Burial or Cremation?

For the first Christians, the resurrection after death was a strong reality. They did everything they could to be able to bury the bodies of their dead. When we visit the catacombs in Rome, we are struck by the care and the faith with which the dead were buried. They are laid out as if they were sleeping. «We look for the Resurrection of the dead and life everlasting» (The Creed) Such is the faith of Christians who believe that, just as Christ rose from the tomb with his body, so too we will rise with our body by the power of the Holy Spirit.
This is why cremation had been rejected for a long time since it was seen as a refusal to believe in the Resurrection. Today the Church no longer forbids a funeral ceremony if a person chooses cremation for a GOOD REASON, and there is no danger in compromising the belief in the resurrection of the dead. In certain countries, it is sometimes a necessity, and also under certain circumstances. The same respect ought to be given to the ashes as is given to the body of the deceased. They should be deposited in an established and respectable place in a cemetery but NEVER IN ONE’s HOME. Nevertheless, the relationship between faith and practice leads us to PREFER burying the body whenever possible. This signifies more clearly the respect of the body of each person who has become a temple of the Holy Spirit through baptism and who is called to the resurrection on the last day. Nourished by the Eucharist - the Body of Christ - our mortal bodies are given the promise of immortality. Burying the dead, as the first Christians did, signifies the expectation of the Resurrection. Even in those situations where cremation seems the only possible alternative, the Church always desires that the Funeral Mass be celebrated with the body present, and then the cremation can take place afterwards.

Ash Wednesday and Lent

“Rend your hearts, not your garments, and return to the Lord, your God”. (Joel 2:13). The liturgical use of ashes originated in the Old Testament times. Ashes symbolized mourning, mortality and penance. In the Book of Esther, Mordecai put on sackcloth and ashes when he heard of the decree of King Ahasuerus to kill all of the Jewish people in the Persian Empire (Esther 4:1). Job repented in sackcloth and ashes (Job 42:6). Prophesying the Babylonian captivity of Jerusalem, Daniel wrote, "I turned to the Lord God, pleading in earnest prayer, with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes" (Daniel 9:3). Perhaps the best known example of repentance in the Old Testament involves the story of the prophet Jonah, who finally obeyed God's command and preached in the great city of Nineveh. His preaching was amazingly effective. Word of his message was carried to the king of Nineveh. "When the news reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, laid aside his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in the ashes" (Jon 3:6). In the New Testament Jesus also made reference to ashes, "If the miracles worked in you had taken place in Tyre and Sidon, they would have reformed in sackcloth and ashes long ago" (Matthew 11:21). The Church adapted the use of ashes to mark the beginning of the penitential season of Lent, when we remember our mortality and mourn for our sins. In our present liturgy for Ash Wednesday, we use ashes made from the burned palm branches distributed on the Palm Sunday of the previous year. The priest blesses the ashes and imposes them on the foreheads of the faithful, making the sign of the cross and saying, "Remember, man you are dust and to dust you shall return," or "Turn away from sin and be faithful to the Gospel." Ash Wednesday is also a day of both fasting and abstinence. As we begin this holy season of Lent in preparation for Easter, we must remember the significance of the ashes we have received: we mourn and do penance for our sins; we convert our hearts to the Lord, who suffered, died, and rose for our salvation, and we are reminded of this reality when the priest places the ashes on the form of a cross on our foreheads; we renew the promises made at our baptism, when we died to an old life and rose to a new life with Christ; finally, mindful that the kingdom of this world passes away, we strive to live the kingdom of God now and look forward to its fulfillment in heaven.
Lent is the forty day period before Easter, excluding Sundays, which begins on Ash Wednesday and ends on Holy Thursday up to the Mass of the Lord’s supper. The forty days remind us of the fasts by Moses on Mount Sinai, and by Christ in the desert before He began His public ministry. Lent is followed by the Sacred Triduum which begins with the Mass of the Lord's Supper, continues on Good Friday, and ends with the Easter Vigil.