In the Dead of Winter
5 February, 2022
Dear and gentle reader: It's bitterly cold here, snow covering the ground, and the furnace seems to run nonstop. To use the old parlance, it's in the dead of winter. Not many people seem to say that nowadays, nor "in the dead of night"; phrases that indicate something happens at the darkest, coldest moment.
Perhaps it comes from our ancestors' pre-electrical times when darkness and cold could indeed be very common life-threatening times. Mayhaps it stems from our primitive ancestors fear of darkness, cold, and death.
We as Christians are called not to fear death, nor anything aside from the eternal death of separation from God; in a word, damnation. We believe Christ has indeed conquered, and we are called to live His victory in grace. Yet how often we find ourselves going the way of the world and fearing death!
Death is an inescapable reality that each one of us must face, no matter how healthy or young we may be. Death comes for us all. We decline, ever so politely, to accept this reality. In modern Western culture, we're removed from that stark reality. Rarely do we experience the death of a loved one in person. We are the ones who no longer prepare the body of the deceased; we let the morticians do that. Please, don't misunderstand me, gentle reader. I agree that morticians do provide a service to the grieving family. However, there's something almost comical about viewing the body of the deceased when it's painted up in a near-mawkish manner. It's then we hear the trite saying "He looks like he's sleeping.". For one, that is no longer "he"; it's his corpse. That which made "him" truly "him", his soul, has passed into eternity. For me, it's a sad commentary that we can't even allow the remains of the dead to look dead. We feel the need to paint it up and make it "presentable".
Now, I'm all for respecting the wishes of the deceased, and their grieving loved ones. Perhaps it's my rather anti-social nature to look at these practices as something not-quite-right. I think there's a certain wisdom in the Orthodox Jewish and Muslim practice of burying the dead within twenty-four hours of death - no embalming, no garish make-up, just a simple wooden box or shroud. We see that in the funeral practice of some of our great Catholic religious orders, such as the Cistercians and Carthusians. Nowadays we postpone the funeral for sometimes weeks until Aunt Tilly can arrive from Tierra del Fuego, or Cousin Vern fly in from Borneo.
In my curmudgeonly mind, such things are a symptom of our modern unwillingness to recognise and accept the reality of death. Then, there's also the waste of money on a costly casket, often touted to be waterproof, as if we cannot begin to accept the natural process of decomposition. The casket is then placed into a vault to prevent divots in the cemetery lawn. Then there's the expense of the headstone, often of granite, engraved with the name and relevant dates of the deceased's life and death. Oh, and lest I forget, there's the "perpetual care" fee, the fee for opening and closing the grave, as well as the cost of the plot itself. Death, gentle reader, is not cheap in our world today.
It's a small wonder that so many opt for cremation, which is less expensive. Many opt to have their ashes "scattered", thus negating the need of a grave and marker. Mother Church, however, says to such things, "No, thou shalt not, for it does not respect the body as once being a Temple of the Holy Spirit.". The Church does allow for cremation today, but states that the ashes should be reverently interred, either buried or put into a columbarium (a "mausoleum" for ashes).
Permit me, gentle reader, to make some rather bold suggestions to Mother Church, if I may. Firstly, I wholeheartedly agree that the remains of the deceased should be treated with reverence and care, like worn-out or broken sacramentals, they should be buried or burned. However, the costs today for an "average" funeral are quite beyond the means of the poor, and are a financial burden on many in the ever-shrinking "middle-class". I think that Mother Church should be more concerned for the well-being of the living in allowing the bodies of the deceased to be cremated immediately after death, rather than the current regulations which state that the body should first be brought to the church for a burial Mass, then shipped off to the crematory. The current practice forces the family into the costs of embalming, renting a casket, and all the other concurrent fees charged by the mortician for handling and shipping the remains. For pastors, such as myself, we know full well that oftentimes the family chooses direct cremation, and the ashes are brought to the church for the Mass and internment afterwards. Has the family broken the law of the Church? Yes. However, I will not upbraid them or correct them after the fact. What's done is done. What I do object to, and Mother Church does as well, is the practice of a family keeping the ashes at home. They should be reverently interred in the ground or in a columbarium. If Mother Church insists upon internment, then Catholic cemeteries should make this option as inexpensive as possible, especially to those in need who cannot afford all the bells and whistles of an "average" funeral.
Secondly, in light of the encyclical "Laudato Si", the Church should be promoting "green burials". There are very few "green" cemeteries in the United States, sadly, and no Catholic ones that I know of. A "green burial" is when the body of the deceased is not embalmed (the chemicals used are highly toxic, not only to the embalmer, but to nature when they seep into the ground). In a "green burial" the body is either wrapped in a bio-degradable shroud of natural material, or put into a simple wooden or wicker casket which is also naturally bio-degradable (yes, there are such things), and buried in the ground without a vault, thus enabling, and not hindering natural decomposition. This was the standard practice of Christian burial before the advent of modern embalming in the mid-nineteenth century. Such simple, and natural burials are still practiced by many of our religious orders today. My challenge is to Catholic cemetery associations: start up "green" cemeteries! A "green burial" is good Christian stewardship of nature, reverent in the treatment of the bodies of the deceased, and ecologically sound, and natural. Indeed, as ashes are imposed on our heads on Ash Wednesday, do we not pray that "we are dust and unto dust we shall return"?
Lastly, methinks Mother Church should be more open to the relatively new process of "aquamation", or Alkaline Hydrolysis, as it is formally known. It is a process similar to cremation, except it is done with a combination of gentle water flow, temperature, and alkalinity used to accelerate the breakdown of organic materials. What remains (the bones) are then reduced to "ash", and given to the family for internment. The objection Mother Church has to this is that the left over fluid which includes the liquified matter which was once the flesh, muscles, and soft tissues of the body, are flushed into the sewage system, thus being "disrespectful" to human remains. I can understand that position, but, in my thought, it is no more "disrespectful" than pumping a corpse full of toxic fluids, painting it up, sealing it in an exorbitantly expensive box, which is then sealed into another expensive box, and put into the earth, only to leech out its toxic contents over the years. I've seen pictures of the Catholic use of corpses on display in the crypts of churches, no, not the relics of saints, but such as the mummified remains of the Capuchins in their church in Rome. Worse are some of the churches in Europe where the bones of the dead were used in decoration of the buildings, and even as chandeliers. That's not disrespectful? Or what of current practices in Europe, Central & South America, where graves are rented for a set number of years, and if not renewed by the family of the deceased, the remains are indecorously shoveled out and dumped into a common pit with other disinterred bodies? Yes, this happens in Catholic cemeteries.
All in all, gentle reader, let us not shun the harsh reality of death, but embrace it. Sister Death, as St. Francis called her, is the only one to usher us into eternity. Let us not fear the process of burial and the care of the dead, but do so with reverence, and economy for the sake of the poor, and for the sake of our common home, planet Earth, of which we are only stewards.
Death, my gentle reader, comes for us all. We can only prepare to greet her properly by living our faith and hope in the Risen Lord, even in the dead of winter.
Thus, my gentle reader, as always,
God bless!
Father P.
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