Central to the Church’s moral teaching on any life issue is the basic respect owed human persons due to their being made in the image and likeness of God. We probably realize that this is foundational for moral teachings when it comes to issues like abortion or euthanasia. 

 

But do we realize that this basic respect for the human person carries over even after he or she has died? 

 

We recognize that with death comes a separation of soul and body, but we also recognize the fact that the body, so integral to a person’s identity in life, must continue to be shown the utmost respect in death. To do so is to honor the person whose identity will forever be linked to his or her body. And while we are permitted to do things to a body that could never be justified to a living person (burying it for example, or removing vital organs), there are other things that must be kept in mind if we want to show the body that basic respect. 

 

The reason for this is simple. The human body is sacred. It is saved just as the soul is saved. It is a temple of the Holy Spirit as St. Paul reminds us in 1 Corinthians 6:19. Therefore, even in death, one must strive to treat the body in a manner befitting its dignity and which honors the Christian faith. 

 

This respect for the human body in death is something which we’ve inherited to some degree from our Jewish roots. However, with the Incarnation and Resurrection of Jesus, our belief in the Holy Spirit, and the belief in the “resurrection of the body,” which we profess every time we say the Apostles’ Creed, Christians have a radically new understanding of the importance of the human body in God’s plan of salvation. 

 

Therefore, we’ve always paid very particular attention to the disposition of the body in death, wanting its disposition not only to be in accord with our beliefs, but even to be a statement of those beliefs. Hence the reason Christians insisted, from the earliest days of Christianity and whenever possible, that the body be buried or “laid to rest” — in anticipation of the definitive resurrection at the end of time. 

 

Christians insisted on this to such a degree, even in cultures where it wasn’t the norm, that to this day there remain miles and miles of catacombs around cities like Rome, which enabled Christians to bury their dead. Additionally, burying a body gave other Christians the opportunity to visit the burial site, to continue, year after year to pay their respects, and to serve as a tangible reminder to pray for the deceased. 

 

For all of these reasons, Catholics have always had a very definite preference for burying the body of a person who has died. It not only mirrors the disposition of Jesus’ own body after the crucifixion, but it also is in keeping with what Christians have always understood as the way to show due honor to a person’s body. 

 

That being said, what about cremation? Is cremation somehow contrary to the Christian faith? Does it fail to honor a person’s body in the same way a burial does? Questions about cremation like these are very common. And while they are  not strictly moral questions (they are also theological questions as well as ones involving Canon Law), there are certainly moral components to them. 

 

Most Catholics realize that the Church allows for cremation today, despite there being a previous prohibition on it for many years. But not all Catholics understand the “why’s” behind it or the manner in which cremation should be carried out for a Catholic in order to continue to uphold the basic beliefs that we have regarding the respect due to the human body in death. We’ll be examining some of these questions in the next column.