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Cremation counterpoint
Dear Editor,
I should like to offer a counterpoint to your "Fired up about Cremation" in
the September ML (24:7). From my own pastoral experience over the past
several years, I have found cremation not only efficient and cost effective
for a bereaved family, but also a consoling and pastoral plus in dealing
with the dead body of a loved one. And that is not only for my parishioners,
but my own family as well.
No, Catholics do not believe in our bodies as mere "shells", but the rite of
the church does speak of being set free at death, as does St. Paul. Moreover,
I believe it a stretch of imagination to say that "the body is one of the
most important symbols of our faith". Your implication, intended or
otherwise, is that our mortal bodies are the image of the invisible God. Not
so.
The reason I am a fan of cremation is that I see the modern American view
of death and dying as very un-Christian, very un-resurrectional. To fill a
cadaver with pounds of embalming fluid, place it in a sealed coffin to
guarantee preservation, and then further entomb it in a waterproof vault for
an additional thirty years of guaranteed dryness makes it hard for the
priest to say that he is commending this body to the Lord and return it to
the earth from which it was made. Talk about convoluted symbols. Cremation
quite easily and directly shows that the body returns to dust, to the
earth from which it was made. And that is the reason I am a "fan" of
cremation.
Rev. Joseph A. Sanches
Nashville
—ML
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