Of course, for the true Christian, the essential struggle is not whether his body will be consumed by worms or by fire, but whether his soul will be delivered from the eternal flames of Hell and counted “among the righteous and perfected spirits.” As a Christian, especially an Orthodox Christian, one honors the tradition of the Church by choosing burial.
Let us briefly consider the matter.
The cremation of a person’s body, especially that of a relative, is a painful sight. Imagine seeing your father, mother, or brother placed in a crematorium, where their body burns, even their bones are broken down, and they become ashes. A body goes in, and ashes come out.
Burial, too, is painful. What happens to the body afterward is even more distressing. It gives off an unbearable smell and fills with worms, which consume it until only the bones remain, because the worms cannot eat them.
Such is the fate of the human body, however great or important a person may have been on earth. “Let us go forth and behold in the tombs that man is naked bones, food for worms, and stench; and let us understand what wealth, beauty, strength, and comeliness truly are.” “And again I looked into the graves and beheld the bare bones, and I said: Who, then, is the king or the soldier, the rich man or the poor, the righteous or the sinner?” (Orthodox Funeral Service).
Even so, a grave offers comfort. For example, when a mother loses her child and the child’s body is laid in a grave, that grave becomes a source of comfort to her. She knows that her child “rests” there. She goes to the child’s “home,” venerates the grave, and lights the vigil lamp. These and many other acts bring comfort to grieving relatives.
What was practiced from the beginning of human history: cremation or burial? In other words, was the body of Adam buried or burned?
There is a tradition that God Himself arranged for Adam’s body to be placed in a grave. In brief, when God saw that Adam had died, He sent angels to wrap his body in linen, anoint it with holy oil, and bury it. “Adam, Adam,” God called. “Here I am!” “I told you that you are earth, and to earth you shall return” (Genesis 3:19). This tradition is preserved in the Apocalypse of Moses, also known as the Life of Adam and Eve, an apocryphal text from the first century AD. See The Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testament in English, volume II: Pseudepigrapha (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1913), pages 123-154, “Apocalypsis Mosis.” Calling the text apocryphal does not mean that it contains fairy tales. Modern scholars consider it an important text.
According to this tradition, God commanded that Adam’s body be covered with linen, anointed with fragrant oil, and buried. The text also describes the burials of Abel and Eve. The Orthodox Church follows the practice of burial. It anoints the body with holy oil from the church and buries it, bidding it farewell with the words of the Lord: “You are earth, and to earth you shall return.”
The deceased is laid facing east, the direction from which the Lord will come “to judge the living and the dead,” and the life giving Cross is placed on the grave.
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