Readers of these reflections will recall that on a number of occasions it has been stressed that a correct understanding of our human nature is that we are made by God to be composed of both body and soul. That combination unites us to the material and earthly world (through the body) and to the spiritual reality that surrounds it (through the soul).

 

Only by recognizing this fundamental unity that comprises each one of us can we place ourselves rightly in God’s creation. 

 

Through the body and its senses we are able to recognize the hand of God in the beauty of nature. We are able to rejoice in the colors and the smells of flowers and the stars of the night. Through the body the rest of sleep and the taste of food gives a rhythm that the human person tries to live by.

 

By contrast, when people or societies do not respect the unity of body and soul in every person, evil consequences are not far behind. 

 

For example, in modern thought, there is a tendency to consider that the person is really the spirit that gives rise to our thinking and our individual judgments. In that sense, the human person becomes thought of as a mind trapped in a body. The body moves the mind through this world. It takes in information to feed to the spirit. But ultimately the body, distinct from the person, is a tool that can be manipulated at will or even deformed or ultimately discarded in suicide or assisted death. 

 

When, however, the human person is rightly recognized as being a unity of body and soul we become more truly and fully human. The body is linked to the mind so completely that it becomes the expression of the person in the midst of the world. 

 

We find that we are able to love others by sharing the thoughts of our minds but then by expressing that love through the body in numerous different earthly ways from a smile to a hug to an act of profound sacrifice that might even involve pain or suffering.

 

It is the teaching of our faith that death is the moment when the body and soul are separated at the end of our life. At that moment the body will begin to decay. But all is not lost.

 

Faith tells us that God will raise up the bodies of all at the end of the world. Those who have been faithful and are found worthy will be given incorruptible life to their bodies, which will be reunited with their souls for all eternity. That is what happened when Jesus rose from the dead to conquer sin — that final glorification of this very body that each of us bears and which has been part of us in this world.

 

This means that our bodies are sacred here and now because they will rise on the Last Day. The very body that we look at in the mirror each morning will be the same body on the day of glory.

 

For that reason faith tells us that we respect and care for our bodies even in death. In the last moments of the life of loved ones or even ourselves, we seek to care for and help the dying person so that they retain serenity and dignity.

 

After death, we take great care to reverence the body of one who has died. Mass offered for the deceased, especially in the presence of the body, not only commends the person to God’s mercy but reverences the body that is to be raised.

 

Burial of either the body or of the cremated remains is an essential part of the Church’s respect for the dead. For that reason, however, well intended, retaining at home or spreading the ashes of a loved one is not an option allowed by the Church. 

 

Death is not the end for the human person. Body and soul will be joined again for all eternity. That’s the reason we take such care to respect our own bodies and those of every other person now, in view of what is to come.