Why does the Catholic Church prefer burials over cremation? In a copy of Order of Christian Funerals that my deacon owns, it says this regarding burial and cremation:

413 Although cremation is now permitted by the Church, it does not enjoy the same value as burial of the body. The Church clearly prefers and urges that the body of the deceased be present for the funeral rites, since the presence of the human body better expresses the values which the Church affirms in those rites.
414 The Church's teaching in regard to the human body as well as the Church's preference for burial of the body should be a regular part of catechesis on all levels and pastors should make particular efforts to preserve this important teaching.

Unfortunately, it doesn't go into detail about why the Catholic Church prefers burial over cremation.
What is the reasoning for this? What values that the Church affirms are better expressed through burial, but not cremation?
Cremation erodes the belief in the resurrection of the body* and the afterlife (although nothing can prevent our bodies from resurrecting on the last day).

Moral theologians Frs. McHugh, O.P. &amp; Callan, O.P.'s Moral Theology §2595 write:


  (b) The prohibition of the cremation of corpses (Canon 1203 [= 1983 Code canon 1184 [§1.2]]) is not based on natural law or on any dogma, as though the burning of dead bodies were intrinsically evil or repugnant to our faith in immortality and resurrection. On the contrary, in exceptional cases (e.g., in time of war or epidemic) cremation is permitted, if a real public necessity requires it. The reasons for the anti-cremation law are: the tradition of the Old and New Testaments (Gen., iii, 19; I Cor., xv. 42), and especially the example of Christ whose body was consigned to the tomb; the association of burial throughout the history of the Church with sacred rites and the doctrine of the future life, and the contrary association of cremation both in times past and today with paganism and despair; the sacred dignity of the human body (Gen., i. 25; I Cor., iii. 16, iii. 5), and the feeling of affection for parents, relatives, friends, which is outraged when their bodies are consigned to the furnace. The practical arguments offered for cremation are chiefly hygienic and economic; but it is certain that proper burial at sea or in the grave is no menace to public health, and is not more expensive or difficult than cremation. A most serious objection to cremation is that it makes exhumation impossible, and is therefore a means of concealing murder by poison. It is not lawful for a Catholic to coöperate (except materially in case of necessity) with cremation, or to belong to any society that promotes the incineration of corpses; it is not lawful for a priest to give the last Sacraments or funeral rites to those who ordered the cremation of their bodies.


cf. §40.14 "Cremation" of Romano Amerio's Iota Unum

The 1869 International Congress of Freemasons made them promote cremation for undermining belief in the resurrection of the body and the afterlife. Fr. John Laux writes in Catholic Morality (imprimatur 1932), p. 106:


  On December 8, 1869, the International Congress of Freemasons imposed it as a duty on all its members to do all in their power to wipe out Catholicity from the face of the earth. Cremation was proposed as a suitable means to this end, since it was calculated to gradually undermine the faith of the people in "the resurrection of the body and life everlasting."


cf. Charles Augustine, O.S.B., D.D.'s A Commentary on the New Code of Canon Law on 1917 canon 1240: "all societies whose principal purpose is to promote cremation, or which have tendencies similar to those of Freemasonry" are prohibited from ecclesiastical burial.



*Notes on the resurrection of the body &amp; cremation:

The Sadducees—the Jewish sect Jesus called, along with the Pharisees, a "brood of vipers" (Mt. 3:7)—disbelieved (unlike the Pharisees) the resurrection of the body (cf. Mt. 22:23).

Now, under the guise of "hygiene," cremation is actually incentivized.(similar to how circumcision—which began as a Jewish purification ritual—is now promoted for hygienic reasons, despite there being no evidence it is more hygienic, although the circumcision rate in the U.S., at least, is declining; and today's circumcision is very different from how ancient Jews were circumcised, which was with one swipe of a knife; modern, Pharisaic circumcision dates from 140 AD)

There are places that freezes bodies because they believe in the future the technology will be so advanced as to be able to resurrect the dead! It's possible, but an unreasonable hope. Even the pagan philosophers realized the human soul is immortal and is still related to the body after death (although some of them did believe in reincarnation). That the soul is immortal follows from the fact we humans are able to know universal things, which are eternal.