Can you be the same person in Heaven

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I don’t see how any “person” can go to Heaven. To be in heaven would mean all your memories would have to be expunged (or you would be fretting over loved ones in hell and bad memories). Any negative aspect of your personality or bad habits would have to be expunged (no more watching unholy movies etc). All negative quirks would be expunged (gossip, pride etc.) Just about everything that is not completely holy and makes you unique (workaholic, lazy, prone to gambling etc. etc. ) would have to be expunged. Given such a drastic makeover in what sense would you still be “you”?
 
KevinK said:
To be in heaven would mean all your memories would have to be expunged
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Wrong. You will remember everything, both the good and the bad. You’ll comprehend things better than before and trust in God’s plan for humanity.
KevinK said:
Just about everything that is not completely holy and makes you unique (workaholic, lazy, prone to gambling etc. etc. ) would have to be expunged
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Our fallen nature doesn’t define us and we shouldn’t be proud and attached to it.

1John 3 - 2 Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears,a we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. 3All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.

We’re not gonna be the same, we’re gonna be better!
 
What is your source to assert I am wrong? I cannot find anything in Catholic teaching on this. People have a tendency to state their “opinion” as fact.
 
You’re gonna have to research what saints have seen. Don Boston comes to mind…
 
We will be our unique soul, perfected in every aspect, particularly in unity with God.
 
You’re supposed to try to expunge the bad habits now, on this side of Heaven…
 
Of course you’ll be the same person in heaven, only you will be the real you, the one God meant to be visible all along, like an onion after all the outside dry, crusty, unappealing bits have been removed.

You will be you, but like Jesus.

My very favourite scripture 1 John 3:2 “Beloved, we are God’s children now; it does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.”
 
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Why do you think that you are defined by your negatives?
Why would you want the negative following you into the next life?
 
Picture a holy Saint…that is how we will be, except with all of our good God given quirks to make us, us.

Our attachments to this world do not define us. Once one meditates on eternity, all that is really left is what makes the soul unique from others in the way they were born.
 
You do become a different person, but at the same time you retain your sense of self. You give up all the sinful things you mentioned, leaving only the good. God fills in the holes left by the removal of sin with more good things, but part of your original self is there. You can see a reflection of this in our physical bodies. Other than brain cells, almost all cells in our bodies are replaced every few years. We have a little of the old (brain cells), but a whole lot of new (everything else). It’s no surprise that our soul has some parts that remain while other parts are replaced.
 
Sometimes you will here phrases like, “He’s a changed man” or “He’s not the person he used to be.” These phrases have real content and meaning, but it is clear that they don’t mean a previous person has gone missing and has been replaced with a new fraudulent person.

In this sense we can say everyone who is in heaven is a different person than when they lived on earth.

Now regarding morality - that is, behaviors - this is an important point. Everything that we do now that is immoral (to use your examples, gossip, pride, workaholic, lazy, prone to gambling) - these are not things that define us. They are disordered behaviors resulting from our fallen condition. If we define ourselves by these disordered behaviors, then we are missing what is truly important. In all truth, when these disordered behaviors are stripped away, then we see more and more clearly what we really are, what our true personality is, what our true purpose and meaning is.

For example: if one gossips, then the removal of the habit of gossip may reveal that this person has a special capacity for conversing meaningfully with others. If one is prideful, the removal of pride may reveal a specially magnanimous person or someone who is meant for leadership or great works.

If we define ourselves by our true nature - that we are human beings made in the image of God - and make this the standard for the way we live our lives, we will find that the difference between who we are here on earth and who we are afterwards in heaven is not so drastically different.
 
You are describing the destruction of ego. Mystics describe a sense of extreme emptiness and loss of self as it is purged. It is what we think of as our true selves in our fallen state.

We were egoless before the fall. Jesus and Mary were egoless. So, the ability to do perfectly the will of God was not obstructed so neither was their ability to be perfect and become perfected.

We are created and live in a state of becoming. We aren’t a different person as this happens but the person we are is continually becoming. We are self determined creatures. We determine for ourselves what we become. In heaven the person we have always been whether becoming evil or holy while on earth, has become perfect.
 
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KevinK said:
To be in heaven would mean all your memories would have to be expunged (or you would be fretting over loved ones in hell and bad memories).
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Well Heaven seems like a hard place for most of us that is why firstly we must work on our faith and trust the Lord who told us to follow Him no matter what. Who knows what we know and remember in Heaven? In the Bible it says that in Heaven there are tears too. At least from Angels. Even if that is so that is where we belong and we must aim to it.
I imagine Heaven is a place of perfect love and all that this encompasses. Including being able to worry and intercede to God for those who aren’t there. Like a perfect heart break when you no longer hold on to your own self to love but you let God’s love for others shine through. And you help God and you are one with Him. Probably the heart break simply does not hurt anymore, it is perfect, accomplished and divine.
 
Mary888 said:
In the Bible it says that in Heaven there are tears too. At least from Angels.
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Hi Mary, I never heard that before. I would like to know the reason for their tears according to the bible. Our Blessed Mother sheds tears in Heaven I think.
 
Jeremiah 13-17:
“you do not listen to this warning, I shall weep in secret for your pride; my eyes will weep bitterly and stream with tears, for Yahweh’s flock is being led into captivity.”
God is one with Holy Angels. The reason for tears here is our pride…
 
Thank you Mary. It makes sense that Heaven weeps when we can’t turn back to Him… I think you must be right, when God sheds tears all in Heaven sheds tears.
 
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Your memories won’t be expunged in Heaven but you will be happy. Your feeling towards negative events in your life will be different.
 
We aren’t, in a WAY, the “same people” we were at age 5.

And YET … we ARE.

Same sort of thing 100 years from now when we are “in eternity” in whatever spiritual state or destination.

🤨 - and … remembering that “100 years from now” in eternity … is probably a bad, earthbound reference to “a while from now” on the other side of the pale. 😉

That is to say … we’ll grow. Closer to God and others, hopefully. But possibly, further and further away per our own free will.

I DO wonder per your provocative question, whether some who will be in heaven will have been purified by a sort of forgetfulness. I’ve seen people with Alzheimer’s who seem like little angels now, where once they may have been angry or destructive hellions in full health.

There are the “born again” and “like children” images of heaven we get from Jesus that tell us of how it will be … without the how we’ll get to that point … details.

Thanks for the intriguing search into these spiritual matters OP and fellow posters. 😇
 
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You are made new by the divine powers of Christ.

1 Corinthians 1:18. For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

Romans 1:16. For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.
 
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