Our loved one had been away from the Church. Is this reading appropriate?

It may be the most appropriate of all. Its final line — "if we are faithless, he remains faithful" — is Scripture's own word for exactly that situation, and the Church proclaims it at funerals without embarrassment.

What does "if we deny him, he also will deny us" mean here?

The hymn states the seriousness of apostasy honestly, then immediately confesses something greater: Christ's faithfulness outlasts ours because "he can't deny himself." The Church reads the last line as the hymn's true conclusion — mercy has the final word.

Second Reading (New Testament)

2 Timothy 2:8-13

"If we have died with him, we shall also live with him"

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Scripture text (World English Bible)

Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, of the offspring of David, according to my Good News, in which I suffer hardship to the point of chains as a criminal. But God’s word isn’t chained. Therefore I endure all things for the chosen ones’ sake, that they also may obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory. This saying is trustworthy: “For if we died with him, we will also live with him. If we endure, we will also reign with him. If we deny him, he also will deny us. If we are faithless, he remains faithful; for he can’t deny himself.”

Themes

if we died with him we shall live with him
endurance
God's word is not chained
Christ's fidelity to the faithless
a creed in miniature

Reflection

Paul writes from prison, chained "as a criminal," to hand on the faith before his death — and at the center of the reading is what scholars believe is one of the Church's earliest hymns: "If we died with him, we will also live with him. If we endure, we will also reign with him."

The hymn's logic is baptismal. Every Christian has already died with Christ once, in the font; bodily death completes what baptism began. That is why this reading so often accompanies the sprinkling of the casket with holy water and the placing of the pall — the funeral's opening gestures point straight back to baptism, and this text says why.

The hymn does not flinch: "If we deny him, he also will deny us." But its final line breaks its own pattern, and that break is the gospel: "If we are faithless, he remains faithful; for he can't deny himself." Human fidelity wavers; Christ's does not. For a deceased whose practice of the faith was imperfect or interrupted — which is to say, for most — this may be the most consoling sentence in the funeral lectionary.

"God's word isn't chained" belongs to the mourners too: no circumstance of this death, however hard, imprisons what God intends to say through it.

Best for

·A deceased whose faith was real but imperfect or interrupted
·Funerals emphasizing the link between baptism and Christian death
·A person who endured much — illness, hardship, or persecution — with patience
·Families who love the old hymns and creeds; this is the oldest of them

In the liturgy

The reading's center is a quoted hymn; a lector who shifts register slightly for the four "if" lines lets the congregation hear its shape. Pairs naturally with the pall and holy water of the funeral's introductory rites.

Pairs well with

Frequently asked questions

Our loved one had been away from the Church. Is this reading appropriate?: It may be the most appropriate of all. Its final line — "if we are faithless, he remains faithful" — is Scripture's own word for exactly that situation, and the Church proclaims it at funerals without embarrassment.
What does "if we deny him, he also will deny us" mean here?: The hymn states the seriousness of apostasy honestly, then immediately confesses something greater: Christ's faithfulness outlasts ours because "he can't deny himself." The Church reads the last line as the hymn's true conclusion — mercy has the final word.

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