 19:39–40), and laid to rest in the tomb. The Jews viewed dead bodies as unclean and therefore disposed of them before going back to prayers or going on with business as usual. Mourners were forbidden to work, bathe, or have sexual intercourse for up to as long as thirty days. Male mourners were served a "?meal of comfort?" (labra'ah) after the funeral, consisting of eggs and lentils, prepared by friends and neighbors and served with wine. The Kaddish—the sanctification—gives a synthesis of Jewish theology with regard to death. Originally the concluding prayer of the synagogue liturgy, the Kaddish is an eschatological prayer similar to the Lord's Prayer. In addition to being prayed during the funeral, traditionally the Kaddish must be recited every day for eleven months following the death of a parent, blood relative, or spouse. Early Christian Funeral Customs In the early days of the Christian community, when Roman influence was strongest, funeral customs show an attraction to the mystery cults of the East as well as the practices of Egypt. Initially, Christians and pagans were buried side by side in cemeteries, with only decorations or inscriptions to distinguish one from the other. Early symbolism depicted Jesus as tending sheep, fishing, or presiding over the heavenly banquet. In time, however, as the theology of death became more paschal in character, symbols of deliverance began to predominate. Jesus' miracles, particularly the raising of Lazarus and the curing of the blind man, were popular representations. There are records of funeral meals as customary in early Christianity, which probably had their origin in the Roman custom of graveside feasts, rather than in the Jewish meals of comfort held in the homes of the mourners. Roman funeral meals were connected with either the belief that the dead needed nourishment or the idea that the tedium of the death would be relieved by such feasts. Often they became occasions of such raucous behavior that most of our knowledge of them is derived from various bishops' condemnations of them. Their condemnations addressed the scandal that such excesses caused. In contrast, bishops encouraged prayer vigils, fasting, and gifts to the needy as more appropriate customs to develop. The weeping and wailing associated with mourning, as well as black mourning garments, were also considered to be un-Christian because despair, rather than hope, was seen as their primary motivation. Consequently, devout Christians developed more appropriate means of expressing their grief, replacing weeping and wailing with singing psalms and hymns. From the writings of the Fathers, one learns of other un-Christian behavior that was gradually adapted to reflect more accurately the theology of the Christian community. One example of this was the Christian custom of placing eucharistic bread in the corpse's mouth. This custom probably traced its origin to the mystery cults, where a coin was placed in the mouth of the deceased, so that he or she would be able to pay the fare to Charon on the ferry across the river Styx. The oldest Roman ritual for death and burial (Ordo 49) dates from the seventh century. Rather than a highly structured ritual, the Ordo actually presents an outline for the service. The ritual consisted of two parts: the first part, which ritualized death, took place in the home of the deceased; the other, a burial ritual, took place in the church and cemetery. For Christian burial, when death appeared to be imminent, the Christian was given the Eucharist, as a token of the resurrection he or she was about to experience. From that time until the moment of death, family and friends would read the Passion narrative to the one dying. When they thought the soul was about to leave the body, those gathered in prayer would respond, "?Come, saints of God, advance angels of the Lord .…?" Then, after reciting Psalm 113, they would pray, "?May the choir of angels receive you.?" After death, the body was placed on a litter and carried in procession to the church. There the community recited an office, consisting of Psalms, using the poignant antiphon: "?May the angels lead you into paradise, may the martyrs welcome you and guide you into the holy city Jerusalem.?" While reciting Psalm 117, the procession continued on its way, escorting the body to the cemetery, and responding, "?Open the gates for me, and once I am within I shall praise the Lord.?" Medieval, Reformation, and Modern Practices Parallel to the peaceful, paschal vision of the Christian's final journey were harsh scenes of final judgment for those who died unrepentant. God and the company of angels stood guard before the heavenly court. In medieval culture, the art of Christian death became the subject of a body of devotional literature. This ars moriendi (art of dying) tradition was intended to help people face death with confident hope in Christ's salvation but, at the same time, warn against complacency, overconfidence, hypocrisy, and impiety. Protestant Reformers believed that medieval Christian belief in purgatory, intercession of saints, and prayers for the dead were theologically wrong. As a result, in Protestant circles and, by extension in modern Northern European culture generally, what happens to people after death ceased to be a central topic of theological and religious conversation. Protestant funerals proclaimed the victory of Christ over death, but preoccupation with preparing for death during life and with dying a holy death was not characteristic of Protestants as it had been and continued to be for Catholics. In modern times, the funeral has undergone another transition. Standing within a culture which would rather deny death's reality and power, the Christian churches understand the funeral more as a means of ministry to the grieving, rooted in the community's theology of death, than an opportunity only to honor the deceased.