"Nature" of the Afterlife

[Jonathan3281]

Hi everyone,

I’m posting this question because it wasn’t every really something I gave a whole lot of thought too…UNTIL a friend and I had a discussion about it, which, more or less, left me with worry.

She said, in so many words, that when you die, you will not be reunited with your loved ones because the “love of God” will supercede any of your earthly feelings, bringing you into his eternal presence.

First of all, I do want to emphasize that I was raised Catholic. However, I have a LOT of problems with this assertion: 1. She doesn’t know this for sure 2. I personally can’t imagine a hereafter NOT being reunited with my loved ones 3. Her explanation belittles our achieving love for other human beings (parents, siblings and spouses) 4. I’ve always chosen love of others over anything else and my understanding was that God was love, that binding force which we can’t exactly define, but know and feel.

I’d really appreciate some reassurance. I am not open to her explanation, as it is more frightenening to me than comforting and somehow (correct me if I’m wrong) “undues” exactly how we were created.

Thanks for the (name removed by moderator)ut.

~Jonathan

 

[QuestforLiberty]

a quote from the Catechism: 1033 We cannot be united with God unless we freely choose to love him. But we cannot love God if we sin gravely against him, against our neighbor or against ourselves: "He who does not love remains in death. Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him."612 Our Lord warns us that we shall be separated from him if we fail to meet the serious needs of the poor and the little ones who are his brethren.613 To die in mortal sin without repenting and accepting God’s merciful love means remaining separated from him for ever by our own free choice. This state of definitive self-exclusion from communion with God and the blessed is called “hell.”

The point is that the reason you should want to get to heaven isn’t so you can be reunited with your loved ones. If they had mortal sin, thus refusing God, You won’t be reunited with them in the communion of saints. You won’t be able to notice if any loved one’s didn’t make it because they will have been in hell, and you will be completely united with God, unable to notice their absence. You won’t notice their absence that hole that is in you because of their absence will have been completely filled by God.

 

[Luke65]

She said, in so many words, that when you die, you will not be reunited with your loved ones because the “love of God” will supercede any of your earthly feelings, bringing you into his eternal presence.

Does this mean we will all have our own individual Heavens? Or we’ll be with other people, just not our family and friends?! Seems absurd, eh? We will all be on the New Earth together for all eternity. Methinks we might bump into some people we knew on the Old Earth! Unless they see us first!

 

[QuestforLiberty]

But Luke, we CAN’T “all be on the New Earth together for all eternity.” Because some people choose hell, but I think that you were trying to get to the basis of the issue by pointing out that basically the Communion of Saints is a Community. Therefore I agree with you that we will not have individual heavens. (although we WILL have our own house )

I think the point that your friend was making was that when you see the face of God, you can think of nothing else except worship. You won’t be grieving over the loved ones in hell, and you won’t even recognize their absence because seeing God up close will (quite literally, so I’ve heard) scare the hell out of you such that you cannot focus on anything otherwise. IT IS GONNA BE INTENSE

 

[TMC]

Hi everyone,

I’m posting this question because it wasn’t every really something I gave a whole lot of thought too…UNTIL a friend and I had a discussion about it, which, more or less, left me with worry.

She said, in so many words, that when you die, you will not be reunited with your loved ones because the “love of God” will supercede any of your earthly feelings, bringing you into his eternal presence.

First of all, I do want to emphasize that I was raised Catholic. However, I have a LOT of problems with this assertion: 1. She doesn’t know this for sure 2. I personally can’t imagine a hereafter NOT being reunited with my loved ones 3. Her explanation belittles our achieving love for other human beings (parents, siblings and spouses) 4. I’ve always chosen love of others over anything else and my understanding was that God was love, that binding force which we can’t exactly define, but know and feel.

I’d really appreciate some reassurance. I am not open to her explanation, as it is more frightenening to me than comforting and somehow (correct me if I’m wrong) “undues” exactly how we were created.

Thanks for the (name removed by moderator)ut.

~Jonathan

There are a lot of Catholic traditions and thoughts on the nature of the afterlife, but little in the way of formal teaching. This is natural and proper because 1) the focus should be on living this life properly and 2) no one really knows because the one guy that came back didn’t give a lot of details.

That said, the Church has generally rejected the idea that Heaven will be some kind of drugged haze of happiness, in which people lose their real individual identities. I think most believe that we will be able to find and appreciate our loved ones in the next life.