I would like to share with you here my response to a question posed to me concerning my beliefs as to what happens to "sinful" people in the "afterlife". The question stemmed from a reflection on the true meaning of the term "sin" and a passage from scripture that talks about death as being the wage of sin.
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Dear Friend,
Since you asked, I will share with you my personal thoughts and sincere beliefs concerning the "death" of the soul. When a soul makes a free will (willful) choice to break away from God, it is (for all intents and purposes) ultimately a choice to be God. Usually, a choice would subsequently be manifested in the form of an act by the body as controlled by the mind (the mind being influenced by the soul).
Please allow me to clarify further that not all acts committed by the body originate from the soul (a large chunk of our actions are sparked by human programming - whether it is natural programming or social programming). It is oftentimes difficult for our mind to discern which acts originate from the soul and which ones originate from human programming. Nevertheless, I would not allow this element of uncertainty to distract me from my resolve to simply live my life striving to do as much acts of love as I can manage to do in my lifetime because acts of true love are manifestations of a soul's choice to be in union with God (for God is Love and love is God).
Whenever I address any question posed to me, I first try to establish commonality in the meaning of terms used - in this case "afterlife". I will presume that we are both taking this word to mean the eternal life after the SCC (Second Coming of Christ). If that is the case, then here is the answer - the SCC (or the end times) is the final moment when a "showing of hands" occurs (as in the showing of hands in a poker game). All acts committed within all lifetimes of a soul will reveal whether a soul chose to be in union with God or if it chose to break away from God.
All souls that choose to be in union with God will live in union with God for all eternity. Now what about those souls that choose to break from God? What happens to them at the end times? Well, there are well-known passages in scripture that allude to an eternal state of existence in "fire" (note that the term "fire" as used here is not the same as fire as we know it in this world - it is a spiritual fire). There are also passages that allude to these souls being "destroyed".
Well, what clues can we use to answer this question? Let's look at the example of the fallen archangel Lucifer who was supposedly the most beautiful of all angels and of the highest form. So high in form was Lucifer that he became filled with so much PRIDE, and shortly thereafter, exalted himself to being equal to God. In so doing, he broke his union with God and immediately after he did so, his beauty withered away and he turned into the hideous and imperfect being that most refer to as Satan. In like fashion, all the legions angels entrusted by God to this archangel and who followed Lucifer (in breaking away from God) ended up with the same fate.
Humankind is in this imperfect and fallen state as well because of the choice of Adam and Eve to break from God and be like God. Fortunately for mankind, God sent Jesus to be the new Adam and make a redeeming choice to reunite ALL mankind (regardless of whether they know of Jesus or not) with God through the sacrificial surrender of Jesus' free will to God's will.
Long story short, I do not know what exactly happens in the afterlife to those souls that chose to break from God. It is really not my business to know (the truth concerning this) and it is of no relevance to me since my eternal choice is to always be in union with God and to let my life reflect this choice by always striving to do acts of true love as much as i can. Let me end by reflecting on Mother Teresa's insight (that she shared with us and as exemplified by her life) that we all cannot do great things, but we all can do little things with great love.
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Showing posts with label Response to a Comment. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Response to a Comment. Show all posts
Thursday, September 3, 2009
Friday, July 31, 2009
The Intention of God
A friend posed this question to me after reading the essay titled "Where Non-Aborting Contraceptives Make Sense" (I rearranged his actual words) - "Isn't the rhythm method (a Catholic approved birth control method) essentially a way of preventing conception and an affront to the sovereignty of God?"
This is a very important question to address if we are to be complete in our reflection on the act and goal of preventing pregnancy (birth control) regardless of the method or device employed to achieve this desired endpoint.
This was my response - "I myself asked the same question you are asking at some point in my life. If I were to give the Pope and the College of Cardinals the benefit of the doubt, I would say that they were acquiescing to the 'hardness of the heart' of the flock concerning birth control. We can see another example of this type of acquiescing in the example cited by Jesus when He was questioned by Pharisees as to why divorce was allowed in the Law under Moses and He replied 'Because of your hardness of heart, Moses permitted you to divorce your wives; but from the beginning it has not been this way...' (Matthew 19:8).
I believe that from the beginning, it was God's design and intention for creation to take part in the act of creation. However, let us keep in mind that although our act (not necessarily a choice made by the soul) of having sexual intercourse is the first step in the complex process of creating another human body, it is a but a small initial step and not the deciding factor. It is still God who makes the rest of the remaining elements of the entire process take place or not. By the remaining elements, we are talking about the fertilization of the egg by one single sperm, the subsequent initial division of this fertilized egg into two cells and the continuing division of cells into the millions of cells that build a viable human being. It is also God who binds a soul with the fertilized egg at the very moment of conception thereby creating a body-soul entity.
With this picture of the process in mind, we can see that it is all God's process beginning with the moment just after the sex act itself. Any choice by the mind (due to human programming) or, worse, a willful choice by the soul (reflecting a desire to be God) to avoid pregnancy through the use of some device or method is, plain and simple, an act that is not in alignment with the "intentions" of God.
This is the unavoidable conclusion that any person (who looks at this truthfully from this perspective) would reasonably arrive at. I am very much culpable of this transgression. How do I find my peace despite my "choosing" acts that are not in alignment with the intentions of God? I do so by focusing on the incremental successes I have managed to achieve in my continuous striving to overcome my human nature in this regard (and in all other regards). Additionally, I find my peace through my earnest efforts in applying the following principle in my daily living - in all activities and matters of choice, strive to do all things with great love (a teaching of Mother Teresa).
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This is a very important question to address if we are to be complete in our reflection on the act and goal of preventing pregnancy (birth control) regardless of the method or device employed to achieve this desired endpoint.
This was my response - "I myself asked the same question you are asking at some point in my life. If I were to give the Pope and the College of Cardinals the benefit of the doubt, I would say that they were acquiescing to the 'hardness of the heart' of the flock concerning birth control. We can see another example of this type of acquiescing in the example cited by Jesus when He was questioned by Pharisees as to why divorce was allowed in the Law under Moses and He replied 'Because of your hardness of heart, Moses permitted you to divorce your wives; but from the beginning it has not been this way...' (Matthew 19:8).
I believe that from the beginning, it was God's design and intention for creation to take part in the act of creation. However, let us keep in mind that although our act (not necessarily a choice made by the soul) of having sexual intercourse is the first step in the complex process of creating another human body, it is a but a small initial step and not the deciding factor. It is still God who makes the rest of the remaining elements of the entire process take place or not. By the remaining elements, we are talking about the fertilization of the egg by one single sperm, the subsequent initial division of this fertilized egg into two cells and the continuing division of cells into the millions of cells that build a viable human being. It is also God who binds a soul with the fertilized egg at the very moment of conception thereby creating a body-soul entity.
With this picture of the process in mind, we can see that it is all God's process beginning with the moment just after the sex act itself. Any choice by the mind (due to human programming) or, worse, a willful choice by the soul (reflecting a desire to be God) to avoid pregnancy through the use of some device or method is, plain and simple, an act that is not in alignment with the "intentions" of God.
This is the unavoidable conclusion that any person (who looks at this truthfully from this perspective) would reasonably arrive at. I am very much culpable of this transgression. How do I find my peace despite my "choosing" acts that are not in alignment with the intentions of God? I do so by focusing on the incremental successes I have managed to achieve in my continuous striving to overcome my human nature in this regard (and in all other regards). Additionally, I find my peace through my earnest efforts in applying the following principle in my daily living - in all activities and matters of choice, strive to do all things with great love (a teaching of Mother Teresa).
~~~~~
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