The dignity of the body in life and death

The dignity of the body in life and death There seems to be a type of indifference (perhaps a veiled fear) towards the body of a person who has died. Just speaking from experience, at a funeral people will actively avoid viewing the body even of loved ones. They will often say that the body laying there is inconsequential, that the spirit has flown and the body means nothing at this time. It is worth revealing the dignity of the body in life and death:

The Body is not inconsequential even in death. We know that the Body is a Temple of the Holy Spirit, this does not cease when our souls are stripped from their natural place of rest. What was Holy remains Holy. The modern fascination with incineration of the body is quite a tell in how little we actually believe the body is a temple. Rather then allowing God to naturally process this temple to its end, we feel the need to speed it up, because we are an efficient people (#Murica) and cannot be bothered with seeing something that was, remain in existence while not doing anything.

The modern man thinks the morbid reminder of the dead body an unnecessary temptation. My own cousin who professed that the body was inconsequential went out of her way to justify her lack of desire to see the body that was laid in the vestibule for final respects. She did this unsolicited, almost in a similar manner to how people engaged in disordered behavior will go out of their way to try to justify their degeneracy to others so they don’t have to feel awkward.

The body is not inconsequential even in death. In 2 Kings 13:21, we see the bones of Elisha are an instrument to restore a dead man to life. So too, when Christ died on the cross, the Evangelist tells us that the tombs were broken open and the bodies of many holy men appeared in the city (Matthew 27:52). These actions of using the bodies of those dead were not inconsequential. So too when one gazes upon the body of a loved one who has passed it is not pointless. The saints tell us daily to prepare for our own deaths, to tell ourselves daily that “tomorrow I will die”, therefore we are always to remember and live this day, this moment for our ultimate end in God, both in body and spirit. Our purpose, even with the body, does not end with the casket closing, for if the realization of the reality of death brings just one soul back, what could be a greater miracle?

The body is a temple in life and death, and it, that very body that exists, will be raised and glorified. That specific body will be reanimated in glory or shame. Treat the body with the dignity that God created it with.

+JMJ+

The Eponymous Flower: Poland's Communist Dictator Died Reconciled to the Church

Great news I saw at Tancreeds blog:

(Warsaw)  two days ago the former self-confessed atheist and communist dictator of Poland, Wojciech Witold Jaruzelski (1923-2014), passed away on May 25th in Warsaw, provided with the last sacraments and reconciled with the Catholic Church.

Read the rest here

A story you might not have heard about Thomas Aquinas

A while back I heard a story about St. Thomas Aquinas that I have found few people know about and would like to share it with you today.

Most people know that Thomas Aquinas was on his way to meet with the Pope for the upcoming Ecumenical Council at Lyons i
n France which was intended to find a way to bring the Orthodox back into communion. While headed there he hit his head on a tree branch and fell off his donkey.  (Isn't it odd that he was riding his donkey at this point, when at other times he refused to put such a burden on the donkey.  But he was old so give him a pass)

He was taken to the Cistercian monastery of Fossanova near Terracina in the Papal States (modern day Italy). He died there on March 7th in the Year of Our Lord 1274 and his body remained with the Cistercians at the monastery until the Dominicans called on them to return the amazingly in-corrupt body to their possession so he may be justly venerated by those he was closest to.  The Cistercians were not all too happy with this call from the Dominicans because they wished to keep the Saint in their possession.  Under pressure they relented and agreed to send him back, but here is the interesting part.

Relic of St. Thomas Aquinas

They decided it would be better to return him, not in the in-corrupt state he was in, but in a more efficient way.  The Cistercians boiled Thomas's in-corrupt body in wine leaving behind only the bones of the formally in-corrupt saint. Even more weird is the fact that when they boiled the saint in wine this left a pink hue entrenched in all of his relics to this day.  Another interesting thing is that, out of perhaps shall we call it pastoral concern, the Cistercians lopped off one of Thomas's in-corrupt hands and sent this to his living sister as a personal remembrance of her now deceased Saintly-Brother.  The hand, gloriously, remained in-corrupt for what its worth. 

Ok so thats the story... its an oddity, I will grant you. But it shows just how strange and in a morbid way beautiful the churches history is.

I recently finished an art piece of St. Thomas meeting with St. Louis IX.  I have posted the picures below because I am proud of the piece and give thanks to God for all his help