D
dianaiad
Guest
LJ, I’m going to be as honest and as straightforward as I can about this.
I know that Catholics, as a group, believe that they will be able to ‘be’ with their families and friends in heaven: that they will see their spouses and be able to ‘be’ with them. This is a belief based upon logic and hope…and is, I think, a perfectly correct belief.
But.
I have seen absolutely nothing, Not one thing, officially said or written that provides a basis for that hope. The only official wording is the ‘until death do you part.’ bit. Please go back and look…are there any defenses to this other than “in heaven everybody will be family” and Rebeccas’ “wedding vows free the remaining spouse to marry again”?
What this says is that everybody will be family in heaven; those whe know and those we don’t, and share that relationship with one another. Husbands and wives will not be husbands and wives. They don’t share anything with each other that they would not share with anybody else in heaven.
That is the belief as given me by you guys, who compound that impression by criticising our scriptures and faith that husbands and wives WILL share something within that marital relationship that they share with nobody else; that families also share a very official, recognized, relationship that they do not share with those not in the family. Mortal parents share something officially eternal with their mortal children that they will not share with anybody else’s children.
My point is, we believe such relationships will exist because our scripturse and doctrine come right out and say so. You believe that they will in spite of the fact that every scripture you quote at me, and every quote you use in defense of your beliefs, say that such bonds are disolved upon death. The very argument you use AGAINST our Temple marriages is a double edged sword here; if, as you believe, there is no "marriage or giving in marriage’ in heaven, and you believe that means that MORMONS cannot remain or be married there, then it applies to you guys, too.
The whole thing comes down to one’s perception of heaven. I get the perception (though it differs between beleivers, of course, the following is a general perception gleaned from many different sources) that heaven will be a place were utter peace, acceptance and glory exist; that we will be fundamentally changed, and are ‘one’ in the glory of Christ…all sorts of expressions that basically mean: we won’t care whether we are married or not, and won’t see much difference between the soul we lived a mortal life with and the soul we never saw there. Everybody is happy…and nobody has a special relationship.
I have no idea whether the above discription is official, or even close…probably isn’t. As I said, it’s a summary of ideas gleaned from many different conversations. I’m quite certain that any one of you reading this will differ with one point or another…each one picking a different point to differ with. As I said, it’s my perception of the summary of many different individucal Catholic (people, not documentation) beliefs about heaven.
I am finding this whole thread very funny, actually. You DO realize that you are arguing for MY beliefs about marriage in heaven, right? The same beliefs that you spend mega bandwiths ridiculing us for having?
We do not know what heaven is like. All I need to know is that it is God’s reward for having sought to be close to Him through making the best choices we could. That is all I need to know. Once we get there, our desires for food, sex, and other comforts will be as nothing, compared to the fulfillment of being close to Him for eternity.