”… St. Paul’s inspired enthusiasms about our future state reveal without exception the sense of victory over bodily death through the resurrection of the flesh…
“…With this overwhelming mode of expression in modern philosophical and theological literature *, it becomes inevitable that the great problem of the survival of man’s soul should be described as the problem of the soul’s immortality; but it would be sufficient, and vastly more logical, to speak of the soul’s spirituality.
“…The only ground on which we can establish the principle that the soul cannot die is this, that it is spiritual and that it has always been spiritual; it is not death-proof through some hidden, extrinsic quality which only asserts itself at the demolition of the body.
Code:
Ҥ VI: The State of the Human Soul After Death
“The survival of man’s soul after the disintegration after death once granted, there arises the entrancing but also perplexing subject of the conditions under which that soul exists when thus separated from the body. This grave question, in spite of its obscurity, has always possessed a kind of allurement for the human mind. From the cult of the saints down to necromancy, the powers of discarnate human spirits have always played a great role in the religious history of mankind. The data of Catholic revelation are clear but few, and they are concerned only with the souls of the elect, the saved. At death, says the Catholic Church, the human soul, if it be in a state of perfect charity, will enter into heavenly bliss, without any retardation. It will enjoy the Vision of God in an entirely intellectual way in a degree that will correspond with the supernatural merits acquired by it during life. The soul will not be in a state of unconsciousness, but will be fully aware of its own existence, its election, its final escape from evil. To a great extent it will be in a state of expectation, awaiting reunion with the body; without which man’s life, even his glorified life, cannot be full and entire. In that condition of disembodied happiness the souls of the saved constitute a portion of Christ’s Church; they are the Church Triumphant; they are in communion with the Church here on earth, they receive our prayers, they intercede for us before the Throne of God.
“If the soul of the Christian, though in a state of grace at death, yet not be in perfect charity, then admission to heavenly bliss is retarded; the soul is perfected through a mysterious process called purgatory. Discarnate spirits in that state are also part of the Church; they are the Suffering Church; they are in communion with the rest of the Church passively, receiving the benefit of the intercession of all other Christians.” –
The Teaching of the Catholic Church, Vol II, XXXI “Death and Judgement,” p. 1112 ff
The above passages sum up the Catholic position on the soul and its whereabouts after death. As was previously said, the Jewish Scholar would not be considerate of New Testament revelation, especially in his role as a Jewish Scholar. Christianity’s evidences are classified under three headings: (1) the whole attitude of the Christian Church, which assumes a spiritual soul in man. I.e., the entirety of the outpourings of the Holy Ghost presuppose the existence, in man, of that which is capable if receiving the gifts of God, the benefits of regeneration, and the powers of the Sacraments – the absence of something higher than merely flesh and blood would render the purposes of the Church meaningless. (2) The natural, historic tradition of mankind. (3) The conclusions of spiritualistic philosophy, from the Greeks down to us.
Most of the foregoing is revealed to man particularly in the New Testament, which is the eighth and final Covenant of God with man. Christianity represents the fulfillment of the history of man and man’s soteriology.
God bless,
jd*
