Posted on 01/21/2016 1:22:40 PM PST by NRx
Title rather poorly abbreviated to fit.
Catholics do allow cremation now. As a Catholic, I condemn this practice - along with allowing tattoos and other biblical and long-held Catholic proscriptions.
“Many claim that the Church should care for people’s souls only and leave the body alone. That is not true: the Church cares for the whole human being who is saved in his or her psychosomatic unity, gaining the Divine grace.”
My favorite Baptist, Dr. Al Mohler, is against cremation. He believes the burial of a body is a testimony of the hope we have in the bodily resurrection. (First Corinthians 15)
Right now I have no bias pro or con for cremation. I’m of the mind that we are creatures of spirit and once we pass from this earth, the body no longer holds any value.
I am willing to be persuaded one way or the other but subject to the following New testament based hierarchy:
1) A direct teaching attributed to Jesus
2) A similar or indirect teaching attributed to Jesus
3) A direct or indirect teaching from the apostles
Quotes from Popes, pastors, priest, monks, good guys, and other text need not apply.
What difference does it make if you turn to ash in thirty minutes or thirty years. We are told we will be given a body that’s pleasing to Him. So according to this resplendently clothed guy (guess Yeshua wore that stuff) that if you burn up in a fire you’re toast?
Catholics can be cremated.
Dust to dust, ashes to ashes, literally.
Proscriptions can be changed, like eating meat on Fridays and some fasting and abstinence proscriptions.
It makes no difference at all. Catholics allow cremation.
The Greek Orthodoxy might change, but not this generation.
I wouldn’t hold your breath on that prediction. Rome may have caved on this but it has been the consistent teaching of the Church, the Fathers and many saints that cremation is a sacrilege against the Temple of the Holy Spirit and a pagan attempt to undermine the teaching about the resurrection, including the resurrection of the body. Rome used to understand this and forbade cremation for almost 2000 years.
Years ago, I mentioned cremation to my mother. She about
had a fit. (I just mentioned it for myself!) She begged me
to reconsider and not be cremated. She said it was NOT a
Christian burial. - She died in 1999. Dad in 2002. I
arranged a really nice burial for them both in nice caskets!
- Husband & I both have life insurance to pay for us a both
a decent burial. - I’ve also told our son that if I live,
HE will also have a decent burial, even though his church
has gone over to cremation. He was glad to hear me say it
as he didn’t really want cremation anyway. MIL decreed
cremation for her & FIL; but, if their preacher had told
them to ram their heads into a wall, she would have ran
as fast as possible into the nearest wall.
Part of the "Confitor Deo" is the "resurrection of the body." I believe in that too. We aren't told WHEN, where or how, but we believe.
The only meatless days now are Lenten Fridays.
It was never a problem for me. In lieu of meat one could have crab, shrimp, lobster, sand dabs or some other deeelicious shellfish on Fridays.
You may be right. I think, however, that it is done deal. No one these days knows his/her Church history anyway except a few folks (like you) on the FR.
Cremation leads to ashes, dust: dust to dust, ashes to ashes. It SEEMS fitting to me.
What cannot change is dogma, doctrine...which this is not about. We won't live long enough, I think, to see.
When Jesus talked about marriage-divorce, He was very clear. Anyone divorcing, then remarrying is committing adultery. What God has joined together....
Some marriages may end, in the eyes of the law, but not in the eyes of God. No remarriage.
My elderly aunt refused cremation. It is the HEATHEN way
in death as my mother also stated. - Aunt Mildred also
thought that cremation turned the bones to ash and that
the bones needed to remain until Christ returns for us at
the fast approaching end of the age. - I want to be buried
in a cheap coffin on a hill, facing eastward to meet Him
when He returns!
My husband was cremated and I had his ashes put in our local Catholic cemetery. I bought another space for MY ashes in that same grave. I even had the inscription on the tombstone for him.
Those who did that work asked me if I wanted MY name on the tombstone too, for when I kicked the bucket. LOL! I declined, choosing to WAIT until I HAD curled up my toes. I did NOT want to see MY name on that tombstone when I went out to visit HIS grave site.
NOT YET!! NOT YET!! NOT YET!!
By the way, how do you know that He will come from the east? North east? Due east? The earth shifts positions during the year. The sun rises more in my NORTHEAST during the summer and more in my SOUTHEAST in the winter.
He WILL find you.
That is a very modernist approach. The Orthodox Church is DEEPLY conservative. As the old joke goes, a liberal Orthodox priest is one who may occasionally shave. This is a church that has seen full blown schisms over calendars! The Greek Church is not going to approve cremation. And thank God for it!
Well, if it suits you, that is good.
I DO think that how we live is FAR more important to our good Lord than this death ceremony.
We are not members of a culture or country, such as Greece or Italy, we are ALL members of His Body, wherever we live.
Just an opinion, NRx, just an opinion.
In the Orthodoxy the funeral service is considered a sacrament of the Church.
Roughly speaking (my catechism is in the other room, and I am ensconced in this loveseat ), the Catholic Church teaches this about burial, cremation.
Burial is strongly preferred because it is a sign of hope in the bodily resurrection of the dead. As long as it isn’t a sign of the rejection of the belief in the bodily resurrecting, or a sign of a belief in atheism, cremation is permitted. Especially if a primary driver is hardship associated with traditional burial.
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It's the same in the Catholic Church. The person is alive, however. Now it's called:
Anointing of the Sick (Catholic Church), from Wikipedia:
In the past, the usual name of the sacrament in official documents of the Catholic Church was Extreme Unction (meaning, Final Anointing), a name attached to it when it was administered, as one of the "Last Rites".
That doesn't have anything to do with cremation, though, but it IS our last Sacrament before we meet our Maker.
Seven Sacrements: Baptism, Holy Eucharist, Confirmation, Reconciliation, Marriage, Holy Orders and Annointing of the sick.
And, you DO remember your cathechism. :o)
What is a sacrament?
It is a religious ceremony or act of the Christian Church that is regarded as an outward and visible sign of inward and spiritual divine grace, in particular.
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