I was also struck by the emphasis on the Catholic faith throughout the service. Perhaps this has something to do with the place the Church finds itself in right now, with scandals occurring left and right, and the faithful leaving in droves. Or, perhaps I just never heard it in the few funeral masses I've gone to. Whatever the reason, I listened to the prayers with 15 years of intervening experience and a greater willingness to hear things out and think things through. There was one line that I kept ruminating on because it both symbolized one of the many reasons I decided to stop going to Church, but also where I can make my peace with it.
The line was from John 11:25-26, which says, in part:
...I am the resurrection and the life; whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die...
This, and other similar passages have always bothered me because it implies that whoever follows a different faith is not in God's good graces. Many Christians, including the Church, actually believe this. However, I believed that this interpretation contradicts John 10:16:
I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold.
This implies that there are many ways of faith, many paths to God. Belonging to one flock does not determine entrance into the Kingdom of Heaven. I prefer this view of faith, rather than the other. I refuse to believe that God is the stereotypical bureaucrat that refuses you entrance because you didn't fill out the right form. My God is a thoughtful and compassionate God (which of course makes my God very different than other Christian Gods).
How, then, to reconcile the two? We all know that the books of the Bible, even those by one "author" were cobbled together somewhat higgledy-piggedly like. We also know that the stories told were chock full of metaphors and fables that require interpretation (at least for those of us who do not believe in the literal meanings of words interpreted several times over two millenia). However, if you are a person of faith, you must try to reconcile seeming contradictions with what you've got. So, here's my interpretation: If you believe that Jesus is also God,then these lines of the Gospel of St. John should be interpreted as, "If you believe in God, even if you die, you will live."
During the services, this was interpreted as, "you shall continue to live in the Kingdom of Heaven." However, I believe there is more to this. Whatever happens to your soul after death, it is through the living that you continue to live. So I would extend this interpretation in this manner:
If you believe that God is knowledge and that God is love, and if you believe in God, then you must believe in both knowledge and love. I would argue that it is impossible to believe in both knowledge and love without sharing it. You cannot hoard knowledge and love if you truly believe in God. And it is through your sharing of your knowledge and your love that you continue to live on in others.
There is no doubt that Dr. Joseph Warren was a man of faith. But he was also a scholar and an educator; a man who sought knowledge and shared it. And he did so with the deep love of his fellow human beings that you see in people who truly believe and have faith in God. I do not pretend to know what will happen to Dr. Warren's soul, or whether he will fare well in judgment by his God. But I take comfort that his belief in God made him the scholarly educator, the passionate advocate and activist, and the loving man that he was. And because of this, he will continue to live on in those whom he touched.
