By Anne DiBernardo - Florida Catholic
Photographer: COURTESY PHOTO
This statue of Christ the King welcomes visitors to the chapel and mausoleum at Our Lady Queen of Heaven Cemetery in North Lauderdale.
� No. 1681: The Christian meaning of death is revealed in the light of the Paschal mystery of the death and resurrection of Christ in whom resides our only hope. The Christian who dies in Christ Jesus is �away from the body and at home with the Lord.�
� No. 1689: The Eucharistic Sacrifice. When the celebration takes place in church the Eucharist is the heart of the Paschal reality of Christian death. In the Eucharist, the Church expresses her efficacious communion with the departed: offering to the Father in the Holy Spirit the sacrifice of the death and resurrection of Christ, she asks to purify his child of his sins and their consequences, and to admit him to the Paschal fullness of the table of the Kingdom. It is by the Eucharist thus celebrated that the community of the faithful, especially the family of the deceased, learn to live in communion with the one who �has fallen asleep in the Lord,� by communicating in the Body of Christ of which he is a living member and, then, by praying for him and with him.
� No. 1690: A farewell to the deceased is his final �commendation to God� by the Church. It is �the last farewell by which the Christian community greets one of its members before his body is brought to its tomb.� The Byzantine tradition expresses this by the kiss of farewell to the deceased: By this final greeting �we sing for his departure from this life and separation from us, but also because there is a communion and a reunion. For even dead, we are not at all separated from one another, because we all run the same course and we will find one another again in the same place. We shall never be separated, for we live for Christ, and now we are united with Christ as we go toward him � we shall all be together in Christ.�
� No. 2300: The bodies of the dead must be treated with respect and charity, in faith and hope of the Resurrection. The burial of the dead is a corporal work of mercy; it honors the children of God, who are temples of the Holy Spirit.
FIND OUT MORE
� For information on the services provided by Catholic Cemeteries of the Archdiocese of Miami, go to www.catholichealthservices.org and click on �cemeteries.�
� The phone number for Our Lady of Mercy in Miami is 305-592-0521.
� The phone number for Our Lady Queen of Heaven in North Lauderdale is 954-972-1234.
Photographer: COURTESY PHOTO
The chapel at Our Lady of Mercy Cemetery in Miami is located within a mausoleum.
To read the article 'Life after Death' about the archdiocesan Catholic cemeteries click here.
