Waterbury evening Democrat. [volume] (Waterbury, Conn.) 1887-1895, 1894-06-26

| dear departed, but petitions ever fervently
for the eternal repose of their souls. We
commit our dead to the tender embrace of
our consecrated earth, with hearts weight
ed, it may be. with sorrow, yet sustained
in the hour of affiiction by the thought
that we can still hold sweet communion
with the departed object of our hearts
love. We recognize that our duty is only
partly done when we strew the graves of
our loved ones with flowers, Gods beauti-
| full gifts to man, or when we erect the
stately column that tells to the passerby of
him who sleeps beneath. Our Catholic
faith bids us to reverently kneel and to
pour out our hearts in fervent supplica-
ton to God that he will grant light and re-
freshment and peace to those who have
gone before; and the odor of these
prayers, sweeter far than the fragrance of
the flowers that bloom over the graves,
will ascend like incense in his sight"
| It is no worldly or natural motive, how
exalted soever, that inspires the church to
consecrate with impressive ceremonies the
resting places of her dead children. Not
without reason does she constitute the
successors of the apostles, her bishops,
| the ministers of this sacred function.
Throughout her long and illustrious his
tory she has always manifested the pro-
| foundest respect for the mortal bodies of
her children. From the days when she
was forced by relentless persecution to
consign the remains of her sainted mar
| tyrs, confessors and virgins to the cata-
combs, those days so redolsnt of faith and
| piety and heroic, christian for .itude-down
to this present hour, she has given unim-
peachable evidences of her deep regard
for that which is mortal in man. Perish
able, corruptible, it is true; formed from
the dust and destined to mingle again with
| their original elements; nevertheless, these
| bodies of ours encase that which is i'm
mortal, the soul, the very image and like
ness of the living God. Living, they are
| the temples of the Holy Ghost; lifeless,
| they merit respect for what they were. On
| them are poured the regenerating waters
that bring an infusion of divine faith, and
confer an indisputable title to heirship in
Gods eternal kingdom. On them is mark
ed by episcopal hands with the chrism OF
salvation the salutary sign of the cross, and
which confers upon the happy recipient,
the manifold gifts of the Holy Spirit, and
enroles him among the soldiers of Christ
Jesus. On them are poured the consecrat-
ed oils when at ordination, priests are
set apart as laborers in the vineyard of
Christ, and also when later in life, after
years of fruitful experience in the sweet
and oily service of their divine master,
they are chosen bishop by the Holy Ghost
to rule the church of God. And how
often were the lips of those, who are now
silent with the awful silence of death, en-
purpled with the precious blood of the Re-
deemer How often were their tongues
sanctifed by contact with his most sacred
body Ale not, then, these bodies in
which the Holy Spirit refuses not to dwell,
worthy of the respect and reverence of
the church? Does she not discharge a
tender mothers duty, when, with
impressive ceremonies, she builds
her cities of the dead? Should she forget
those, who throughout life remain faithful
to her teaching loyal to her authority, and
proud of her history; or those, who, though
wanderers from her presence for time,
yet return, like the prodigal, to lay their
Sustained hearts at her feet, and to crave
for pardon? Is she to give no recognition
to the faithful ones, who fought the good
fight and kept the faith and finished their
course in doctrinal communion with her ?
Is it for her to manifest less concern for
the remains of her departed than the
pagans of the olden or the present time
Is she to yield in the expression of her
love to those who believe not in the resur-
rection of the body? No; the Church is in
very truth an affectionate mother. AS she
meets the tender infant on the very thresh-
old of his career, and by her baptism con-
fers upon him the unspeakable benefits of
the redemption. so. when the lend of
earth" approaches, she fortifes him by her
grace-giving sacraments, and when the
slender thread of life has been severed,
consigned his remains to earth blessed and
sanctifed by her prayers.
Reverently, then, and respectfully,
should we walk among the graves of the
departed. Not from idle curiosity, nor to
while away a lonesome hour; not in a spirit
of harsh criticism of XII own or supposed
faults, nor yet in spirit of fulsome lauda
ton of the silent occupant of
the tomb, should we come to
these hallowed grounds. We stand
dust of relative and friend. flushed then
should be the voice of censure. open only
the lips of prayer. Our thoughts should
rise superior to the things of earth and
our hearts be the well springs from which
should issue copious streams of prayer
for the repose of the faithful departed.
Our charity should be exercised especially
for those poor souls whom we may fear
have left none to remember them. The
SURFACES of a pure, grateful and loving
heart are of more avail than the magni6-
cent mausoleum erected at the promptings
of vanity. The marble sarcophagus,
WQ1l0 1t may, lullo6tI, ISpTGSGut Guo uODlOSt
sentiments and tenderest affections, may
also be suggestive of family pride. But
whether it be the outward expression of
good, bad or Indifferent motives, 1t is
valueless of itself in appealing to the
tender sacred heart of him, who died that
all might live. 1t is the humble, sincere
prayer, the fervent outpouring of the
heart, that penetrates the skies and
reaches the throne of God.
"But. are we to understand that we should
not adorn our metropolis with shaft and
urn and mausoleum? Are we to be de-
prived of the consoling privilege of erect
ing over the remains of our dead our
stately memorials Are we forbidden to
raise over departed worth these marble
testimonials of our affection? No. 1t is
written ON the heart of man by natures
hand to show by visible evidences his re-
spect for the dead, and it is due to those
whom we fondly cherished that their
names should not be forgotten. Our holy
religion had its birth. as it were, at a tomb,
the tomb of the risen Saviour and the tomb
should bear Enthusiastically the stamp of
religion. We are told that tombs occupy
large space in the works. history. All
nations, whether polished or savage. have
testified by their erection to the venera-
ton in which they held their dead. The
great nations of antiquity, whose massive
ruins and monuments are SO many evil
dences of their civilization, owe much of
their fame to the grandeur or peculiar
structure or situation of their tombs. The
soil of Egypt is dotted with striking me-
mentoes of death. The towering obelisk,
the mutilated shaft are monuments
erected by grateful hands to perpetuate
the memories of great men and of great
deeds. while the gigantic pyramid rises in
the midst of vast waste a veritable
..pharos of mortality" The Romans con-
signed their dead to the glittering sands of
the sea shore over which their tombs
stood as silent monitors that indicated to
the rover of the deep the existence of
treacherous rocks. The tomb of the great
Pompey was hillock of sand thrown up
by the devotion of an old warrior. Near
the fer famed ruins of Carthage the statue