The following is a commentary on readings
that may be used for this Mass.

Reading I: Isaiah 25:6a, 7-9

Here our attention is inevitably focused on Is 25:8, “He will swallow up death for ever,” a verse that is cited in 1 Cor 15:26, 15:44 and alluded to in Rev 7:17 (cf. 21:4).

This passage comes from the Apocalypse of Isaiah (Is 24-27). It announces the coming time when the curse of Gen 3:19 will be canceled forever. At this stage of the Old Testament, this can hardly mean the resurrection of the dead, but only that the covenant people of Israel will not die any more. The New Testament quite legitimately reinterpreted it in the light of Jesus' Easter victory.

Responsorial Psalm: 27:1, 4, 7, 8b-9a, 13-14

This psalm of lament expresses confidence in God's deliverance, and while the original meaning of the “land of the living” was this earth as opposed to sheol, at a Christian funeral it may legitimately be extended to mean the consummated kingdom of God at the resurrection life.

Reading II : Romans 6:3-9, or 3-4, 8-9

Our passage explicitly connects Christian burial with Christian baptism. In baptism the believer died and was buried. The Christian life is a life of constant dying to sin and thereby implementing what baptism symbolized. Hence all the words about resurrection in this passage are in conditional or purposive clauses or in future tenses: “that we might walk,” “we shall live,” and so on.

The Christian life is a partial realization of the future resurrection life. This says several things that are relevant at the moment of death. If we believe that resurrection means only the new life in Christ that we live on this earth after baptism, and see no point in the hope of a life after death, we are ignoring the fact that the Christian life, however good it may be, falls far short of perfect life of resurrection. Our life, even the best of Christian lives, even the lives of the saints, are characterized by a “not yet” that cries out for completion. “Eye has not seen nor ear heard what God has prepared for those who love him.” The strongest ground for believing in a future consummation is this “not-yetness” that characterizes our present life in Christ.

Gospel: John 6:37-40

These verses come from the bread discourse of John 6, but except for the echo in the phrase "came down from" and the reiteration of the promise “I will raise him up at the last day,” there is no direct connection with the theme of the bread from heaven. We have here the characteristically Johannine juxtaposition of realized and future eschatology. On the one hand, the believers are already given to the Son and come to him and see him and are not cast out but already have eternal life. On the other hand, they will be raised up at the last day and then will not be cast out but will see the Son and have eternal life. To understand John, we have to hold in tension the “already” and the “not yet,” and not eliminate the tension (as Bultmann did) by attributing the refrain “I will raise him up at the last day” to a later hand. A Christian believer has the assurance that the experience of Christ in this life is not something that will be cast away at death but will be consummated beyond death.