Thoughts on Burial

I was in Monterey, CA last week. I took a walk every day. One day, I went to a well maintained cemetery with a lot of mausoleums. I mean a LOT. There were several rows of mausoleums. I had never seen a mausoleum before and the sight stunned me. I had just walked past hundreds of modest graves, only plaques in the ground. And now here were some people had the audacity to make themselves more important by building themselves a building. Why did they do this? Do they think that they will they be more remembered, that they will be more important because they built themselves a shrine? Even in death there is a competition about whose graves markers will be the best. "I am richer than you, and therefore I am more important because I can build myself a building." Is that what this was about? I have been into the crypts of lords and kings. I am used to them parading themselves before the world. They feel like they earned it. Okay, I get that. It is tradition. But having a normal, common man do this? I was astounded.

As I continued my walk, my thoughts turned to family. There were several heart shaped headstones with places for two people and only one person was there (and the first one died 60 years ago so that wasn't the reason there was only one person). How lonely. It would be more friendly, more comforting, to know that your body lies with the bodies of your family members. Is that why people build mausoleums? To ensure that they will be buried with their family?

Maybe the mausoleums I saw last week were the result of pride. But maybe, and I hope this is true, just maybe, they want to be with their families in death. We don't all have the eternal perspective and hope the Gospel brings concerning eternal families. In the end, seeing the mausoleums made me appreciate that I have been sealed to my family for eternity. I know that it doesn't matter where we are buried. We can get lost at sea or die on Everest (I read "Into Thin Air" recently) or die in our beds, but no matter where we die, we will be together forever.