One of the most important things that we do at St. Mary, right under the celebration of the Holy Mass and Sacraments (in terms of significance to living our faith) is to host regular Catechesis series. These series give us the chance to dig deeper into the faith. While on Sundays the homily allows me 10-15 minutes to teach and break open the Word of God and celebration of the Sacred Mysteries, can we learn everything there is to know about God, how we relate to Him and our own spiritual life in 10-15 minutes a week? Can you imagine if you only listened or read the news for 15 minutes a week?—this includes checking baseball or football scores. Or only speaking to your children 15 minutes a week to check in on what they are doing and teach them how to become virtue men and women? What if your doctor only spent 15 minutes a week keeping up with the latest developments and medicines? No matter how good the homilies may be, or the weekly Pastor’s Corner, we cannot become experts in the Faith and living a life in Christ through 15 minutes a week. And if there is one thing in this life that we all are supposed to become experts in, it is God and our relationship with Him.
This Summer’s series is about Death, a topic that we have become far too distant from and seldom talk about, even though it is the one thing that all human beings have in common (sadly, not even all people are born, but we all die).
In our first session, this past Wednesday, we looked at this basic truth. We die and death is something to be feared, that is, true death. This is the death that matters, coming to a complete and total end of existence, and in the natural order of things, it is a possibility. But, for the Christian, there is no longer a reason to fear death, because it has been conquered. The possibility of eternal life was re-opened through Christ so that in him, our physical death no longer has any sting or attachment on us. We can both be afraid of death, keeping daily in mind the consequence of being separated from God, but accepting the end of this life, because of the resurrection that awaits.
We also considered the question of cremation. The Church allows for a body to be cremated, but it is not desired. By giving permission, she is admitting that the burning of a body does not prevent one from being raised. Voluntary cremation does, however, contradict our belief in the resurrection of the body. It is an act of presumption. Rather than trusting that God will raise what we have preserved, it is an act that says: “I am going to destroy what You have given to me, but expect You to restore what I have destroyed.” Rather, in the burying of our body, we honor what God has given to us and trust that He will raise what we have preserved.
