Bible Study Home Page | Meeting Times | Bible Study Digest | OLMC HomeBible Study Digest
Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Community Volume 15, No. 1 February 7, 1999 Question BoxExcept for the last question (praying for the dead), which was answered by Fr. Paul Bauer, all the following questions were answered by Deacon Bernie Yeatts. Q.
Concerning life
after death: A. The peoples of the ancient world had varying concepts of what happens to a person after death. The Egyptians believed that life was resumed at some time after death and thus they had elaborate rituals of embalming and gift-giving for the deceased. The various peoples of Mesopotamia shared a pessimistic view of death in that death was absolutely the end and the all the dead, regardless of good or evil works in life, were consigned to a common "abode of the dead." The Hebrews and their descendants, the Israelites had no belief in personal life after death. Their belief was close to that of the peoples of Mesopotamia except that the dark pessimism of Mesopotamian writing does not come through the Old Testament writings. Rather the concept of "living on" in one's descendants is very strong. The Israelites were a communal people and the individual was significant only in respect to the family, the tribe and the nation. It's a bit oversimplified but accurate to say that they believed that a person lived after death in memory and stories and in descendants. A few hundred years after their return to Palestine after their exile in Babylon, belief in a personal bodily resurrection began to emerge in theological speculation. (The descendants of the Israelites became l<nown as Jews during this period.) However, the Jewish community was divided in the belief in this matter. The only clearly specific reference in the Old Testament to this belief is in the book of the Prophet Daniel, at the beginning of chapter 12, especially verse 2: "Many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt." The Prophecy of Daniel is dated to the second century before Jesus Christ. The Qumran community, from whose ruins we get the Dead Sea Scrolls, had a belief in personal resurrection. Much of the non-Biblical writing of this community is involved with eschatological matters. (Eschatology is a theological word meaning "last things") The Pharisees of Jesus' time believed in personal resurrection but, as we know from the Gospels, the Saduccees did not (see Luke 20:27). There is no clear understanding of the origin of the belief in personal resurrection among the Jews. It may have developed from their closer associations with other peoples, especially the Greeks. However, Jewish theology never accepted the concept of body and soul which is at the heart of the philosophy of Plato and Aristotle and other Greek philosophers. These philosophical systems greatly influenced Christian theologians such as St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas. These philosophical systems, especially that of Plato, held that the soul was good and the body was evil or, at best, neutral. The soul would survive death, whereas the body would undergo corruption. For the Jews, a person consisted of a body infused with spirit. This is significance of the "second" creation story in Genesis. God takes the handful of earth (Hebrew word is adamah) and breathes (ruah) life into it. The result is adam, a play on the word for earth. To be human is to have a bit of God's breath (another word for translating ruah is "spirit") in a body. Death is the cessation of ruah. For the Israelites, the abode of the dead was called sheol. The Apostles Creed says that, after his Resurrection, Jesus Christ "descended into sheol." (Sometimes the English word "hell" is used to translate the Hebrew word sheol. ) The theology developed in early Christianity that Hebrew, Israelite and Jewish people who had died before Jesus Christ were in sheol and his purpose in going there was to release them to enter heaven. However, as with all eschatological theology, there is a mixture of Scriptural information and inference, doctrinal definition and theological speculation. Unfortunately, many ideas and theories were identified and taught as doctrines. One very real problem is with our human concepts of time and space. We need these human devices to give meaning to realities of life. But what significance do they have in dealing with eternity? For instance, we measure "days" in Purgatory as a convenient way to relate a purgation (or cleansing) to the severity of sinfulness. Limbo was a theological speculation in an attempt to resolve the dilemma of children and adults who died without benefit of Baptism. This was rooted in a misunderstanding of Baptism and, with a refinement in that understanding, the need for the idea of Limbo has gone away. Limbo was never a doctrinal teaching of Christianity. "Hell" is a term that, in Christian theology, has a much different meaning than sheol did in Hebrew, Israelite and Jewish theology. Hell means a state of being completely separate from God. It is the result of a fundamental or basic decision to sever the relationship with God and to live one's life in a way that is consistent with this decision. Back to the idea of Jesus' going to sheol to free those who had died before him? What about all those good people who were not Hebrews, Israelites and Jews? What about those who lived after Jesus who, having formed their consciences as best they could and having lived according to their consciences, died with never having professed faith in Jesus Christ because hey never heard of him? There is a foundational theological belief that the Word of God transcends time and space. This realization makes the mystery of the Incarnation even more profound, that is, that the eternal Word of God would "empty himself taking on the form of a slave, being born in human likeness" (Philippians 2:7). Therefore, there is a theological speculation that the redemptive act of Jesus' death and resurrection has eternal, infinite value that is not time dependent. In other words, constrained by our notions of time and space, we would say that Abraham, Jacob and Moses were redeemed by Jesus even though they lived and died long before he did. Reflect on the statement of Jesus which the Gospel writer Matthew handed on to us: "As for the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was said to you by God, "I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob'? He is God not of dead but of the living." (Matthew 22:32) And John tells of an encounter between Jesus and some of the Jews: "Your ancestor Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day; he saw it and was glad." Then the Jews said to him, "You are not yet fifty years old, and have you seen Abraham?" Jesus said to them, "Very truly, I tell you, before Abraham was, I am." (John 8:56-58) One of the problems we Christians have is looking at the Old Testament and the Hebrew, Israelite and Jewish peoples with "Christian" eyes and judging and evaluating them based Christian values. This is not to say that the Old Testament scriptures have no validity or have nothing to say to us. We simply have to always be aware when we are reading Christian thought into these scriptures. In the area of eschatological matters, this leads us to the realization of how profound the life, death and resurrection of Jesus influenced humanity's understanding of these things. Q. What is the morality of mental reservation? A. By way of background, let me state briefly the three bases for making moral decisions: (1) law (divine law, natural law, church law or civil law), (2) the end result or consequences of an act, (3) the impact on the people or relationships (or both) at stake. Based on life experiences, formal and informal training, sex, maturity and many other factors, each person will make moral decisions by referring to one or more of these three bases. Many times consideration of all three bases is in order. Most legal codes inform us that we must tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. If we hold back some truth, we are making a mental reservation. Are there situations when making a mental reservation, telling a partial truth or even telling an outright lie are permitted or even demanded? If one bases moral decisions on the basis of law, the answer will probably be "No." However, basing decisions on consequences or the impact on persons and/or relationships may yield a different answer. Here are two similar examples. It is 1998 in Rancho Peñasquitos. There is a knock at your door. You open the door and one of your son's friends is there asking if he is home. This friend's mother recently snubbed you, so you say, "No, he isn't here." You are making a mental reservation: "No, he isn't here to you." Are you justified in making this mental reservation? Most people would readily agree that you are not, although we don't have enough information to make a completely definitive judgment. It is 1940 in Germany. There is a knock at the door. You open the door and some Nazi SS Troops are there asking if any Jews live here. You are hiding a Jewish family in your attic, but you say, "No, there aren't." You are making a mental reservation: "No, they're not here to you" or "No, in point of fact they don't live here, they are just staying here." Are you justified in making this mental reservation? Most people would readily agree that you are. The difference between the two situations can be judged either by the consequences or by the relationships or both. In fact, in the second situation, making the mental reservation and, therefore, telling a lie are demanded because, proportionally speaking, preserving the life of the family is more important than observing the moral law against lying. One of the significant moral considerations in society these days is the failure of protecting the good name of another. We all have the moral obligation not to divulge information needlessly when the divulging will hurt the reputation of another. On some occasions, making the moral decision is very difficult. Proportionalism (the weighing of one good against another) must come into play and the consideration of the need for another to know, the reputation of a third party and the demand for the truth must be carefully weighed. A good moral decision may be to withhold part or all of the truth. Q. Is suffering caused by sin? A. There is an old adage that "God forgives, but Mother Nature does not forget." On one level, then, it may be true that sinful actions result in suffering. For example, the sin of unbridled seeking of wealth with a wanton disregard for environmental impact is certainly forgivable by God. However, cancers or other illnesses can result in the present or future generations as a result of this sin. Another level of consideration is the remorse that remains after a sinful action. A person may harm the good name of another by telling a lie in order to get even for a real or imagined hurt. The injured person's life may never be the same and the person who told the lie may suffer spiritually, mentally and even physically from a sense of guilt. Yet another level at which this question needs to be addressed is whether God punishes sin by causing suffering. This is a very common notion which is betrayed by the remarks heard when the news of an illness or death is communicated. "He was such a good person; he didn't deserve such suffering." "I wonder what she did to merit such a curse." In Hebrew theology, as seen in the ancient texts of the Old Testament, the notion that God habitually intervenes in the course of nature and directly causes suffering on the perpetrator of a sin and on subsequent generations was quite common. In the first presentation of the Decalogue, the first commandment against making idols states, "You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I the LORD your God am a jealous God, punishing children for the iniquity of parents, to the third and the fourth generation of those who reject me.... " (Ex 20:5 ) The notion is so all pervasive that an ancient Hebrew prophet or sage would readily agree that God gets even for sin. The Gospel writers present Jesus as not being too clear on this subject. On one hand, John recalled Jesus' very clear answer when his disciples asked him, ""Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind? Jesus answered, "Neither this man nor his parents sinned; he was born blind so that God's works might be revealed in him."' (Jn 9:2-3) However, a few chapters before that, after having cured the crippled man who could not make it in time to the healing pool, when Jesus met him later "he said to him, "See, you have been made well! Do not sin any more, so that nothing worse happens to you. "" (Jn 5:14 ) Perhaps the most definitive statement of Jesus on the subject is found in Luke's Gospel. "At that very time there were some present who told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. He asked them, "Do you think that because these Galileans suffered in this way they were worse sinners than all other Galileans? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish as they did. Or those eighteen who were killed when the tower of Siloam fell on them -- do you think that they were worse offenders than all the other Galileans living in Jerusalem? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will a]l perish just as they did." (Lk 13:1-5) If you read this pericope out of context, you could conclude that Jesus was giving a double message since he said twice, "unless you repent, you will all perish as they did." However, the context tells us that Jesus is speaking of preparedness, that is, repent and be prepared to die at any time. Theological development over the centuries, together with a deeper contextual understanding of the Bible, has led us to not attribute suffering to punishment by God. Theologians and Scripture Scholars have come to realize that much of this understanding was derived from attributing human characteristics to God. That practice led to the idea that God could be "hurt" and "offended" by sin, that God shared our human notion of justice and fair play and, therefore, God had to get even with people for sinning. We now realize that Jesus revealed the essential characteristic of God as being unconditional love. Jewish scholars have wrestled with this problem as much as, if not more than, Christian scholars, since divine retribution had been so closely associated with Jewish theology over the centuries. Q. Why do we pray for the dead and for the souls of the faithful departed? Why do they need prayers if they are already with God? We pray for the dead because we wish them to be with God eternally. We want them to be in heaven. This leads to the second question, "Why do we pray for the dead if they are already with God"? This is a very good question and it involves a common misunderstanding. Many people believe that when we die, we go straight to God, which is to say that we go straight to heaven. This is not necessarily true. Unfortunately, at funerals we priests and other preachers often speak of the deceased as if they were saints. We color their lives to show the best we know of them. I believe we do this because we know that the family is grieving, and in reality the funeral preaching is for the living. We need the hope, we wish to know that our loved one is with God. We don't want to see them suffer. But of course, only saying the good things about the dead in order to spare the living is misleading. The truth is that most people do not go straight to heaven. The ones who do are those who die in God's grace and friendship and are perfectly purified so that they live forever with Christ. They are like God. This is the point that needs to be made. Very few of us are perfectly purified of our sins at the time of death. We need to be purified still, and thus the church believes that we become purified in purgatory. It is a place where all who die in God's grace and friendship go, because they are still imperfectly purified. They are indeed assured of eternal salvation, but after death they undergo purification so as to achieve the holiness necessary to enter the joy of heaven in God's time. How long does it take? We do not know, but we know we can affect it by prayer. Before death, we pray for those in purgatory to go to heaven, and we pray for ourselves to have a timely death? so as to be prepared as much as we can on this side of heaven. The most powerful of all these prayers to relieve us and others from suffering is the most Holy Eucharist. From the beginning, the church has honored the memory of the dead and offered prayers for them -- above all the Eucharistic sacrifice, so that after their purification they may attain the beatific vision of God. We also pray to free the dead through almsgiving, indulgences, and works of penance undertaken in their behalf. Thus, at the time of death, we do not l<now that the deceased are with God, but we can only hope so. We can guess by the way they lived holy lives, but we continue to pray for them, and this prayer can affect them and aid them. In Scripture
(2 Maccabees 12:43-46) atonement was made for the dead, that they might
be delivered from sin. We also believe that even on earth we are already members of the Communion of Saints and that those who have died in the peace of Christ continue to pray for us. In addition to praying for our dead relatives and friends, we can pray to them for help with our problems and life experiences. Let us then pray for ourselves and use all the blessings the church gives to be ready for the hour of death and pray for those who have already died.
Last Updated on 5/29/03 |