Our soul and where we go at moment of death

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When a loved one dies, where does their soul go at that moment? I have always believed our soul leaves our body to be brought to Eternal Life. Book of John, Chapter 14, Verses 1-4.
 
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Katie said:
When a loved one dies, where does their soul go at that moment? I have always believed our soul leaves our body to be brought to Eternal Life. Book of John, Chapter 14, Verses 1-4.
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The problem with your question is that location may not be attribute of a soul separated from its body. Our traditional Catholic teaching would be that our soul “goes to” heaven, hell, or purgatory.
 
It is appointed to man once to die and after that judgement.

God determines if that person chose hell or if they choose to die in friendship with God.
 
Thank you for responding. I had someone who is not Catholic say they believe the departed sleeps in their grave until Judgement Day.
 
That is known as “soul sleep”, taught by 7th Day Adventists and has crept into some Protestant sects.
 
My husband passed away September 10, 2016 after 7 years of many developing diseases. Before he died, he said to me with wonder in his voice “I found Jesus!!”. He said it twice in a row to me, with wonder in his voice. He was always a man of strong faith. I leaned close to his ear and whispered “Honey, you never lost Him”. I had placed my scapula on him, and he smiled so. We held hands through the night as his oxygen dropped lower and lower, and he never struggled. He passed away quietly.
 
That is why I asked. I don’t believe in soul sleep. Am I wrong?
 
“Soul sleep” is not a teaching of the Church, so, it is not true. You do well to disbelieve this falsehood.
 
Soul sleep isn’t really compatible with the fact that there are Saints in Heaven. If they were asleep, well, they couldn’t act on our behalf.
 
Thank you. I believe strongly in our Guardian Angels and our Saints who are with us in this life on earth. I also believe strongly in miracles. I was angry to have an acquaintance talk about ‘soul sleep’. I believe in our Catholic teachings, and had never heard such a thing. It went contrary to everything I believed about being born into Eternal Life.
 
In our Mass, we say that He will come again to judge the living and the dead. When the acquaintance talked about ‘soul sleep’ I did not say another word; I didn’t want the conversation.

Could you please help me understand what we mean in our Mass when we say that He will come again to judge (the living and) the dead? Are we not judged when we die?
 
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Thank you for sharing the resource. I just finished reading the entire article, and have printed a copy to read again. This allows me to also share this with my son.

Gratefully,
Katie
 
I’m not denying any of the things stated above but I also wanted to mention that it is also a Protestant idea that we will somehow be only souls in heaven and that we are just temporarily occupying our vessels. To be human is to be body and soul, not one or the other. We are not like angels who are pure spirits but are created to have bodies and so those bodies are part of who we are. This means that when we are alive our body is united with our soul and to be dead is for the body to be separated from our soul. So at the end of time when we are resurrected, our bodies will then be united with our souls and we will worship God with our bodies forever and ever and then after that even until the end of eternity! (logical fallacy intended to add emphasis on how long it will be 🙂 )
 
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