Mt 8:22 "Let the dead bury the dead"

[MistyF]

Matthew 8:22 says in the New American Bible:
But Jesus said to him, “Follow me, and leave the dead to bury their own dead.”
It seems to me that Jesus is downplaying the importance of burying the dead, and that leaves me wondering about the Catholic requirement of burial. Unless I am misunderstanding, the Catholic belief is that when someone dies they MUST be buried in the ground, right? Or is that simply a strong suggestion?

 

[Fidelis]

Jesus’ words in this case are not meant to be taken literally. Jesus is trying to make the point that following him means there is no looking back. This meditation by Don Schwager may be helpful:

**Scripture: Matthew 8:18-22 **

18 Now when Jesus saw great crowds around him, he gave orders to go over to the other side. 19 And a scribe came up and said to him, “Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.” 20 And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man has nowhere to lay his head.” 21 Another of the disciples said to him, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.” 22 But Jesus said to him, “Follow me, and leave the dead to bury their own dead.”

Meditation: Are you ready to follow the Lord wherever he may lead you? In love the Lord calls each personally to follow as his disciple. What an awesome privilege and an awesome responsibility! What does it cost to be a disciple? Our whole lives, for sure! Christ in turn gives us all that we need and more besides! Before we “sign-on” for something, is quite natural to ask what it will cost us. Jesus made sure that any “would-be” followers knew what they were getting themselves into. One prospective follower, a scribe, paid Jesus the highest compliment he knew. He called Jesus “teacher”. Scribes considered themselves the “teachers” and “experts” in the law of God. Jesus warned this would-be follower: Before you follow me, think what you are doing and count the cost. A disciple must be willing to make sacrifices, even the sacrifice of his own life to follow Jesus as his Master and Lord. Another would-be disciple responded by saying that he must first bury his father, that is go back home and take care of his father until he died. Jesus appealed to the man’s heart and told him to detach himself from whatever might keep him from following as his disciple. Love sacrifices all for the beloved. It was love that compeled the Lord Jesus to lay down his life for us. Does the love of Christ compel you to give your all for the Lord? Let the Holy Spirit flood your heart with the love of God.

What can keep us from giving our all to God? Fear, self-concern, pre-occupation and attachment to other things. Even spiritual things can get in the way of having God alone as our Treasure if we put them first. Detachment is a necessary step is we want to make the Lord our Treasure and Joy. It frees us to give ourselves without reserve to the Lord and to his service. There is nothing greater we can do with our lives than to place them at the service of the Lord and Master of the universe. We cannot outgive God in generosity. Jesus promises that those who are willing to part with what is most dear to them for his sake “will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life” (Matthew 19:29). Is there anything holding you back from giving your all to the Lord?

"Take, O Lord, and receive my entire liberty, my memory, my understanding, and my whole will. All that I am and all that I possess you have given me. I surrender it all to you to be disposed of according to your will. Give me only your love and your grace — with these I will be rich enough and will desire nothing more.” (Prayer of Ignatius Loyola, 1491-1556)

www.rc.net/wcc/readings/index.html

 

[Zooey]

A couple of things I have read on “the dead burying the dead” are:

1. 
   *]We tend to assume that the man’s father was dead or dying; for all we know, he could have been standing there in full health, & the son is making an excuse.
   *]Jesus often used figures of speech; think of it being 'easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for rich man to enter heaven.
   *]There is no reason to think this son was the only child who could stay w/his father; there could have been a dozen others! Again, an excuse.
   *]Jesus knew what was in this man’s heart. He could have been pointing out that he was spiritually dead, ie, in a state of grave sin. So He was reminding the man of his need to find God, & serve Him.
   
   Hope this helps. God bless.

 

[Catholic_Dude]

MistyF:

Matthew 8:22 says in the New American Bible:But Jesus said to him, “Follow me, and leave the dead to bury their own dead.”
It seems to me that Jesus is downplaying the importance of burying the dead, and that leaves me wondering about the Catholic requirement of burial. Unless I am misunderstanding, the Catholic belief is that when someone dies they MUST be buried in the ground, right? Or is that simply a strong suggestion?

Here is an online footnote from NAB of the US catholic Bishops:

[22] Let the dead bury their dead: the demand of Jesus overrides what both the Jewish and the Hellenistic world regarded as a filial obligation of the highest importance

I have had the same question before, I just now looked it up. Im not an expert, but it seems to indicate the huge task of following Jesus over a very important task of burying someone.

 

[gardenswithkids]

Zooey:

A couple of things I have read on “the dead burying the dead” are:

1. 
   *]We tend to assume that the man’s father was dead or dying; for all we know, he could have been standing there in full health, & the son is making an excuse.
   *]Jesus often used figures of speech; think of it being 'easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for rich man to enter heaven.
   *]There is no reason to think this son was the only child who could stay w/his father; there could have been a dozen others! Again, an excuse.
   *]Jesus knew what was in this man’s heart. He could have been pointing out that he was spiritually dead, ie, in a state of grave sin. So He was reminding the man of his need to find God, & serve Him.
   
   Hope this helps. God bless.

1. 
   Good points!
   I heard this explained in a way that made full sense to me. Expanding on point #1, the request to wait until he buried his father didn’t mean that he had a dead body in front of him with a shovel. The man was telling Jesus that he’d follow Jesus when his living father was dead and buried. Jesus invited the man to come and follow him, but the man refused at that moment because the man desired to stay with his father for the rest of his father’s life, then maybe he’s follow Jesus.
   
   This isn’t suppose to make light of our obligations to family. But we must follow Jesus when He calls us and not delay. This story contrasts with Matt 4:21-22 when Jesus called two of his apostles James and John who were fishing with their father Zebedee. When Jesus called them, they left their father in the boat to follow Jesus. Unlike them, the man who requested to bury his father wasn’t willing to leave his father to follow Jesus.

 

[gardenswithkids]

MistyF:

Unless I am misunderstanding, the Catholic belief is that when someone dies they MUST be buried in the ground, right? Or is that simply a strong suggestion?

I re-read you post and realized there was another question in there.

Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) 2300: The bodies of the dead must be treated with respect and charity, in faith and hope of the Resurrection. The burial of the dead is a corporal work of mercy; it honors the children of God who are temples of the Holy Spirit.

CCC 2301 … The Church permits cremation, provided that it does not demonstrate a denial of faith in the resurrection of the body.

I’m not sure if that answers your question. Hopefully there is someone here who can correct me if I’m wrong. I think we are suppose to bury the dead in tombs, but tombs are not neccesarily in the ground. I do think that cremated remains are also suppose to be in a tomb, (i.e., not kept on the mantle or scattered to the wind.) I understand that there was a time when cremation was forbidden, but that was because of cremation being a pagan ritual.

 

[JCPhoenix]

I believe that what Jesus is referring to is the Spiritually dead and that this particular verse is not to be taken literally.

Ever since I was introduced to this understanding I have actually used this verse: When speaking with a friend who called into a radio talk show which was denigrating the Catholic faith and was frustrated at being cut off when she was making her pont (in a rational manner), I realized that this verse applied.

Those who are dead in Christ will go on to bury their own dead…but those who know Christ will never die…we are alive in him and we are called to follow him. We will not have to bury our “dead” because those who are members of the Body of Christ likewise do not die, but live spiritually. It is only the body that dies.

This was his point…everlasting life.

This is compatible to Jesus teaching to the Apostles to “shake the dust from their shoes” in those places where the people are not receptive to the gospel. Those people are dead spiritually and choose to be so…such is it for the majority of the world, who choses to be dead to Christ and to his sacrifice for us. They chooose not to believe therefore they will not have everlasting life.

Sorry this is so incoherent…I learned this last falll and now I can’t remember exactly what turned the bulb on in my brain!

I suffer from “cognitive disonance.” Usually, for me, this means that I can carry on a conversation in Spanish but I cannot tell an English-speaking person what we said… In this case, I understand the meaning of the passage but I cannot convey it to others in such a way that it makes sense.

 

[Augustine]

JCPhoenix:

Those who are dead in Christ will go on to bury their own dead…but those who know Christ will never die…we are alive in him and we are called to follow him. We will not have to bury our “dead” because those who are members of the Body of Christ likewise do not die, but live spiritually. It is only the body that dies.

It does make sense. I think that not long ago Fr. Pacwa said in EWTN Life that Jesus refered to those he woke up from the dead as “sleeping” and only as “dead” those who were spiritually dead.

I believe you’re onto something.

 

[dancus]

To the last two writers, I was wondering how long it would take for some one to read the foot-notes. Jesus was in fact referring to the spirtually dead. Dan.

 

[gardenswithkids]

Dan, if you thought we were missing something major, please feel free to add it. Your comment bugged me so I want to respond. I would like to point out Zooey’s fourth point from the third post in this thread, (which I also quoted earlier):

Zooey:

. He could have been pointing out that he was spiritually dead, ie, in a state of grave sin. So He was reminding the man of his need to find God, & serve Him.

As someone who has had to bury my father, Jesus’ response refering to the “spiritually dead” didn’t make much sense to me when I believed that Jesus was saying this to a man whose father just died. I only came to understand this passage once I realized the man’s father was probably still physically alive and the man was probably just making an excuse not to follow Jesus. I also responded to what I thought was a question about burial proceedings of the Church, because, again, having been through that I realize the importance of it to many people.

Sorry, if I didn’t expand on the area of that scripture verse speaks most to your heart. You are certainly welcome to share what about the scripture passage touches you. I don’t think previous posters missed the obvious; I think we wrote about what moved us the most.

 

[dancus]

Madame: There is a divergenge of thought among Biblical scholors on the meaning of that verse, i gave you the least controversial. The other is Jesus meant exactly that! It was a demand that overrides what Jews and Gentiles regarded as their final obligation. It’s in the foot-notes of the NAB, St. Joseph Edition. However in the Catholic Living Bible (The Way), They use what I wrote in my first post in the foot-notes. Now you’ll understand why I chose the one that would cause minimal waves. Translating Aramaic or Hebrew into Greek is a demanding task, that’s why you find small inconsistanties at times in different versions. As I stated I chose the version that would be the most palatable to all. Thank you for your very kind post. My peers aren’t that kind when I offer what my research on St Mary of Magdala or Magidan, as I believe, but I not going there on this Forum. Dan