Recently I participated in the burial service of a family member. It was a peaceful ceremony led by a priest and attended by numerous family members and friends. The urn containing the deceased’s ashes was handled respectfully as it was eventually lowered into the grave site in the Catholic cemetery. We, family and friends, were grateful for the opportunity to gather, to pay our respects, and to raise our unified prayer to Heaven. The prevailing sense was one of both closure and hope.
This experience of interring the cremated remains of a loved one prompted me to investigate the practice of ‘ash scattering’. Cremation – once rare in this country – is increasingly popular. I have read that now in fifty percent of the cases, the ashes – the remains of those cremated – are scattered and not interred.
One can readily understand the sentiments that inspire this practice. The ashes of an avid sailor may be sprinkled at sea, or of an outdoorsman or gardener spread in an open field or botanical garden. The reputation of being a free spirit might encourage one or one’s heirs to have his mortal remains thrown to the wind. The practice is popular and, subject to certain restrictions, legal. There is, of course, also the economic factor. Scattering ashes is presumably a less expensive alternative. Certainly, one can appreciate the reasons for the popularity of this practice.
Some, however, still prefer interment. For them, among other reasons, it is important that the remains of the deceased be entombed in an identifiable location where those who follow him can occasionally come to reminisce, to pray, and even to communicate.
One wonders if the popularity of ash scattering might to some extent be rooted in something more than sentiment or economy. Could it be that in our society the sense of the sacred has so waned that respect even for our bodies has diminished? How does this attitude relate to our acceptance of abortion, euthanasia, and assisted suicide? Has the ancient, ever-threatening heresy of Gnosticism re-emerged in our mindset and seduced us into thinking the physical is unimportant and that all that matters is the ‘spiritual’? As for self-proclaimed Christians, what does it imply about our understanding of the Incarnation, the Resurrection?
Or, could it be – notwithstanding facile bromides about the deceased gazing down from Heaven – that we no longer take seriously (let alone await eagerly) eternal life? For us, are the soothing words intoned at gravesites or ash-scattering ceremonies nothing more than a distracting defense against the specter of eternal finality? Does our lack of conviction in this regard somehow legitimize the cavalier ways in which we may dispose of ourselves when we die?
Perhaps the cause is more fundamental. Perhaps we have succumbed to nihilism, that belief that nothing is important, that there is no natural – let alone supernatural – order, no truth to which we should commit.
This gravesite ceremony in a hallowed cemetery with a religious representative presiding has prompted these reflections. It has also deepened my appreciation and gratitude that all of you – members of the NCCF community – are not nihilists.