THE Vatican announced it is allowing cremation, but the ashes must be buried or kept in one place. Not divided among the grieving as keepsakes nor scattered to the elements whereof bodies are made like the stars in the firmament. Why this so seemingly trivial detail?
The reason is that faith is eroded like journeys of a thousand miles are started by small steps. We believe in the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come. This is not poetry but promise. On the last day—and there will be a last calendar day—Christ shall return to judge those still living and those already dead who must reassemble their remains. And all shall stand in the dock before him in the Court of Last Appeal in the Kingdom of Heaven on a transfigured earth.
And not as spirits but in the bodies in which they sinned or earned grace. Those bodies shall never perish again. They will live bodily, free from sickness, immune to death and, in that perfected condition, suffer or enjoy their lives after death.
What else will happen in the Kingdom of Heaven we can only speculate but this we must take on faith: The dead shall return as they were when they lived but perfected. If we abandon the tradition of keeping the dead intact, we lose by degrees our defining faith that the dead shall return to the earth.