Queen Elizabeth II, of happy memory, had a dignified funeral. At its conclusion, the late monarch’s remains were sent to their place of burial – as Christians have been for time out of mind – “in sure and certain hope of the resurrection to eternal life, when Christ shall be all in all”. The practice of resomation thankfully does not seem to have been considered.
Resomation, as Wikipedia clinically explains, is the process by which the deceased “is placed in a pressure vessel that is then filled with a mixture of water and potassium hydroxide, and heated to a temperature around 160°C (320°F)… the body is effectively broken down into its chemical components, which takes approximately four to six hours”.
This method of eradicating traces of our existence post mortem is considered more environmentally friendly; convenient, if the worship of Mother Earth is to supplant the worship of God in our increasingly secular world. Where did this new way to dispatch the dearly departed gain traction? In July, the Guardian noted that it cropped up in 2019, in the BBC TV series Years and Years, which featured a scene in an “aquatorium”.
“Boil in the bag. Like sous-vide,” explained one mourner to another. “You get flushed. Down the drain. Out to sea. The end.”
Meanwhile, the Sunday Times featured an article in which a funeral director who oversaw the royal funeral arrangements in Scotland, Tim Purves, explained that “at the moment we only have cremation and burial but in other parts of the world you can have human composting and water cremation. I think that if there were other options people would be interested in it.”
Purves said that “the introduction of water cremation would be the most significant change in funeral direction” since the establishment of his family business, William Purves Funeral Directors, 135 years ago.
The introduction not only of water cremation but alternative forms of burial, are among the most significant changes in how the West understands the body and eternity.
In 2016, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith issued the document Ad resurgendum cum Christo – “To rise with Christ”. It explains that cremation is allowed, but its use cannot be “for reasons contrary to Christian doctrine”.
However, the Church “cannot”, it insists, “condone attitudes or permit rites that involve erroneous ideas about death, such as considering death as the definitive annihilation of the person, or the moment of fusion with Mother Nature or the universe, or as a stage in the cycle of regeneration, or as the definitive liberation from the ‘prison’ of the body”.
Traditional burial transcends the realm of superficial preferences, for it embodies a profound statement that delves into the very essence of our corporeal existence and the eschatological fate that awaits us. Alternative methods of disposing of the bodies of the deceased may be done in a way consistent with Church teaching, but the usual form of burial in the ground or a vault most clearly anticipates bodily resurrection.
A society that focuses on utility over eternity, immediacy at the expense of the contemplative, and the body’s functionality at the expense of its soul, might begin to move towards resomation. As the theology of the body descends into a theocracy of self-worship, it follows that secular society would not want any tangible reminders of death – or even God.
How we bury human remains reflects what we believe about the body, in much the same way that our exterior appearance reflects our interior disposition. As St Paul observes, “It is sown a physical body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a physical body, there is also a spiritual body.” (1 Cor 15:44)
Throughout the ages, the faithful have clung to this ineffable promise of rising again, cherishing the hope that in the Resurrection of Christ lies the immutable pledge of their own eternal redemption. Erasing our existence through resomation is a pitiful commentary on the low value people place upon themselves and what they believe the future holds for them after their death.
Traditional burial is an optimistic expression of our belief in Christ’s promises, not a superstitious exercise carried out by the witless and the frightened. Our bodies will be reunited with our souls: our faith tells us so. That dead bodies buried in the earth are encumbrances to progress and enlightened nature-worship are the verities of those robbed of hope.
A “sure and certain hope” regarding our death stands in contrast to the unconfident and faltering ideologies behind resomation. Those ideologies are grounded in transient notions of what it means to be human, and stand outside of the consideration of our relationship to our Creator.
Ultimately, deciding what form of burial to choose is a deeply personal one. Nowadays, that decision is often made by consulting family and friends. However, God should not be excluded from the decision-making process. The most intimate relationship we can have is with Him, and He wants us to return to Him – in body and soul.
Neil Siefring is president of communications consultants Three Bells Collaborative.
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