DEATH: The one-way trip
Somebody I knew for over twenty years died recently.
In our grandparents’ days, death was all around and thought of constantly. Sex was private and seldom mentioned.
Now we saturate ourselves in what passes for sex — all advertisements, entertainments and gossip seeming to drag sex in somehow.
But when forced to talk about death – as at funerals – we mostly find we have nothing intelligent to say.
* * *
Somebody gets up and describes the deceased’s hobbies, favourite music, favourite sporting club — and how “passionate” he/she was.
Cheer up, says somebody else, death is merely a journey. Whatever you do, do NOT get up and ask, “A journey to where?” Nobody will forgive you.
Modern funerals: we tend to call these embarrassing gatherings “not so much a grieving at his loss, but more a celebration of his life . . . .”
But clearly they are designed to celebrate, console and comfort the living – with little thought for any spiritual profit for the dead.
Yet death is a religious subject, whether we like it or not.
We can try having our funerals at the graveside, or at other places that are not churches . . . but we’re wasting our time. Death is religious by its very nature, and there is nothing we can do about it.
* * *
You, dear reader, are going to die:
* make sure your relatives know that you want your funeral held in a church.
* and that you want prayers said for your departed soul — both at the funeral and privately by all present for the rest of their lives.
* and that you want the priest to wear black vestments, as done for centuries for good reasons, and abandoned recently for bad reasons.
* and insist that you be buried, not cremated.
What possible problem could there be with cremation? Provided it is held after a Funeral Mass and is not done for reasons contrary to Christian doctrine?
Dear Aiden,
Thank you for your comment, which is a fair enough one in the context of post Vatican II practices.
However, I feel unhappy with the notion of cremation, in that it seems to reflect an un-Catholic attitude to the human body and to our dependence on God in all things.
Looking around the Internet, one reads that:
“Although cremation is now permitted by the Church, it does not enjoy the same value as burial of the body . . . the Church’s teaching in regard to the human body as well as the Church’s preference for burial of the body should be a regular part of catechesis on all levels . . . when extraordinary circumstances make the cremation of a body the only feasible choice, pastoral sensitivity must be exercised etc. . . .” (Liturgical Norms on Cremation, Congregation for Divine Worship, Order of Christian Funerals, Appendix 2, “Cremation” (413-415))
And:
“The Church earnestly recommends that the pious custom of burying the bodies of the deceased be observed; nevertheless, the Church does not prohibit cremation unless it was chosen for reasons contrary to Christian doctrine.” Canon Law (1983). 1176: §3.
These two rulings seem to be concessions, but not the ideal, for Catholics who wish to please God.
It does seem that burial is a rite that the Lord wanted for Himself and for us also. “With Him we are buried in death, and with Him we shall rise.” (St. Paul to the Romans).
For 19 centuries the tradition remained intact.
Pope Leo XIII decreed on 15 December 1886, that:
“if someone has made a public request to be cremated and dies without retracting this culpable act, it is forbidden to give him an ecclesiastical funeral and burial.”
The 1917 Code of Canon Law incorporated this law and specified that:
“if someone has prescribed that his body be cremated, it is not lawful to execute his will.” (Canon 1203, §2).
The story seems to be that cremation did not feature much in Europe until the French Revolution. Even then it didn’t find much acceptance until the late 1800s, under the alleged impetus of Freemasonry, which promoted “Societies for the Propagation of Cremation”.
Yours in JMJ
Arnold Jago