DECEMBER 2016 46/4 and dead. The spiritual union between have here a beautiful rationale for informed Christian sensibility. It need Christian people and those who have parishes to establish a columbarium in not be pantheistic. In the lives of many TRIUMPH OF LOVE IN DEATH passed through the veil of death offers or near their church. This laudable Catholics, Paradise places are deeply the bereaved comfort for themselves and practice is increasing and is an excellent significant. These are places where an opportunity to assist the deceased way to express the communion of saints they have experienced a deep sense of through prayer. We intercede for one and our interdependence in prayer. It God’s presence or calling and which, another in this life and beyond this life. captures the spirit of the churchyard of when remembered, lead them easily The liturgy encourages this in the twin old. On the other hand, it does not into prayer. In wishing to have their WRONG-FOOTED feasts of All Saints and All Souls. represent the reality of many of our large ashes sprinkled there they may express urban cemeteries and the endless walls thanksgiving for the gift of God’s Reflections such as this are theologically RULES sound and pastorally helpful in of niches at our public crematoriums. creation and also their hope for the accompanying the bereaved and in These are frequently vast, soulless and transformation, not only of their own anonymous places which hardly recognise strengthening the faithful as they bodily existence, but also that of the he people of our time stand confront death. the dignity of the children of God. natural world in the final resurrection. uneasily before the mystery of While loaded with personal All these things are outlined in an The Instruction then forbids the T death. They want to remember conservation of ashes in a domestic significance, this gesture need not Instruction To Rise with Christ issued by and venerate the person they love who situation and the practice of dividing simply express an individual whim, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the has died. They can tell stories and them among family members. Next, it Faith on 15 August 2016. still less withdraw the dead person eulogise. But what else can they do? forbids the scattering of a person’s ashes Notwithstanding this inspiring teaching, from their community and its memory. in the air, on land or at sea, citing the Christian funeral rites can support the the Congregation has managed to The significance of the person and of bereaved; the faith enshrined in the appearance of pantheism, naturalism the place where the ashes are scattered produce a statement which will offend liturgy can articulate for them the many for, half way through this short or nihilism. The presumption of bad will be held in the stories and mysterious shape of life after death. As document, its tone changes. The bee in faith in these practices is offensive to memories of those present at their the dead person leaves our arms – arms those who have carried them out with their bonnet is the issue of burial versus funerals. And the place associated that may have nursed them in age or cremation and the ‘correct’ way to treat the greatest love and respect for the with them may trigger memory in the illness – we commend him or her into the ashes after cremation. deceased. same way as would a graveyard. the arms of God’s love and mercy. God, The Congregation would have done well who cares for us in life, receives us and We cannot condone erroneous ideas This final remark presumes that the to concentrate on the principles of dispersal of the ashes is an integral part holds us in death. about death, the Instruction states, considering death as the definitive Christian hope and honouring the dead, of the Order of Christian Funerals. without descending to the practicalities The resurrection of Jesus is one of the annihilation of the person, or the Sometimes, when there is to be a of burial and cremation. These are fundamental planks of Christian belief. moment of fusion with Mother Nature cremation, the funeral liturgy in the Because of this, we know that Christ is shaped by local tradition and culturally or the universe, or as a stage in the church is followed by a Rite of Committal alive and present in the Church, in word determined. Alternative practice need cycle of regeneration, or as the at the hearse or at the crematorium. and sacrament. Our baptism makes it not compromise in any way the definitive liberation from the ‘prison’ When the ashes are ready, they are given personal. Each person is thus joined to principles which Christian burial is said of the body. This is the prelude to the to the family and, unless there is a parish the Body of Christ and follows Christ in to safeguard. treatment of cremation. Of course the columbarium, the Church has no further life and in death. Because of Christ, Instruction acknowledges that the In addition the Instruction shows an involvement. This is a mistake. Christian death has a positive meaning. Church has no doctrinal objections to alarming lack of historical perspective. We ought to forget about the As the liturgy says, Indeed for your cremation, but claims that burial shows In the Middle Ages most ordinary folk intermediate step of the crematorium faithful, Lord, life is changed not a greater esteem towards the deceased. were interred in mass graves. The and celebrate the Rite of Committal at a ended, and, when this earthly dwelling It envisages cremation may be chosen for bodies of royalty were frequently time prearranged with the family for the turns to dust, an eternal dwelling is sanitary, economic or social dismembered so that their head, heart disposition of the ashes – at a gravesite, made ready for them in heaven. considerations. Cold language! It and body could be interred in different in a columbarium or wherever. This places. The bodies of the saints were These graves in the old cemetery at Roermond (Netherlands) are a The Rite of Committal of a person’s wounds Catholics who have chosen rite, adapted to the circumstances, will powerful witness to the triumph of faith and love over ecclesiastical rules. likewise split apart, for to multiply the th earthly remains affirms that the place cremation for themselves or their loved honour the faith of the bereaved, offer In the 19 Century, it was forbidden to bury a non-Catholic spouse in a which claims our mortal bodies becomes one. locations of the saint’s remains was to respect for the deceased person and help Catholic cemetery. This couple found a way to circumvent the rules and a sign of hope that also promises multiply the devotion. The Congregation states that ashes must to create a sacred place of memorial by affirm their love. resurrection. The way we treat a body in the very act of placing or dispersing the be laid to rest in a sacred place. This is Andrew Hamilton SJ, always a wise and Colonel J.W.C. van Gorcum married a noblewoman J.C.P.H. van Aefferden death affirms the dignity of the human defined as a cemetery or an area set balanced commentator, writes in Eureka ashes in the context of the liturgy. in 1842. He was Protestant and she was Catholic. After 38 years of happy person, and that is why care of the dead aside for this purpose and dedicated by Street (1 November 2016): Certainly, marriage, the colonel died and was buried against the wall in the is listed among the corporal works of Church authority. This will ensure that cremation is open to possibilities that Protestant cemetery. When his wife died in 1888, she asked that she not mercy. the dead are not excluded from the the Instruction does not envisage. be buried in the family tomb, but near her husband on the Catholic side of the wall. In death, they join hands as they did on their wedding day. Christian faith in the doctrine of the prayers of the Christian community and Sprinkling the ashes over the sea or a communion of saints further affirms a will prevent them from being forgotten place significant to the dead person, The monument is a prophetic witness to Christian unity by an inter- profound solidarity between the living after a generation. On the one hand, we for example, can be consistent with an Church family a century ahead of its time. 2 LITURGY NEWS December 2016 December 2016 LITURGY NEWS 3 and dead. The spiritual union between have here a beautiful rationale for informed Christian sensibility. It need Christian people and those who have parishes to establish a columbarium in not be pantheistic. In the lives of many TRIUMPH OF LOVE IN DEATH passed through the veil of death offers or near their church. This laudable Catholics, Paradise places are deeply the bereaved comfort for themselves and practice is increasing and is an excellent significant. These are places where an opportunity to assist the deceased way to express the communion of saints they have experienced a deep sense of through prayer. We intercede for one and our interdependence in prayer. It God’s presence or calling and which, another in this life and beyond this life. captures the spirit of the churchyard of when remembered, lead them easily The liturgy encourages this in the twin old. On the other hand, it does not into prayer. In wishing to have their WRONG-FOOTED feasts of All Saints and All Souls.