I feel crushed after this article

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When we are in heaven, we are spirits without bodies. One day though we will be reunited with our bodies and there will be a new heaven and a new earth. Who is to say that in this new time period that we cannot have our dear friend with us who loved and consoled us while we were here on earth. I would love to have my dear friend back with me again! My condolences on your loss.
 
AndrewAxland said:
The thing that made me cringe when I read that article was the line " the powers of rational knowledge and love, which animals do not have." I have to take exception to that.
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Yep. I totally agree.

There is no way dogs lack the power of reason. I’m sure they don’t do it the way we do, but I’ve watched my own boy WAY too many times to not think they have some level of reasoning.

And the way my dog goes nuts when you ask him about “Uncle Mike” or “Grandma”, people we know he loves? Or the way he would look BEHIND the iPad to try and find me when I would FaceTime my husband from Korea, and cry and bark when I wasn’t “there”? Or all the stories about dogs mourning their owners?

I get we tend to personify animals, but there is no way on earth I’ll ever be convinced they don’t “know” or “think” or “love”.
 
I have beloved family members and friends who have passed. Chances are one or more of them will not be in heaven. Yet if I am fortunate enough to end up in heaven I will be perfectly happy nonetheless.

I think God will grace those in heaven with sufficient understanding of why things are the way they are there that they will accept the rightness of however He chooses to arrange affairs in the afterlife.
 
I am quite sure that God will more than satisfy all our desires in heaven, and if that desire is for our beloved pet it will be satisfied.
I, for one, can’t imagine life without my beloved pets. Let’s keep in mind that God hasn’t revealed a lot to us about the nature of heaven. I suspect there will be many surprises, all of a most wonderful nature.
 
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So sorry to hear about your loss. I too just lost my beautiful and beloved cat Scruffy this past Saturday after 16 years. I had him since he was a 10 week old kitten. I know your pain. God is love. He sent my Scruffy to me at a time when I really, really needed him. Scruffy gave me much joy and love over the years. Yes love. Animals can and do love in their own way. Anyone who has seen the way a mummy or daddy cat or dog or duck take care of their little ones and respond to us in our lives knows this. The great Saints, St Francis of Assisi and St Jerome, to name but two, knew this. Animals reflect in their own way the beauty of God. Yes in ways different to we humans but they still contain and reflect the beauty of God.

I have seen with friends how God has shown His goodness, care and love in how He has brought pets into their lives and how the lives of both have been blessed as a result. I have experienced this recently with a friend when a little starving cat turned up at her home last year. I knew immediately that this little cat was meant for my friend and subsequent events have proven this. All love goes back to God, the source and author of love. When our beloved furry friends leave this life they return to God. God can do anything and is not limited in any way. Taking animals to heaven is not hard for God.

When I lost my previous cat I went to my local church on a Saturday and wept before the tabernacle in the empty church. I asked God for a sign that my beloved cat, Murphy was in heaven, telling God that it would greatly ease my grief if God would give me a sign. After a while an image of a black cat materialised in the marble surrounding the tabernacle. Murphy was black. I was so happy and comforted.

I did the same yesterday at mass, trusting that God would again reassure and comfort me. God did not disappoint me. I saw Scruffy in the same way I had seen Murphy. Thank and praise God that He is sooooo good to us and the beautiful pets He sends us as blessings and signs of His great beauty and love.

One day we will all meet again in heaven, never to be parted. Every tear shall be wiped away.

God bless all, people and your furry friends.
 
Romans 8:21 tells us that, in some way yet to be revealed, all creation will be restored and participate in the glory of God. ALL creation! We can assume that animals are part of this.
 
AndrewAxland said:
I find it very difficult to believe that that dog did not possess rational knowledge of what he was doing and did not act out of love.
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All animals have what is called the spirited soul or sensual spirit, its primary powers being the five external senses (sight, hearing, smell, touch, taste) & five internal senses (memory, recollection, imagination, estimation, common sense). This soul is not immortal, because it is dependent upon the body.

Among animals, only humans possess the rational soul, which is immortal and immaterial.
 
angell1 said:
I mean why not? there are no limits to God
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Theologians and philosophers of different traditions, whether Christian, Jewish, or Muslim, have often taught that God’s power is not related to intrinsic impossibilities. By definition, an intrinsic impossibility is something that absolutely cannot be.
 
angell1 said:
animals don’t have immortal souls, God is often compared to a potter, if he made a dog once, can he remake the same dog again? if I make a clay teapot and it breaks or perishes, and I make a new one that is looks exactly the same, is it really the same teapot as the first one?
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The answer to both questions is no. This topic should really be in the philosophy section because now there are issues being brought up which most people are not competent to hear let alone discuss.
 
The five internal senses (memory, recollection, imagination, estimation, common sense) are powers of the animal soul (also known as the spirited soul or sensual spirit), which all animals possess, not powers of the human soul (also known as the rational soul), which among animals only humans possess.
 
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SalamKhan said:
The five internal senses (memory, recollection, imagination, estimation, common sense) are powers of the animal soul (also known as the spirited soul or sensual spirit), which all animals possess, not powers of the human soul (also known as the rational soul), which among animals only humans possess.
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I’m an ex-military working dog handler. I’ve deployed into combat with working dogs. When I get all my stuff unpacked from my last move I’ll post a photo of me as that handler from oodles of years ago.

Think as you will. I know what I’ve seen.

That has nothing to do with an animal’s ability to reason, feel, or love.
 
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Pup7 said:
That has nothing to do with an animal’s ability to reason, feel, or love.
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And it is the last of these which prove that animals embody a spark of the Divine, just as we do, as Pope John Paul II observed.

As the soul is a spark of the Divine, and the Divine is by it’s very nature necessarily immortal, how can any soul, then, human or animal, be mortal?
 
  1. Animals cannot commit sin, so they definitely don’t go to Hell or Purgatory
  2. Different recent Popes have said different things about whether animals might go to Heaven (Popes Paul VI, JPII and Francis suggested yes, while Benedict and some earlier Popes said No)
  3. God’s “ability” to do anything is not limited, certainly not by some article on Catholic Answers, and any Catholic teaching that claims to limit God’s ability is bunk.
  4. You need to stop reading articles and trust in God who loves you and who, as Pope Francis and Scripture both confirm, values ALL the creatures he has created.
 
It’s almost as if you didn’t read what I actually wrote. Anyway, there’s no point of discussing philosophical issues outside of the philosophy section.
 
Um, the person started this thread because they are experiencing grief at the loss of their beloved pet. I don’t think a dispassionate philosophical discussion is what the OP was aiming for here. If that’s what you are looking for, I’d recommend that you start a new thread in the philosophy section for that purpose.
 
SalamKhan said:
Anyway, there’s no point of discussing philosophical issues outside of the philosophy section.
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Especially on a post written by a person who is in grief. “Philosophy” is extremely unhelpful then. I hope you don’t go around making philosophical statements at funerals. Have some sense of what is appropriate for the occasion, please.
 
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