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Text Box: GOD’S WILL NOT OURS Funerals are for the Dead, not their survivors. God WILL enforce His requirements. Many people who term themselves Christians have strayed so great a distance from Christianity that they are not Christians. A good example is the Priest who recently stated: a funeral is not for the deceased, it is for the support of the family, to give them comfort in their time of grief. The error this priest expressed is widespread in its specific application to a funeral, and in its wider application to Dogma, to true Christian Dogma, and to the reality of God. The purpose of a funeral and especially the Divine Liturgy during a funeral, is for the welfare of the deceased. The deceased can no longer do anything to assist their self, for the deceased no longer is a complete human - its body and soul have been separated and it requires a complete human being to do anything for itself. That is why at the last judgment, the body and soul will be reunited into a perfection of each person, so that each person will perfectly experience the reward it will receive for its life's work. Some rewards will not be nice, and some rewards will be very nice. If the person must be cleansed, refined like gold in the furnace, prior to entering God’s house, that will be done, but that final purification of the soul (and spirit) can be assisted by the prayers and reception of the Sacred Body and Blood of Our Saviour by the living. The body already has suffered its cleansing in its death, but the soul must be strengthened in purification so that it will precede the body in glorification and thus make the body receptive to glorification, in a manner transmit to the body the glorification received by the soul. It therefore is obvious that those who view and treat a funeral as a means of consolation for the family and friends of the deceased have missed the whole point of the funeral. What is worse, the

Text Box: opportunity of those present, to unite in prayer for the deceased, and to be of real assistance to the deceased, is lost because of their own selfish desire to feel better, and of the desire of the Priest to conform to popular desires. So too is it today with Dogma and proper Theology, with understanding of and knowledge of God. Popular expression seems to portray God as a loving and kind buffoon Who will overlook our every transgression; Who established the Ten Commandments and the Two Great Commandments a general but optional guidelines; Who mentioned the Corporal and Spiritual Works of Mercy as principles which it would be nice if we occasionally considered if convenient, and not as fundamental requirements which should be part of our nature, habit, and custom, to the extent of our abilities, if effective following of the Two Great Commandments and the Ten Commandments, and eternal salvation, are to be obtained. God is not a fool, but contemporary attitudes towards God are that God is a fool. God is The Blessed Trinity, Three Persons, separate and individual, and yet a Unity - there is only one God, not three gods. That complexity is beyond your comprehension, beyond your ability to understand, and beyond the ability of any creature to comprehend or understand. Since God is the only entity which is not a creature, only God can comprehend and understand God. But God has explained some of Himself to us, and He has given us knowledge of some things about Himself. But God has never and will never consult with anyone because by His very nature there is no need for Him to consult. One only consults if there is the possibility of one making an error, and it is impossible for God to make or be in error. Unlike Earthly rulers, who seek individuals qualified to be counsellors on various matters, there is

Text Box: no one qualified to be God’s counsellor in any matter because God is the One who established everything and keeps everything in existence. Neither does God owe anything to anyone. You only owe someone something when that other person has benefited you, has given you something, or done something for you. But everything that exists was created by God and belongs to God. This includes you and me. God made the metal ore which was mined, smelted, and converted into metal parts for your automobile. He made the plants and animals which died and were converted into oil which was mined and extracted through oil wells, transported in pipelines, refined, converted into plastics, and formed into the plastic and synthetic parts of your automobile. He created the people who did that work, and the food they ate to gain energy with which to work. This means we owe God, but that God does not owe us. God has told us what He desires in payment for what He has given us. He desires a humble, contrite heart from each of us. O the depth of the riches of the wisdom and of the knowledge of God! How incomprehensible are his judgments, and how unsearchable his ways! For who hath known the mind of the Lord? Or who hath been his counsellor? Or who hath first given to him, and recompense shall be made him? For of him, and by him, and in him, are all things: to him be glory for ever. Amen So, what are you doing about it? Ref: Rom. 11:33-36; Gospel Mat. 28:18-20 +

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