The greatest proof of the truth of our faith in Jesus Christ has to do with His resurrection from the dead. Jesus truly died on the cross. He was truly buried following His death. And on the third day following His crucifixion Jesus rose of from the dead, alive again to die no more.
Jesus came among us, becoming one of us by taking on human nature, having both a soul and a human body. In that way, He was truly one of us, the Head of the human race. And because of that, we know who and what we are as human beings, an identity we could not know without Jesus.
Creation itself defines us as consisting of both soul and body. We are not just a soul conveyed or imprisoned in a body. If we were, the body would be then just a tool over which the soul would have control, even to dispose of the body at will.
Our faith in the Resurrection of Jesus, tells us that after being separated by death, Jesus’ human body and human soul were joined again. But this time, having overcome sin and death, His union of body and soul was eternal and glorified. It will be the same for us at the end of time if we are faithful.
This knowledge leads us to embrace important practices regarding the human body. Our bodies are sacred because they are made to rise from our own tombs in the resurrection. Throughout life we should respect and reverence our bodies by avoiding sin and doing good in this life, in our thoughts and our deeds. This explains why, for example, the sexual revolution, so present to our culture, has resulted in the body being understood as simply a source of pleasure and distraction, resulting in much sadness and damage in the lives of so many.
Further, we do not control the bodies of others. The destruction of the bodies of the unborn, or the rejection of the body in suicide, whether assisted or carried out spontaneously, offends the sacredness of human nature. So too, the offenses against the human body in the scandals of poverty, slavery or unjust violence or war are also against the loving will of God inherent in creation.
Because the body of every person has been made to rise on the Last Day, our Catholic faith leads us to take special care for the body in death as it awaits its reunion with the soul. In that regard the Church teaches, “The Church continues to prefer the practice of burying the bodies of the deceased, because this shows a greater esteem towards the deceased. Nevertheless, cremation is not prohibited, unless it was chosen for reasons contrary to Christian doctrine.” (Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, Instruction Ad resurgendum cum Christo, 2016, N. 3).
The traditional preference for burial of the body, according to the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, is in order to give witness to the dignity of the human body as part of the human person. This both honors the role of the body in life as a temple of the Holy Spirit during our earthly life, and allows for the faithful to visit and pray for the dead, thus joining the living with those who have already gone before
us in death.
At the same time, the Catholic faith recognizes that cremation of the body may be legitimately chosen because of sanitary, economic or social considerations, as long as it is not intended as a denial of the future resurrection. But the Church cautions us that, to strengthen our reverence for the bodies of the deceased, “it is not permitted to scatter the ashes of the faithful departed in the air, on land, at sea or in some other way, nor may they be preserved in mementos, pieces of jewelry or other objects” (N. 7).
Our great hope lies in the promise of the Resurrection. That promise affects how we live and treat the human body, both in life and in death.
