14 August 2009 in religion & spirituality | Tags: death, Dominicans, humanity, questions, retreat
At the Lay Dominican retreat last Saturday, I mentioned to Father Powell that I read his blog, and he encouraged me to leave comments.
So I left one (it’s at the bottom) that basically said, “Thank you for giving the retreat, it was wonderful, and by the way, what happens to us after we die?”
:)
St. Catherine of Siena, pray for us!
(Image from a painting at St. Catherine of Siena Parish, Metairie, Louisiana)
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14 August 2009 at 5:35 PM
Lexington
Priests have told me before that people receive new, incorruptable bodies on The Last Day. They made a distinction by stating it was not considered a re-incarnation, in the sense that Buddhists and Hindus believe.
It could also be that properties of the old body are changed in such a way that they thrive and endure forever. If God can make children of Israel out of stones, then it is feasible!
God the Son existed outside of time, yet He entered into a specific place and time during His life on Earth. Keep in mind that God is capable of this, and that all things are possible.
I think we are still ourselves, but so much more than we ever could be, once the constraints of the corporal are lifted. Yet we were also intended to experience Heaven physically, so the body given back to us shall be different in some way.
The specifics are still kept hidden from us.
It certainly stretches beyond our realm of experience or understanding. We live out faith by embracing such mysteries.
I hope your father is doing better today.
16 August 2009 at 10:00 AM
Practicing Catholic
Thanks for your comments.
One of the difficult spots is that we have to be careful about thinking that we can be more ourselves when we leave the body, as if the body is not an integral part of our human personhood. That takes us close to a kind of spirtualism, an error in which I myself was steeped in the past.
That’s one of the reason I posed the question. I was concerned about still having my perception colored by that error.
On the other hand, it’s extremely hard to think about the saints in heaven (especially) as not being fully human and fully the persons they were. I mean, I think we all–at some time, in some way–interact with saints. They are still alive, they are still active.
So, I am inclined to think that God provides in some mysterious way for the preservation the integrity of the human person. Perhaps by uniting some kind of body to the soul immediately after death.
It is a great mystery–one of the things I love about the faith! :)
17 August 2009 at 7:49 PM
Lexington
You are quite right that the departure of one’s body should not insinuate a better or a stronger identity. It it the freedom from the sins on Earth, and the perfect union with Jesus that makes us who we were always meant to be. I misphrased my intent rather badly. I am sorry.
I do not think of Heaven as a state of Nirvanna in which one’s identity is lost, either.
I still tend to believe that the glorification of our bodies occurs to the actual bodies we were given on Earth. If I am in error, then someone please correct me.
Is the union of body and soul again in Paradise instantaneous because it Paradise is outside of time, or is there some period in which we are complete, and yet also waiting completion, because it would be considered tied to an Earthly event, and therefore existing in time?
I enjoy paradoxes and mysteries, as well. I do not mind waiting to know the answers.
I was able to read 1 John 3: 1-2 at my aunt’s funeral. I love that passage.
19 August 2009 at 10:48 AM
Mark
St Catherine of Siena has some interesting Dominican perspectives on this, which I’ve sketched out on my blog: http://joeversusthevolcano.blogspot.com/2009/08/st-catherine-of-siena-what-happens.html