Why Do We Mourn Death

[Crocus]

The way I understand your question is coming from a place where you look at life from its beginning, stretching out to eternity. That’s how I see it also. A continuum. Thus I can say I feel joy at a loved one’s passing (alongside the sadness of missing the person in the future). I mourn my loss, but rejoice in their gain.

“Precious in the sight of the the Lord is the death of His saints.”

I give them up to God’s mercy. And pray for them. Same for people that I don’t know well, or at all.

I do mourn a certain kind of death though: the kind that goes against God’s will, when someone purposefully takes their own life in opposition to God’s law.

 

[Jared2914]

As others said, we have both joy and sorrow. We are happy that they have taken the next step towards being in heaven with God (they probably need some time in purgatory). At the same time we are sad because we have lost them for the rest of our earthly life. Sure, we can pray to them, but we can’t interact with them using our 5 senses. Why we feel loss comes down to love.

Our hearts are filled with the love of God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, plus all the people around us (and probably also the angels and saints). When a loved one passes, there is an emptiness within our hearts, based on how important that person was in our life. As we receive love from others, our hearts “grow”. Our capacity to love and be loved increases. When we lose someone, our hearts are used to a certain amount of love but suddenly aren’t receiving as much. This emptiness will be filled eventually by God’s love or the love of others around us, but it takes time.

 

[AIPM1615]

I mourn the dead because I fear materialism. That this life is “all there is.” No souls, no angels, no God, no afterlife. We die and we stop existing. The end.

 

[PJM]

Hello! I’ve been raised in the faith but never really truly believed and practiced until a few months ago. There’s still many things I don’t fully understand, and I’m sure I’ll never fully understand everything. But one thing that’s been on my mind a lot lately is why do we mourn and grieve when someone dies? If we believe that with death begins a new, perfect and eternal life, why don’t we celebrate when someone dies? And if heaven is the only thing promised to us, why don’t we pray for a death?

The brief answer is we MOURN the Loss of their BODIES and what that means to all who loved them.

We then PRAY for the “repose of their Souls” to attain Heaven

GBY
Patrick

 

[joeybaggz]

why don’t we celebrate when someone dies? And if heaven is the only thing promised to us, why don’t we pray for a death?

Actually the Church does “celebrate” a person’s death. When I was young, the priest wore black vestments at a funeral mass. Today, white is worn as a sign of celebration. (though black is still an option) For the person who dies with the sacraments, it is a belief that the soul will be with God (even if only eventually) and this is a reason for celebration.
Other posters have well covered the fact that mourning is for the living. I’ll leave that alone.

 

[BT3241]

We mourn the loss of the person in our life on this earth which it natural for those whom we loved in our earthly life - not their body - what does that have to do with it I don’t mourn anyone’s body Its the loss of the person in this life . It will naturally leave a void in us which we mourn as it should be.Do you not feel that void when you have lost someone. Yes that person may be in heaven but we still will feel the loss in this life example - a father , a mother etc - who wouldn’t mourn the loss of a loved one - it has nothing to do with whether the person is in heaven with God the loss is felt in this life.

 

[Mary_Ellen]

That we will miss the person who has passed on is only natural. When my mother was killed in a car accident I was shocked and cried at first but very quickly (within hours) realized how good it was that she had died and died as young as she did (57 yrs old). All the benefits of her death, not the least of which was her eternal reward, greatly comforted me and even allowed me to cantor at her funeral mass.

That was my first real experience of death in my life, 31 years ago. Since then I have been able to really celebrate the funerals of others, friends and strangers alike, bittersweet as they may be.

 

[whiteshepherddog]

A little bit of thought from a Catholic Funeral Director. On a side note burying the dead is a corporal work of mercy.

I think when any Christian struggles with this, its a question between our faith and our humanity. Grief is a part of our humanity and is the experience of any loss. I think we can over complicate it with our faith sometimes. Sure, we know or hope our loved one is in heaven, but it is still a loss because that person is no longer with us. If a spouse gets called up into action for their job in the military for a year or more, won’t there spouse experience grief. Sure they can facetime maybe and they hope to see each other again, but we miss the physical emotional and spiritual presence of someone.

I remember a lady of a more “non-denominational” religion tell me she felt guilty because she was sad and not happy about the deceased being in heaven.

A big term in the funeral industry now is a Celebration of Life Service. Where we relay the found memories and celebrate all of the life of the deceased. (The secret it, that is nothing new, we just usually did it after the funeral and mourning as Catholics).

Grief can come from death, divorce, loss of a job, etc… I think its human and normal.

From the Order of Christian Funerals 121 “…We share the pain of loss, but the promise of eternal life gives us hope.”

125: “…Grant that as we grieve for our brother/sister we may hold his/her memory dear and live in hope of the eternal kingdom…”

Some saints did pray for death. St Francis went so far as to travel to a hostile muslim kingdom where they always killed Christians, but he was let go. He had work here to do still.

 

[Benadam]

Pain of loss. It’s an unnatural state. The soul is created to have extension and location… To be in a world it senses . Pain of loss. It’s not unnatural to mourn the tragic reality of loss God didn’t intend for us.