By His Eminence, Bishop Auxentios of Etna and Portland
One of the most difficult
pastoral issues in the Church concerns the burial of suicide victims, and
especially today, as suicide is becoming more prevalent. With the degradation
of social and political discourse to a coarse and ugly level that defies description,
life has become ugly and discouraging for those who are weak in faith or beset
by despair, and the horrible and unthinkable alternative of self-destruction
becomes a frequent demonic temptation for misguided modern man.
Similarly, as Orthodox Christians
deviate from age-old traditions and beliefs about life and death, another
difficult pastoral matter arises: the cremation of the dead. This sometimes
occurs with the quiet (and in some instances, tacit) approval of Priests and
even Bishops. This blasphemous disrespect for the traditions of the Church and
for the sacredness of the human body is all too often justified by appeals to
“enlightened” thought, the “environment,” and other vacuous ideas. However, it is a sinful practice.
Given the deterioration of piety
among some faithful and some clergy towards important teachings and doctrines
of the Church with regard to death, a traditional, thoughtful, conservative,
and faithful clergyman is placed in a terribly difficult position when
conveying the strictness of the Church’s teachings regarding the burial of
suicide victims and individuals who deliberately opt for the pagan cremation of
the body at death.
In the case of a suicide victim
or those whose body has been given over for cremation, both Priests and the
loved ones of the deceased must deal with emotional sadness; the family because
of the loss of one of their cherished members, and the Priest at the loss of
one of his beloved spiritual wards. Abiding by what the Church teaches, both
the relatives of the deceased and his or her spiritual Father often face the
double sadness of loss and the upset caused by an ignorance of, and the
resultant controversy and resistance to, Church teachings about suicide and
cremation.
It seems to me, then, that in the
face of the difficulties posed by our age of diminishing belief and even
rebellion against the teachings of the Church, we should take every opportunity
to clarify what these teachings are, so that—God forbid—if we must face suicide
or cremation, we can be prepared to lessen their tragic effects and avoid the
double emotional impact that I have described. Hence, my following comments.
Both suicide, the taking of one’s
own life, and cremation are forbidden in the Orthodox Church. They are
egregious sins. In the first instance, suicide, one can compare this to a
denial of faith. When one takes his or her own life, this is a denial of our
belief in the Lord as the Master of life and death, as well as an abandonment
of our trust in His Providential ordering of all events: those related to
health and well-being, to illness and misfortune, and to death. A person who
commits suicide apostatizes.
Think of the Martyrs, who often
suffered cruel and prolonged torments, deprivation, and torture far more
difficult than any terminal illness. In modern times, some of our Orthodox
Martyrs under the yoke of Communism were even locked up in insane asylums and
given mind-altering drugs. Yet, in no cases did these Martyrs succumb to
despair or to the thought that they were free to take their own measures (e.g.,
suicide, or a denial of faith which promised some respite) to relieve their
suffering.
The Martyrs whom we commemorate
in the Church, both in the past and in more modern times, witness against
suicide. They all proclaimed, “The Lord gives and the Lord takes away; naked I
came into the world, and naked I shall leave; blessed be our God for all things.” If we want to be worthy of
the name Christian, we must praise, love, and honor our God in all conditions, not just in times of
good fortune or health.
Regarding cremation, this
practice, as I said above, represents a revival of ancient pagan customs and a
capitulation to the delights of consumerism, material well-being, and the modem
abhorrence of disease and death (or anything else unpleasant or disruptive of
our pleasure and distraction-oriented lifestyles of witless “fun”). Man was
fashioned from earth, and to earth it is that we Orthodox Christians have always entrusted our remains, whenever
possible (i.e., except in cases of incineration by accident or at the hand
violent enemies.)
We must remember, above all, that
the body is sacred, being formed in the image of God. This is especially so for
the Christian, who is united to Christ and is a temple of God’s Holy Spirit.
With reverence we return our bodies to the earth from which they were taken. To
commend them to fire is sacrilege, doing violence to the creation that is a
work of God. It also nourishes the same presumptuous spirit that is ultimately
expressed in the act of suicide: that we not only control the moment and means
of our death, but that we have a right to manage the means by which our form is
dissolved and returned to its elements.[1]
Cremation is also a subtle denial
of the Christian teaching on the resurrection. Christians believe, as St. Paul
teaches us, that the body is “sown in corruption and raised in incorruption.”
There is a correspondence between our mortal, corruptible bodies, as we know
them now, and the immortal, incorruptible resurrected bodies that we will have
in the world to come. That is why we make every effort to preserve our bodies
in a state of holiness and purity, and why we lay them to rest with dignity.
An Orthodox funeral, then, cannot
be celebrated for one who deliberately takes his or her life [2] or who
knowingly and willfully defies the Church and has his or her body cremated.
These acts we should see as abhorrent and revolting. At the same time, while
condemning these acts, we must never condemn or revile victims of suicide and
of the wrong thinking that leads to suicide. We must piously bury such people
(preferably with the greatest privacy) or bury their ashes. We must also offer
our fervent private prayers for their forgiveness, remembering them as
individuals who serve to remind us of human frailty and why we must overcome
it, trusting that God will hear our prayers, lightening their burden and giving
rest, as He deems fit, to their souls. And we should in every way comfort the
families of such individuals.
FOOTNOTES
1. Let me note, incidentally,
that the modem “ecological” arguments—or, rather, commercial real estate
concerns—should not hold sway over us. It takes very little material and energy
to bury our loved ones. By contrast, it takes an immense amount of fuel to bum
a body to ashes.
2. If a pious psychologist or
psychiatrist verifies that a suicide victim was suffering from mental illness
so serious and complete that he or she was not in any way responsible for his
or her actions, a Bishop can allow a Church funeral. But even then, we should
clearly stress that the act was wrong, yet the victim innocent by virtue of
diminished mental capacity, a condition that applies to a great many suicide
victims.
Source: Orthodox
Tradition, Vol. 35 (2018), No. 1, pp. 6-8.
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