on Cremation
As good a time as any
You may remember that last week, for the Mass of The Assumption, I spoke in my homily about the practice of cremation. I'm sure you will agree that we see cremation more often these days, and so I figured that since the Assumption was a celebration of Our Lady's being taken up into heaven body and soul, then was as good a time as any to bring up the subject. So then, while we're at it, let's start with a word on death.
What happens when we die
We say of the Blessed Mother that she "fell asleep in the Lord." We call it her Dormition. It means that her soul never left her body. In that sense, she was spared the kind of death that awaits you and me, because she knew no sin. When we die, our soul will indeed be separated from our body. The souls of the unrepentant will become an everlasting disgrace. The souls of the just, however, will be in the hands of God, and no torment shall touch them. That's what happens when we die.
Because the story continues
So what about our body? What happens to it? Our body (whether in state or in ashes) will be interred in a dignified place of repose (hopefully), like a cemetery or mausoleum, where it will await Christ's second coming. And when He does come again in glory, our body will be reunited with our soul. This is called the resurrection of the body. We will be like Our Lord and Our Lady, happy in the Father's house, whole and entire, spirit, soul, and body. So we pray for our loved ones who have passed from this life, because, until Christ comes in glory, the story of salvation continues.
The things we do with the cremains
While cremation is permitted by the Church for pastoral reasons, it is never permissible to scatter the ashes, nor to divide them up (into lockets or jewelry), nor to privatize the display of the urn (on the mantle). But why not? To be sure, it's not that God is unable to restore a person's body to its soul if that body were to have been cremated; of course He can. The problem arises when we scatter our loved one's ashes (as if Mom's final destiny were the ocean) or when we separate her ashes (as if her final destiny were the hearts of her favorite people), or when we display her remains in the home (as if her final destiny were the living room). The Assumption of Our Lady reminds us of our true destiny, namely, to be with God in heaven! Therefore, burying the body or the cremains is an outward sign to the world of our living hope that Christ will come to take us to Himself, so that where He is we also may be. That's what our Faith says, which is infinitely greater than what the things we do with the cremains can sometimes say.