Why do we bless the grave and the body of the dead when the soul has already ascended? (Mar. '02)
We must first understand that our bodies are not our own. St. Paul in his First Letter to the Corinthians (6:19-20) writes, “Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.” Our bodies are not our own. They are God’s and we are expected to return them in the same pristine beauty that He created us – in His image and likeness. We sanctify our bodies throughout our lifetime with various sacraments and blessings. We sanctify the places where we live our lives – church, our homes, our cars, etc. Just because we have passed into eternal rest does not mean that our bodies are not God’s anymore, created in His image and likeness.
Secondly, we believe in the bodily resurrection at the Second Coming of Christ. Therefore, the body deserves an appropriate sanctified resting-place until the Second Coming. For this reason, we as Orthodox Christians go to the gravesite to pray for our departed loved ones.
The following prayer from the “Office for the Blessing and Consecration of the Place Where the Bodies of Christians Who have Reposed will be Buried” reminds us of the Church’s teaching regarding death, the body and the soul:
O God, by Whose mercy the souls of the faithful find rest, we fervently pray: O Lord, send down Your holy angel as the guardian of this cemetery and of the bodies that will be buried here, and be well-pleased to absolve the souls from the bonds of all their sins, that with all the saints they may be made glad endlessly, being always in You. O God Almighty, Eternal Father, and Most-holy Lord, Who are the sanctification of all places; Who makes them into better places; from Whom and by Whom all blessings proceed from heaven on earth: Be wellpleased to purify, bless and sanctify this place, that this cemetery be a sweet sleep and repose for the bodies coming to be buried here, and let it be filled with the ever-existing sweetness of Your delight. May Your servants dwell today in the Jerusalem on High, resting, rejoicing, and making glad, until the great Day of Judgment, when they will receive their bodies back from the graves, and that they will be strengthened to meet the Lord Who comes on the Judgment Seat, with the fruits of their good deeds. For You are the Resurrection, the Life and the Repose of Your servants who have fallen asleep, and to You we ascribe glory: to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, now and ever and unto ages of ages. Amen.
It is also worth noting that one of the telltale signs that confirms the holiness of saints is that their bodies are incorrupt when examined. Therefore, the inspection of the body is an important part of the process in affirming that someone is a saint in the Orthodox Church. The bodies of the saints when exhumed have not decayed and often exude a sweet-smelling aroma as well. Eventually, the saints’ relics (bones) are then removed from the grave for veneration by the faithful. There are also numerous accounts of miracles that happen as a result of veneration offered in the presence of the relics of saints. These are clear examples that the body, even after death, ought to be treated with respect and reverence.
