Talking to the dead through prayer and music

No matter how many times I prepare for a funeral, the surviving family has much more interest in requesting a favorite song or hymn than they do in choosing the Scripture which will be read. Perhaps the first reading from the Book of Wisdom gives us some insight into this phenomenon when we hear how the “just sang the hymns of their ancestors.”

While the  Book of Wisdom was written in the second century BC, today’s passage obviously relates back to the period of the Exile, from 587 to 539 BC when Jews of prominence were forced to leave their beloved land and live far away in Babylon. There, they were deprived of the sights, smells and sounds of their Temple where, in their estimation, God dwelled in their midst. Now, hundreds of miles away, for forty years, all these exiles could do was reflect on the words of their Torah and recall the songs which their ancestors sang in Jerusalem. Most of the Psalms were hymns composed during the Exile. What these Jewish exiles did not realize but what Jesus later reveals to us is that whenever two or three gather in his name in prayer, he is with us. Yes, even when we sing—which St. Augustine insists is the equivalent of praying twice, we are united to our God and to each other who are the Church.

Maybe people, preparing for the funeral of a loved one, choose “On Eagles’ Wings” or “Be Not Afraid” because these songs speak to their hearts about the power of Christ to raise the dead to new life. Maybe survivors select “Ave Maria” because sometimes, in the face of death, our own words and maybe those of people around us, make no sense and so we resort to the simple prayer of the Hail Mary, set to the music of Shubert or Gounod. Sometimes, families request songs that their deceased loved ones enjoyed, be this “How Great Thou Art” or “Amazing Grace”—because recalling their favorite hymns from the universal library of music is perhaps the best way we can pay homage to their memory.

The music of their ancestors, sung  by the exiled Jews, the music selected  by survivors for the funerals of their loved ones and Jesus’ promise that whenever we pray in community, he is in our midst all point to a basic doctrine of the Church called the Communion of Saints within the Mystical Body of Christ. Basically, this teaching holds that there is a spiritual network which exists between the blessed in Heaven, the faithful on Earth and the souls in Purgatory. Since we are not just bodies but incarnate spirits, we have the ability to transcend the matter of our being and communicate with our deceased loved ones by prayer.  If we do not know what to pray, we should just converse with our departed. We will not hear voices in response, but they will respond through the warmth on the sunlight as it caresses our cheek, through the song of birds in the early morning, the beauty of flowers as we gaze at our gardens, through the smell of the coffee brewing before breakfast. Every time we raise our voices in sacred music, which is the universal language of prayer, we tap into that spiritual network.  For a brief time in the context of eternity, we are actually linked to our ancestors, our deceased loved ones and even those dear family members or friends who are still among the living but are separated from us by miles, by oceans or by bad blood.  Regardless, the Mystical Body of Christ and this assembly’s use of music as an “E-Z Pass” into this spiritual network has a twofold positive affect:  it brings healing to our troubled hearts and it reminds us that, thanks to Jesus and his ever-flowing grace, we live in a Kingdom without borders!

Father Glenn Comandini is managing editor of The Catholic Spirit.