The Vatican has declared that Catholics should not scatter the ashes of loved ones or keep them at home. The belief that human remains be treated reverently is fundamental

Ad resurgendum cum Christo, (“To rise with Christ”), the new instruction concerning cremation, has generally been presented in the media as yet another restriction on personal freedom. Few have reflected on the theology behind it nor the repeated attempts of the Church to encourage Catholics to show greater respect to cremated remains. As early as 1997, the Order of Christian Funerals made virtually the same point.

But what is at stake, theologically, in how we dispose of human remains? The answer to this question must start with Jesus Christ, for it is his death and resurrection that transforms the meaning of Christian death. Where he has gone we, his disciples, hope to follow.

After Jesus died, Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus wrapped his body in a linen cloth soaked in myrrh and aloes and placed the body in a new tomb. On the third day, Mary Magdalene and two other women came to the tomb with more spices to anoint the body. They found the tomb empty, for the grave could not hold the author of life. The symbolism of the tomb, and the respect shown to Jesus’ body in death, is one reason to honour the dead by burial or entombment.