Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Congratulations with the feasts of the Resurrection of the Lord and of the Holy Forefathers – all the righteous of the Old Testament!

Last week we noted that the prayers and rites which are said and done at the funeral service can justify a pious person. Sometimes in such instances the funeral takes on not a sorrowful, but a joyful character. Unfortunately, it also sometimes happens that the life of a person or the manner in which they passed is in no wise reflected in the hymns and actions of the funeral service. In such cases the funeral truly is gloomy. In other instances it is impossible to celebrate a church service and burial at all.

The Church, as a rule, treats such issues as the possibility of having a church funeral as leniently as possible, and therefore buries any baptized Orthodox Christian. The only times when a funeral is not performed is in cases of suicide, euthanasia or a decision (whether by the deceased while still alive, or by his or her family after death) to cremate the remains instead of burying them. There are theological, moral, historical, and liturgical reasons for this. Let’s quickly talk about them.

Suicide as well as euthanasia are terrible sins, because through them a person rejects God’s most precious gift to us, that is, our life. When a person takes his own life or makes concrete arrangements as to the time and place of its end, he demonstrates that he no longer has hope for a better state of being, has no hope in God’s mercy or in a future life. Despair has taken complete hold of him. It’s frightful to think that it is then impossible to come to church and confess such a sin. In such cases, a funeral is not performed since there are reasons to think that the person has abandoned God and that faith in a place of rest, prepared by God for all, has also disappeared. To celebrate a church service over such a person would be strange, because their life is in no way similar to the life of the martyrs of whom we hear so such at a funeral.

Cremation should not be compared to suicide. While suicide is a terrible sin, cremation is more like stubborn self-will, a lack of attention to or a dismissal of the traditions and teachings of the Church. Earlier in history cremation was considered a pagan custom, and therefore was, to a certain point, a delineating marker between believers and non-believers (although we must take note that pagans did not exclusively cremate their dead, but could also bury them). Christians and the Jews before them never cremated their reposed. For a Christian, it is important to bury the dead and not incinerate them and then bury some ash. Through burial we declare our faith in a general resurrection, which of course also presupposes the second coming of Jesus Christ and an eternal future life. Cremation, on the contrary, brings to mind a different type of existence in the after life. Many times the church hymns remember that a man is created out of earth and will return to the earth. In such a way, the texts of the church service do not fit at all in cases of cremation.

There are instances when a person who has committed suicide can be granted a church funeral. This is the case if, for example, it is known that the person suffered from a mental illness or if there is evidence that he did not independently come to a decision to take his own life. The same is true with cremation. If there is cause to think that the deceased did not wish to be cremated (for example, if he had a plot at a cemetery, a will, or had expressed his desire to the priest or to friends), a church funeral can of course be celebrated, even if the relatives insist on cremation.

Although a funeral is not served over those who have committed suicide or are to be cremated, it seems to me that this does not mean that we have a right to judge them or to declare that they have no hope in a blessed future. The Lord God will decide such matters Himself. We can’t be sure of what thoughts a person had at the moment of death. Perhaps even a person committing suicide, in that final split second before death, regrets that he is taking his life, repents of his sins, is pardoned by the Lord and is settled in the Heavenly Kingdom. We must all have hope in the mercy of God.

Dear Brothers and Sisters, for several months now we have been discussing human death, judgement, the future life, the funeral, and today, circumstances that can prevent the celebration of a church funeral. Much more could be said, but it is time to bring this topic to a close. Soon we will be celebrating the nativity of our Lord, God, and Saviour Jesus Christ. Through His birth, life on earth, sufferings, death, and resurrection He showed us the way into the Kingdom of Heaven, opened to us the gates of Eden, freed us from eternal death, granted to us resurrection, therefore to Him is due glory forever!

priest Alexis