Most Catholics today fall into the heresy of dualism. They believe that the soul will be saved and automatically go to heaven (another heresy) but they care little or nothing about the body.
Our society's contempt for the human body manifests itself in many ways. We see plastic surgeons promoting their trade to those who despise their body so that they might, like Frankenstein (say it right!), recreate it into something different.
Then there are those who go bizzerk tattooing their bodies. I think there is room in Catholic teaching for a sober approach to tattoos but excessive tattooing seems to be a sin to me, a sin against moderation.
And now so many choose cremation rather than Christian burial of the body. Many who choose it no longer believe in the resurrection of the body and thus do it for pagan reasons or expediency. What happens to the ashes once these are returned to the family and how many families no longer give their loved ones a Christian burial. Sometimes there is no religious service whatsoever.
The Catholic Church beleives in the unity of Creation, body and soul, material and spirit. While disordered because of Original and Actual Sins, Jesus' passion, death and resurrection point to all, body and soul, material and spiritual being redeemed and saved, restored.
This is from Newsmax:
Our society's contempt for the human body manifests itself in many ways. We see plastic surgeons promoting their trade to those who despise their body so that they might, like Frankenstein (say it right!), recreate it into something different.
Then there are those who go bizzerk tattooing their bodies. I think there is room in Catholic teaching for a sober approach to tattoos but excessive tattooing seems to be a sin to me, a sin against moderation.
And now so many choose cremation rather than Christian burial of the body. Many who choose it no longer believe in the resurrection of the body and thus do it for pagan reasons or expediency. What happens to the ashes once these are returned to the family and how many families no longer give their loved ones a Christian burial. Sometimes there is no religious service whatsoever.
The Catholic Church beleives in the unity of Creation, body and soul, material and spirit. While disordered because of Original and Actual Sins, Jesus' passion, death and resurrection point to all, body and soul, material and spiritual being redeemed and saved, restored.
This is from Newsmax:
During his Friday mass in Vatican City, the leader of the Roman Catholic Church said questions what happens after death can lead to people not understanding Christianity's "logic of the future," the Catholic News Service reports.
Believers will rise again in body and soul like Jesus Christ did following his Crucifixion, that logic follows.
"A spiritualistic piety, a nuanced piety is much easier; but to enter into the logic of the flesh of Christ, this is difficult. And this is the logic of the day after tomorrow. We will resurrect like the risen Christ, with our own flesh," the pontiff said.
"Tomorrow's logic is easy: We will all die. But the logic of the day after tomorrow, that is difficult … You also need the great grace of the Holy Spirit to understand this logic of the day after tomorrow; after the transformation, when he will come and will carry us transformed above the clouds to be with him always."
He made the remarks during a morning Mass in the chapel of the Domus Sanctae Marthae. (Vatican Motel 6: We Leave the Lights Off to Save the Earth)
4 comments:
One of the reasons people choose cremation over burial is cost. My aunt's "low cost" burial nine years ago was $8500 and we already owned the burial plot. My mother's cremation, funeral Mass, purchase of a niche and inurnment was $4500 last year. Personally, I have an absolute horror of being buried and I plan to be cremated and to have a funeral Mass.
The logic of the resurrection also teaches us that the damned will rise with the shame of their sins, including adultery and sacrilegious reception of sacraments. This should cause pause even to those who confuse lack of courage with lack of consent and thus seek to justify mortal sin (not to mention simple nastiness).
I understand that cremation is not probibited but that it is not to be used as an attempt to avoid final judgement. I guess that was a ploy in the past. I have no idea if Saint Peter has a sense of humour but surely that would make him laugh put loud. In parts of Luisiana the ground is not suitable for burial so above ground vaults are used. Someone checks the remains after a few years and, if the current occupant has decomposed enough, another person, usually a relative, may be placed in the vault and the name added to the covering stone.
You cannot tattoo a body according to the poster but you can take a saint and cut out his heart and parade it around as a relic.
Anybody see something wrong with that picture?
Post a Comment