These days you see it all.  It is amazing what people will do with the mortal remains of human beings.  More and more as priests we must spend our time speaking to families about the final disposition of the earthly remains of their loved one.  More and more it is difficult to get people to provide a place of dignified and suitable rest for their loved ones where they can await the final resurrection of the body.  It has been a part of the earliest creeds and rules of faith that we believe in the resurrection of the body, of the flesh.  Certainly our faith tells us that our resurrected bodies are a new creation in Christ and that what was once corruptible will be clothed in incorruptibility but there has always been a profound respect for the earthly body that served us throughout our lives as a temple of the Indwelling God.  Our earthly bodies are not just something to be discarded after bodily death but have always been revered and placed in a suitable place of rest.  In the early Church the catacombs were the place where the dead had a place of dormition.

     These days people often have their loved ones cremated, which is allowed in the Church, but then they do some very strange things with the cremated remains; they sometimes have them scattered and dispersed with the winds, they have them divided up among family members, they have them made into jewelry or other objects, they keep them at home under the bed or in a closet, or they find some other strange way to hold onto the remains.  This demonstrates a lack of understanding and respect for the dignity of the human body that should be given a suitable and honorable place of rest.  Cremated remains also need to be placed in a final resting place where the person can await the final resurrection.  The Church teaches us that the remains of a person should be kept integral, not divided or scattered and should be given a suitable burial.

     Our celebration of the Feast of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary reminds us of the dignity of the human body.  The earthly body of Mary, from the moment of her conception in her mother’s womb, was “full of grace” and uncorrupted by sin.  Her body was prepared by God’s grace to be a suitable dwelling place of the Incarnation.  Her womb became a tabernacle of God’s glory.  After the virgin birth of our Lord Jesus her body remained united to our Lord in his suffering and death in a perfect life of discipleship.  Upon her death, or dormition, her body experienced the resurrection and was taken up into heaven, “body and soul”, and never knew the corruption of death.  She remains for us a perfect example of a body that was not in need of new creation for it remained incorrupt in death.

     Our own bodies experience the corruption of sin and death while on earth but are also destined for resurrection if they have been united to the Body of Christ.  St. Paul speaks to us of this mystery of bodily resurrection, “But someone may say, “How are the dead raised? With what kind of body will they come back?”  You fool!  What you sow is not brought to life unless it dies.  And what you sow is not the body that is to be but a bare kernel of wheat, perhaps, or of some other kind; but God gives it a body as he chooses, and to each of the seeds its own body…So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown corruptible; it is raised incorruptible. It is sown dishonorable; it is raised glorious. It is sown weak; it is raised powerful. It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body … Behold, I tell you a mystery. We shall not all fall asleep, but we will all be changed, in an instant, in the blink of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For that which is corruptible must clothe itself with incorruptibility, and that which is mortal must clothe itself with immortality. And when this which is corruptible clothes itself with incorruptibility and this which is mortal clothes itself with immortality, then the word that is written shall come about: “Death is swallowed up in victory. Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?” (1Cor 15,35-55)

     Upon our death our souls are prepared by purification for the final resurrection and eternal life with God in his Kingdom.  They will one day be reunited with our bodies in heaven.  Mary has already entered into this eternal Kingdom and is with God and her Son Jesus and sits as Queen of Heaven.  Her soul had no need of purification for it was perfected by God’s grace from the beginning and was always perfectly united to God’s will and purpose on earth.  Her soul and body were assumed into heaven soon after her death.  We also hope one day to be with her as her spiritual children and be clothed with a new incorruptible body that has been “sown in the earth” as a seed of future life.  We need our earthly bodies to serve as seeds of our new heavenly bodies.  So let’s keep our earthly bodies in a safe place of rest where one day our Lord can call them to eternal life with Him.