Posted on 05/18/2011 2:31:49 PM PDT by Salvation
Pets in Heaven? A question that comes up frequently is whether people will see their pets in heaven. Now the Catechism of the Catholic Church does not directly address this question. But it does hold principles which lead us in the direction of an answer. One principle is that all living things have a soul. Here soul is defined as what makes an organic body live. Now when any living thing dies, its soul is separated from its body. In the case of plants and animals the soul goes out of existence. But in the case of man, the soul remains in existence because it is a spiritual or immaterial thing. Consequently, it differs from the souls of animals in two important respects. First, it is the seat of intelligence or reason. For this reason a man is held responsible for his actions in a way that animals are not. Secondly, the soul is immortal. A thing which has no physical parts cannot fall apart or be poisoned or be crushed or be put out of existence. For this reason the souls of the saved will always be aware of themselves as enjoying the vision of God for all eternity. This enjoyment will be the result of having chosen to act on earth in such a way that one did the will of God rather than one's own will. And the souls of the damned will be aware of themselves as never attaining this vision of God because they have shown by their lives on earth that they did not wish this vision but instead preferred their own will. In the light of this essential difference between human beings and animals, it would seem that we would not see the souls of our pets in heaven for the simple reason that they do not have immortal souls and are not responsible for their actions. They do not have the intelligence which allows them to choose either God's will or their own will. There is, then, an incomparable distance, say, between the soul of the sorriest human being who ever lived and the most noble brute animal that ever walked the earth. Now a child might be heartbroken at the thought that he will never see his pet again. He cannot yet understand this explanation about the difference between the human and the animal soul. I suppose that one could tell the child that when he hopefully gets to heaven, he could ask God to see his old pets if he still wished to. There would be no harm in that. For we know that when a person finally sees God, he will not be concerned with seeing old pets or favorite places but rather will be captured in the complete fulfillment of the joy of which old pets and favorite places are but little signs. We adults know that, even if the child does not. For more information on how the Church sees animals in the lives of human beings, check the Catechism of the Catholic Church 2415-2418. You will learn, for example, that the Church, while it condemns cruelty to animals as an offense against the dignity of man, allow experiments on animals if done in a reasonable way. Again, you will learn of the tremendous difference that the Church sees between the lowliest of human beings and the most noble of the animals. It will allow animals to be used for food or clothing, but will defend the right of an innocent human being to live against Kings and Nations. The Church will demand that animals be respected as part of creation while at the same time insisting that the dignity owed a human being should never be given to an animal.
Heaven would defininitely need a lot of sawdust! :-)
Did Jesus have a bed (after he moved out of the manger)? The Bible doesn’t say anything about where the Lord slept. But correct me if there is.
I meant to add that but a headcold has made me a bit loopy.
Of course you have to obey the Commandments. Good deeds alone will not get you into heaven.
There is nothing much at all about Jesus from around age 10 through 30.
So I guess nothing happened then.
It is not that animals “can’t” be saved. They have no need TO be saved. They are not sinful. They do not need salvation the way human beings do.
Animals have spirits. When they die, they return to God. When God makes “all things new” again, they will come back and will live again. Because in the beginning, there was no death. If there was no death initially, that means all the animals were all designed to live forever.
If they are just nothing and don’t come back there really is no need for God to tell us not to be cruel or loving to them. Who cares if they don’t mean anything and in the end have no value because their ultimate end is nothingness. It doesn’t matter if their ultimate end is nothingness.
The fact is all life is valuable to God, the creation awaits God setting things back the way it was in the beginning, because as it has always been, the animals’ fates are tied to mans’ fate.
You’re right of course. The Beatific Vision, we’re told, is as much as we could bear. But I understand the mortal need for reassociation with pets. They’re the nearest to perfection of innocence, next to baby humans (”trailing clouds of glory”) on this planet. And while St. Francis surely elevated all animals, C. S. Lewis (can’t remember in which book of the Perelandra trilogy) warned against too much love for pets, a theme P. D. James also took up. The easy answer seems to be that we already KNOW our pets; we don’t yet know God.
as a carpenter in a carpenter family i always assumed they made their own furniture
The most important lessons we learn here about how to love. Love things that really need someone to love and take care of them. In the end the only things that really live on forever from here that we do, is love.
That love would all be a lie if God never brought those things back. We would have loved something that meant nothing. God is not like that. further it would put God in the position that the object of love isn’t as important as loving that object. That’s just wrong.
So it is as likely there was a family dog in Jesus’s house hold as it was that any other families in Nazareth had them.
Anyway, I don’t think it has any bearing on the question at hand.
HUH?
who are you making your point to?
That wasn’t Jesus’ bed.
I really believe God looks very carefully at how we love the lesser created beings on this planet. How much we pray for them and take care of the ones we decide to take responsibility for. How we have mercy on those things totally dependent on us. How we have mercy on things that nobody else in the world cares two bits about. How we adopt such little ones into our households as non-human members of the family, that have value because they are valuable to us and we know god values them as well.
Sorry, if Jesus had a dog, it would be in the Bible.
Pretty sure about that.
Then he didn’t have a bed either by that logic.
My Pastor tells us them if The Lord thinks you would be happy with your pet there, your pet will be.
To think otherwise underestimates the power of God.
I say this as I hold my daughters new baby bunny, Loki.
wow..That is a beautiful, articulate write up..Have you thought of writing, or are you a writer?
The Koran.
Thank you!
My two year old asked about this (if Grandpa Jim’s dog will meet him in heaven). Just said I don’t know, and that God can do it if He wants to.
Seemed to work for her, and honestly works for me. I am thankful for the good animals I have known in my life, and I am more thankful for the great God who died for me. If Max doesn’t great me at the gates, I don’t think it will matter to much to me at the time.
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