I have a funeral today for one of our parishioners who passed last week. I told my wife yesterday that I was extra nervous about this funeral. In her beautiful way she said, "when are you ever not extra nervous about a funeral?" I love her; even when she gets it right.
Yes, I am always (extra) nervous about a funeral. It is because it is so much more sensitive an issue than almost anything else that we deal with in our faith. The church is there to touch our lives at every point from birth to death, and yet we all know that most of those other moments are joyful and encouraging.
What we often forget, however, is that there is a sense in which death is supposed to be encouraging. The Scriptures say things (even challenging things) like "God is pleased with the death of all His people", and, going to Heaven is "greater by far", and, "we do not have to fear death", and, "the passing of our loved ones is an encouragement to our faith because it reminds us of the Resurrection".
No, it is not easy to see death as a reminder of the Resurrection at the end of time, but that does not mean we do not have to put an effort into doing it. When we experience a death of a loved one, we are to remember that Christ will raise all the faithful to eternal life. We are also supposed to be reminded of the fact that we all will die one day (memento mori) and thus seek to prepare our hearts for eternity.
Although it may be difficult, let us take heart in the love our God, and be encouraged to know that if we live faithfully, and die in the grace of God we too will be able, once fully purged of our sins, to be brought into the full beatific vision of our Lord.