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| The skull of Saint John the Chrysostom - Vatopedi Monastery |
Many people think that cremation is an easy solution and wonder, ‘Why not?’
First of all, we should not forget that the human body is the ‘temple of the Holy Spirit’ (1 Cor. 6, 15-19) and, therefore, if the human body is burned it’s tantamount to burning a church- and even more so because the human body is so much more than an ordinary church.
Of course, this also applies to other bodily sins, but let’s not digress.
Due to the fact that the human body is specially built by God as His dwelling-place- as St. John the Theologian says, ‘And the Word became flesh’- this means that by burning it we’re actually destroying God’s house on this earth.
If a person, through their spiritual life, acquires the grace of God to a greater degree, this grace remains in their body and, after death, their earthly remains are holy relics, diffusing the grace that they have acquired. Directly linked to this source of grace is the grave of a devout person (or saint) which is impregnated with the grace of the body of the departed saint and which becomes, in itself, a source of blessing, as has been observed in many examples throughout history.
As we can see, God’s providence did not leave a ‘dying’ service in the church, but a funeral service, that is, a collection of prayers for the burial of the body. If the body doesn’t exist, the funeral service is meaningless.
It is also well known that we were created in the image and likeness of God, that is, body and soul together. It was not the soul alone that was created in the image and likeness of God, but body and soul together. So by burning the body, we are aggressively destroying this image of God.
By respecting the body, we respect God and His temple. If we don’t respect our bodies, we expunge the grace of God from within us. Of course, we’re talking about spiritual respect and not pampering the body with comforts and pleasures.
