The human body is not important because of its own actions, ultimately. It is honored because God works divine grace through it. The Christian tradition speaks of the body as a temple of the Holy Spirit. That notion should be lensed through a Christian, not a pagan or museum interpretation of “temple.” The temple is a place of worship, involving all of the external and interior aspects of loving and adoring God. That includes an active participation in the life of Christ.
Let’s read:
412. The body of a Catholic Christian is also the body once washed in baptism, anointed with the oil of salvation, and fed with the Bread of Life. Thus, the Church’s reverence for the sacredness of the human body grows out of a reverence and concern both natural and supernatural for the human person. The body of the deceased m brings forcefully to mind the Church’s conviction that the human body is in Christ a temple of the Holy Spirit and is destined for future glory at the resurrection of the dead. This conviction in faith finds its expression in a sustained and insistent prayer that commends the deceased person to God’s merciful care so that his or her place in the communion of the just may be assured. A further expression is the care traditionally taken to prepare the bodies of the deceased for a burial that befits their dignity, in expectation of their final resurrection in the Lord.
Any comments?
24 January 2011 at 12:54 pm
That last sentence says more and less than it appears to. On the less side, implies to casual readers the existence a tradition that might not exist in certain cultures. On the more side, it implies to careful readers a purpose for any such tradition that is to be valued for this context.
I compare the Jewish custom of the ritual washing and cleansing of the body, and the memorial societies dedicated to that purpose; they don’t have many (or perhaps any?) analogues in contemporary American culture, but perhaps such exist (or existed) in other cultures.