Bury the dead is the seventh in the traditional Catholic list of Corporal Works of Mercy.
- The Corporal Works of Mercy: To feed the hungry; To give drink to the thirsty; To clothe the naked; To harbour the harbourless (offer hospitality to the homeless); To visit the sick (care for the sick); To ransom the captive (visit the imprisoned); To bury the dead.
- The Spiritual Works of Mercy: To instruct the ignorant; To counsel the doubtful; To admonish sinners; To bear wrongs patiently; To forgive offenses willingly; To comfort the afflicted (sorrowful); To pray for the living and the dead.
Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin based their Catholic Worker Movement on living out these precepts.
Bury the dead is based on this passage from the Book of Tobit:
In the days of Shalmaneser I had performed many charitable deeds for my kindred, members of my people. I would give my bread to the hungry and clothing to the naked. If I saw one of my people who had died and been thrown behind the wall of Nineveh, I used to bury him. Sennacherib returned from Judea, having fled during the days of the judgment enacted against him by the King of Heaven because of the blasphemies he had uttered; whomever he killed I buried. For in his rage he killed many Israelites, but I used to take their bodies away by stealth and bury them. So when Sennacherib looked for them, he could not find them. But a certain Ninevite went and informed the king about me, that I was burying them, and I went into hiding. When I realized that the king knew about me and that I was being hunted to be put to death, I became afraid and took flight. All my property was confiscated; I was left with nothing. All that I had was taken to the king’s palace, except for my wife Anna and my son Tobiah. (Tobit 1:16-20)
Burying the dead WITH RESPECT is God’s work.
Whatever God wants us to do, SATAN PERVERTS.
Sources:
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moloch
- “You shall not offer any of your offspring for immolation to Molech.” Leviticus 18:21
- http://www.lifenews.com/2014/03/24/shocking-report-shows-15000-aborted-babies-used-to-heat-british-hospitals/
- http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/10717566/Aborted-babies-incinerated-to-heat-UK-hospitals.html
- http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/10198d.htm
- http://www.catholicworker.org/aimsandmeanstext.cfm?Number=28