Is Revelation's imagery too apocalyptic for a funeral?

The lectionary selection is pure consolation: the new Jerusalem, the wiping of tears, no more death. The harder apocalyptic chapters of Revelation are not read at funerals. This passage is one of the gentlest in the entire book.

Second Reading (New Testament)

Revelation 21:1-5a, 6b-7

"There shall be no more death"

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Scripture text (World English Bible)

I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth have passed away, and the sea is no more. I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared like a bride adorned for her husband. I heard a loud voice out of heaven saying, “Behold, God’s dwelling is with people, and he will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; neither will there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain, any more. The first things have passed away.” He who sits on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” He said, “Write, for these words of God are faithful and true.” He said to me, “I have become the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. I will give freely to him who is thirsty from the spring of the water of life. He who overcomes, I will give him these things. I will be his God, and he will be my son.

Themes

a new heaven and a new earth
no more death
God dwelling with humanity
every tear wiped away
the Alpha and the Omega

Reflection

The closing chapters of the Book of Revelation contain the most magnificent vision in all of Scripture, and these verses bring it directly into the funeral liturgy. "I saw a new heaven and a new earth... I saw the holy city, a new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband." For a Catholic funeral, this reading is the proclamation of where the deceased has gone, and where, in Christ, all who die in him will one day be.

The image of God making his dwelling with humanity is one of the deepest in the Bible. The whole arc of Scripture has been moving toward this: God among his people, no longer behind a veil, no longer through priests and sacrifices, but face to face. The deceased now stands in the presence of that God. What faith hoped for, sight has now confirmed.

The promised gestures of God in this reading are tender and personal. He himself will wipe every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more. Mourning, crying out, pain: all of this will pass away. The first creation, with its sorrows, will give way to a new one. The voice from the throne announces, "Behold, I make all things new", the divine work of recreation that began with the resurrection of Christ and reaches its fulfillment when the deceased is welcomed into the new Jerusalem.

For families who want their funeral to end on the largest possible horizon (Christ's final triumph, the new heaven and new earth, the wiping of tears) Revelation is the reading.

Best for

·Funerals during the Easter season
·Families who want a triumphant, hopeful conclusion to the Liturgy of the Word
·Catholic liturgies near the end of the liturgical year (late November)
·Funerals for someone whose hope was explicitly oriented toward the new creation

In the liturgy

A magnificent reading. Pairs especially well with Isaiah 25 (the same banquet imagery in seed form). Reward a strong lector who can carry the cosmic register.

Pairs well with

Frequently asked questions

Is Revelation's imagery too apocalyptic for a funeral?: The lectionary selection is pure consolation: the new Jerusalem, the wiping of tears, no more death. The harder apocalyptic chapters of Revelation are not read at funerals. This passage is one of the gentlest in the entire book.

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