This brief passage from the Book of Daniel is one of the clearest Old Testament prophecies of the resurrection of the dead. "Many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake; some shall live forever, others shall be an everlasting horror and disgrace." The Catholic Church reads it as a direct anticipation of what Christ will reveal in fullness: the bodily resurrection of all, and the judgment that follows.
For a Catholic funeral, choosing Daniel is choosing a reading that does not flinch. The Catholic tradition has always taught that we believe in "the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting", words that the Church puts in every Christian's mouth in the Creed. Daniel gives those words their Old Testament root. Death is not the end. The body that has been laid down will be raised. The wise shall shine like the splendor of the firmament; those who lead the many to justice will be like the stars forever.
This reading does include the harder note of judgment: "others shall be an everlasting horror and disgrace." For most funerals, the homilist will not dwell on this; the focus will be on the hope of resurrection for the deceased. But the reading does not pretend that human choices have no weight. The full Christian hope includes the seriousness of what we have done with our lives, held within the larger seriousness of God's mercy.
For families who want a reading that explicitly proclaims bodily resurrection (and for funerals where the deceased lived a life of teaching, leading, or guiding others toward what is good) Daniel is a particularly fitting choice.
