Scrap long-winded tributes from funerals

THE EDITOR, Sir:

THE REVEREND Devon Dick’s article, ‘Those boring funeral sermons’ (Gleaner, October 4, 2018), gives us preachers at funerals much food for thought.

He rightly states that at funerals, “it is a time to reflect on the value of family, friends and a right relationship with God as revealed in Jesus,” for indeed, funerals are mainly for the living to reflect upon their own mortality. As such, funerals are like a dress rehearsal for the living. This I always stress at every funeral.

But what Rev Dick did not develop enough is that no matter how the sermon is “boring, meaning piercing and probing,” the congregation is so thoroughly surfeited with the “word of man/woman” in terms of repetitive and sometimes exaggerated tributes and eulogies, that the attention span is long gone by the time the Word of God is to be proclaimed.

One wonders if it is not better to popularise our traditional nine-nights observance, where all the hyperboles and long-winded accolades could be celebrated with or without the assistance of libations of whatever sort. That way, at funerals, we could have the remembrance/eulogy alone, which would then give more time for reflection on the Word of God.

DONALD J. REECE Acting Pastor

St Richard’s and

Our Lady of Lourdes