"Offer it up!"
So many people have asked me that question - and I've always said "yes". Today I think I have proof:
On animals in Heaven:
... your dog DOES NOT have an immortal soul, if your dog is in heaven, it's just some kind of hologram dog, because your dog's soul did not live on as yours will.
[...]
because dogs have no souls...
Then she yells at her poor readers:
YOU CAN'T EAT SOMETHING THAT HAS AN IMMORTAL SOUL.
What you personally believe is not relevant. And your thinking is nonsensical.[ ... ]... what you personally believe is not relevant to this discussion. What the church teaches is. The church teaches that animals do not have immortal souls. That's why you're wearing some of them on your feet. When we start wearing each other on our feet, we'll talk.
"Offer it up!" - Ask Sr. Mary Martha
Yup! She's a nun alright. She says she likes dogs - she probably eats them too.
What?
And yet, it is true that plants and animals are supposed to exist in heaven. What's to stop God from recreating animal companions we had on earth?
ReplyDeleteThe sad thing is that it's often easier to love animals than people - for some people, animals are the only ones who ever showed them unconditional love.
I'm not saying dogs have immortal souls, just that when an animal is put here by God to brighten a person's life, that seems to be a lot different than mere inanimate creatures. No one loses a favorite t-shirt and grieves because he will never see it again.
As for me, I get really depressed thinking that my unbaptized brother whom my mother lost two days before his due date, whose death galvanized the faith of my parents and guaranteed that my other brothers and sisters were raised in the Faith, who my father attempted to baptize in vain (he was already dead) - that he, who never got a chance to choose for or against Christ, may forever be excluded form heaven. Many, many great saints even believed that such babies will burn in hell.
I don't understand any of it.
And I know I am hijacking this post, but at least it isn't about sex!
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I do know the Church's understanding of such things has developed tremendously in recent centuries / decades, but still. Mothers who lost their children extremely young had NO consolation for most of Christian history. Even the idea of limbo was developed quite late.
A well known selling point of Islam in its early days was that Mohammed told parents that their dead infants went to heaven because they had never sinned. Christians at the time were apparently accustomed to beliving their infants went to hell, actual hell, since the theory of limbo had not even be developed yet.
I cannot imagine the horror of being a mother and having a stillborn baby, or a baby who died too soon, and "knowing" the babe was suffering in hell. In my mother's position, if that had happened centuries ago, she would have died too, but she might have had the last rites. However, she would have died "knowing" her baby was going to go to hell, and that she would never see him, and that he would never get a chance for Mercy. How did people manage these thoughts without despair? What did mothers think?
Mercury,
ReplyDeleteI am most certain that your deceased brother is not burning in hell. I've never heard of such a thing. Whether or not he is in heaven I cannot say but I am certain that he enjoys a very happy existence.
I like the idea of God recreating our animal companions. My own are very dear to me. I get quite emotional when I imagine that I shall perhaps see all of them again and what a reunion that might be. I stand in a wheatfield like in the last scene of "Gladiator" and I see them running down the road toward me to greet me and I am consoled knowing that we shall never again part.
Servus, thank you, my friend. I keep forgetting that if limbo is real, it's pretty much what we humans imagine "heaven" to be like, since we cannot really even begin to imagine what real heaven is.
DeleteAbout animals - Fr. Groeschel says something similar to you. I think he also mentions that while on the one hand, we can answer with cold theology (NO YOU WILL NEVER SEE YOUR PUPPY AGAIN), the actual question comes from the heart - the grieving over "someone" who is yes, a mere animal, but something people love as beings, not as things. It's only natural to want to see them again.
and oh how I do long to see "them" again...to explore the Father's mansions and gardens and to have a corner cottage for ourselves.
ReplyDeleteMercury, we were told that babies went straight to heaven as they lacked the ability to sin.
ReplyDeleteWhat about original sin though?
DeleteIsn't that true only if they were baptized? Nan?
ReplyDeleteMaybe pets go to Limbo too?
Or what about reincarnation? Oops - wrong religion.
Terry, what do you think about unbaptized babies? Can it really be that God allows millions upon millions to die without even having a remote chance of being with him? Of choosing or rejecting him?
DeleteHi Terry.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of nuns, Sister Patricia says hi.
Hi larry! Sr. Patricia's been busy with the Jackson mess, hasn't she? Janet's been tryin' to get her mom committed. I know you know that. I can't believe Tito let his kid say that - and who knew they were related.
DeleteWhat?
Sr Patricia tells me that she and Michael had a falling out years and years ago after he fired her as the Thriller video choreographer. She left in a huff, but not before she told him that if it weren't for Jermaine, he'd be a nobody.
ReplyDeleteIt's an episode of her life she is not very proud of.
She's on her book-signing tour now, you know.
I really like the picture of Sister Mary Martha. I wish the picture were larger. I can see her sitting there and calmly but firmly typing out the answers to questions posed by her readers. She reminds me of one of my teachers who used to say, "you kids are going to have start getting serious about your religion" while knuckling the desk with eyebrows raised.
ReplyDelete