Eternal Rest: The Art of Dying Well
Why Does the Church Prefer Full Burial Rather Than Cremation?
Episode 26
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1m 55s
Cremation can diminish reverence for the body in a way that traditional burial does not.
The Church allows cremation, with the stipulation that full respect for the body is retained. However, an unfortunate trend some funeral directors have noticed in recent years is the way cremation tends to diminish reverence for the body.
“More and more clergy try to have deep conversations with families who are going to choose cremation to let them know the proper way to go through it—the reverence."
The way we lay a deceased loved one to rest should reflect the same reverence with which Jesus Himself was buried. After the Crucifixion, Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus took Christ’s Body, wrapped it in a linen shroud with myrrh, aloes, and other spices, and laid him in a tomb in which no one had yet been buried.
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