Reincarnation?

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alix

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Hello, I have a question on my mind. Lot of people believe in reincarnation, as after death, the soul enter a newborn body. But is it really catholic? From a catholic point of view I’ve always heard that after death, the soul goes to heaven, purgatory or hell.

But in catholic teaching we are taugh to believe in: “the resurrection of the body” (here’s the source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apostles%27_Creed#The_Catholic_Church

What is this “resurrection of the body” if not the reincarnation of the soul in a new body?

Thanks in advance for helping me because it’s not clear at all…
 
At the end of time, the souls of the dead will be reunited with their bodies. Not a new one, but the same, albeit glorified, one.
 
alix said:
That means if you die at 90 you will be revived in a 90 years old body?? That this world will be practically only inhabited by old people??
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To quote from the article;

“*they will be transformed into a glorified state, freed from suffering and pain, and enabled to do many of the amazing things Jesus could do with his glorified body *”
 
JohnDamian said:
To quote from the article;

“*they will be transformed into a glorified state, freed from suffering and pain, and enabled to do many of the amazing things Jesus could do with his glorified body *”
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And is there anyway they can regain their young appearance?
 
alix said:
And is there anyway they can regain their young appearance?
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I would be surprised if old people per se were not in a general sense rejuvinated; or for that matter babies or the unborn. We know through natural reason that the rational function of the soul will persist after we die; so then it would seem improper if a mind that is many years; perhaps even many centuaries old is incarnated in what remains a permenant child. Likewise; it would seem improper for people to be incarnated in a from that would cause them suffering; so it would seem that at the least they will have full physical functions; and it is entirely plausible (although not knowable by logic) that they will have some general restoration or perfection of their bodies.
 
We admittedly don’t know much about the mechanism of how our Resurrectional human bodies will be refitted around our psyches.

What is important is that, although renewed, it will be YOUR body; the body of the human being you are NOW. You remain the same human person, with mind and memories intact or restored; just in a renewed, reassembled, re-inbreathed human BODY.

Reincarnation doesn’t offer that, since the psyche of the deceased is said to become someone new (who may not even be human, but animal, in some versions of the doctrine) and the preceding human mind is lost. In Resurrection, you not only remain a human being forever, you remain you forever; mind and body.

The Greek word for body is “soma”. This means not just the physical, head-and-limbs human form, but the fully alive human being. That is who you are; that makes you “someBODY”; and there will be no endless progression of rebirths and forgotten lives, but a glorious exit from time, and a full awakening into glorified embodied humanness.

ICXC NIKA!
 
Many people I know believe we look the same age as Jesus when he died. (35 I think, but I’m not sure right now 😊)
 
alix said:
Hello, I have a question on my mind. Lot of people believe in reincarnation, as after death, the soul enter a newborn body. But is it really catholic? From a catholic point of view I’ve always heard that after death, the soul goes to heaven, purgatory or hell.

But in catholic teaching we are taugh to believe in: “the resurrection of the body” (here’s the source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apostles%27_Creed#The_Catholic_Church

What is this “resurrection of the body” if not the reincarnation of the soul in a new body?

Thanks in advance for helping me because it’s not clear at all…
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Reincarnation means returning to an earthly body. There is no reincarnation. That is incompatible with Christianity.

CCC 1013 Death is the end of man’s earthly pilgrimage, of the time of grace and mercy which God offers him so as to work out his earthly life in keeping with the divine plan, and to decide his ultimate destiny. When “the single course of our earthly life” is completed,we shall not return to other earthly lives: "It is appointed for men to die once."There is no “reincarnation” after death.
 
Our bodies are animated by our soul. Now it is a soul that has inherited death. If Baptized it is a soul imprinted with the pattern of Christ’s life of death to resurrection. Our bodies make visible the state of our soul. A body animated by a soul that is eternally glorified will not be bound by physical laws because the soul that animates it is not bound by physical laws. It’s appears in accordance to the will that it obeys.

Our Blessed Mother appeared to Juan Diego as an Aztec woman. A glorified body is divinized. It perfectly obeys the divine will. A divine will is not bound by physical laws so the appearance of the glorified body isn’t either.
 
As St Paul says, ‘it is appointed to men to die ONCE and then the judgement’. Reincarnation flies in the face of this - for every ‘future’ life means another death at the end of it.
 
The idea of reincarnation rises from a false notion about the material realm. That we are whole when it is finally not usefull and discarded. That ultimately we are whole without it.

Reincarnation reconciles the seperation of body and soul and teaches that it is natural to human life. Renincarnation is incongruint with God’;s plan of salvation and Christ’s resurrection.
 
Reincarnation isn’t a Catholic belief…

When a person dies, they go through ‘particular judgement’ and go to either purgatory (and then heaven), heaven, or hell. At the end of time, there will be the Last Judgement (after the 2nd coming of Christ to earth, in glory). If you were put into Heaven or Purgatory at the particular judgement, you dont have anything to fear at the Last Judgement, imo. (it won’t change). After this, everyone (regardless of where they go) will receive a glorified body. It will be the same body they had on earth, but: immortal, glorified, without any diseases etc, - and if a person died old, I personally don’t think their body will be like at the time of death, because getting old is the result of the fall… everything will be redeemed and made new. But this isn’t reincarnation because it’s still you, in your body. You’ll remember everything that happened prior to that point.

God bless
 
AndrewA said:
Many people I know believe we look the same age as Jesus when he died. (35 I think, but I’m not sure right now 😊)
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Scripture does not tell us HIS age at death. The common guess is 33 years, based on the Gospels say he was “about 30” when HIS public life began, and that public life lasted approximately 3 years.

However, HE was born in 6BC (the first Christian calendar had a six-years’ error) and since “about 30” could be as old as 34, and since historians associate HIS death with the year 33, HE may have been as old as 38 when HE died (subtracting out the nonexistent year 0.)

ICXC NIKA.
 
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