ABSTRACT
What is often neglected in considering funeral preaching is the context in which it occurs, namely, the liturgy. The various funeral rites are occasional rites, celebrations 'occasioned' by some event. Just as serious sickness occasions rites for anointing, and the pledging of mutual love calls for the marriage rite, death in the Christian community occasions the complexus of funeral rites. If occasional rites focus on being the Church in Christ, so too does preaching. The commendation, a final farewell that 'acknowledges the reality of separation and affirms that the community and the deceased, baptised into one Body, share the same destiny, resurrection on the last day', entrusts the deceased to God. Effective funeral preaching is more mystagogical than purely biblical: it is a preaching of the mystery celebrated, a breaking open of the symbolic with an invitation into the mystery.
