This MAY be a difficult article to read, in light of what we hear and experience so often at funerals. 

Of the Catholic funerals I’ve attended, many have contained one or two (or more) emphatic statements that the deceased (along with all family members that have gone before them) are most certainly with God in heaven. If it were not for the proclamation of Scripture or the prayers of the liturgy one might never hear the words hope or mercy. LINK