Why We Can’t Change Our Soul After Death

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Why We Can’t Change Our Soul, our Will, After Death? Why does our choice become irrevocable after death?
 
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Because God made it that way. Our choices end at death so we need to make them here.
 
Here’s my understanding of St. Thomas Aquinas’ explanation:

Because the intellect apart from its body is just its knowledge and will. It doesn’t have the bodily appetites pulling it in different directions, it no longer engages in discursive thinking. It doesn’t have passible, changing emotional states. It has it’s knowledge, makes an intelligible act based on its knowledge, which leads to an intelligible motion of the will towards its direction. The intellect separated from the body is a handicapped thing all on it’s own. It’s not our full conscious self as we understand that today.

As for after the resurrection, the glorified body of the saved is tailored to fit the way the will set. This isn’t know by philosophy alone, but a theological judgement made from Christian doctrine and philosophy. Likewise, the bodies of the reprobate are not given the graces that are necessary to turn away from sin and so continue according to their own devices in sin.

As for the souls in Heaven that intercede on our behalf, before I noted that the soul was a handicapped thing on its own. Empowered by God they know our prayers and intercede on our behalf. Perhaps it’s as simple as the fact that their will is united to any properly disposed prayer that comes their way. Or maybe God enables them to do more.
 
MaximilianK said:
Why We Can’t Change Our Soul, our Will, After Death? Why does our choice become irrevocable after death?
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Catechism
1021 Death puts an end to human life as the time open to either accepting or rejecting the divine grace manifested in Christ.592 The New Testament speaks of judgment primarily in its aspect of the final encounter with Christ in his second coming, but also repeatedly affirms that each will be rewarded immediately after death in accordance with his works and faith. The parable of the poor man Lazarus and the words of Christ on the cross to the good thief, as well as other New Testament texts speak of a final destiny of the soul–a destiny which can be different for some and for others.593

592 Cf. 2 Tim 1:9-10.
593 Cf. Lk 16:22; 23:43; Mt 16:26; 2 Cor 5:8; Phil 1:23; Heb 9:27; 12:23.
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In those destined for heaven, after death, that have temporal punishment remaining because not enough penance was done while in their body, there remains attachment to sin, however they have a state of sanctifying grace in their souls. Those confirmed charity with free will before the moment of death.

St. John of the Cross wrote about attachment to sin:
The soul that is attached to anything however much good there may be in it will not arrive at the liberty of divine union. For whether it be a strong wire rope or a slender and delicate thread that holds the bird, it matters not, if it really holds it fast; for until the cord be broken the bird cannot fly.
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Because we no longer possess our bodies to either act on, or refrain from acting on, our irascible & appetitive faculties.
 
But isn’t it still true that the will of man remains free? Is it the position of Islam that man’s free will is taken away after death or is the Muslim position similar to the Christian’s?
 
I don’t think that we can change our souls at all. What is changing is our bodies’ natures.
 
As as I’m aware, there is nothing explicit in revelation or tradition regarding free will after death. From a philosophical point of view, it seems pointless.
 
Changes of mind require time, and we experience time only via our bodies.

ICXC NIKA.
 
The word “eternally” means WITHOUT time, so the experience would be an infinite present moment.
 
Via our bodies, or via our mind? Perception is via the mind.
 
Eternally doesn’t mean without time. It means for all time – the exact opposite.
 
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Technically, you are correct; however, for all time, without beginning or end, means that time does not exist in such a state; the state or, if we are talking about G-d, the Being, is outside of time, extra-temporal.
 
Even if you want to invoke special pleading for God in this scenario, the people in Hell exist in time otherwise they wouldn’t experience the pain and torture of Hell. If they exist in time and experience pain they can also experience regret. If they experience regret then they should be allowed forgiveness if it’s sincere.

The common idea that people in Hell either don’t want forgiveness or can’t experience that is just a way to sell people on the monstrous idea that Hell is somehow just.
 
I’m not a proponent of everlasting hell that includes suffering and torture. But the Christian idea is based on the belief that those in hell do NOT exhibit regret; rather, they persist in their will to reject G-d. I also think that hell, according to Christian belief, is an eternal present moment in which time no longer exists, just as heaven is an eternal state of the present.
 
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meltzerboy2 said:
I’m not a proponent of everlasting hell that includes suffering and torture. But the Christian idea is based on the belief that those in hell do NOT exhibit regret; rather, they persist in their will to reject G-d. I also think that hell, according to Christian belief, is an eternal present moment in which time no longer exists, just as heaven is an eternal state of the present.
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It’s the Christian idea you mentioned that not a single person ever exhibits regret that I have the most trouble accepting. We know stories of hardened criminals spending decades in jail who repent of their deeds well after the fact. People are different, and Christians who make a blanket statement about sinners post-death to defend Hell are willfully blind to that fact.
 
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Mostly the body.

Our mind doesn’t really perceive time directly, for example, memory works across time, while there is no clear sense of time in dreaming. But time is inherent to living human life as a body. Our own breathing is a clock.

PS, perception may occur in the mind, but it begins at the eyes, nose, ears, or skin of your body.

ICXC NIKA.
 
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