So what Where Do we Go After We die?

Cardinal Newman once said one could not be a good Catholic if there was not at least one issue or belief that one just has to trust the authority of the Church on. That is one could not reason everything out.

I thought of this when I saw a post a Baptist Pastor from Baton Rouge did on what happens to us after we die. See Live the Trinity post Those who “sleep” (or) Moebius syllogism?

I actually have to deal with this topic perhaps more than some because I have a Seventh Day Adventist influence in my extended family. They believe in Soul Sleep and that doctrine becomes full front and center when we sadly to have to attend some of our family members Adventist funerals . They (the departed) being AT REST is made quite clear.

Adventist preachers if they don't have a Catholic crowd that must listen to them will take the poor misguided Baptists as a a nice runner up prize. So needless to say we all get educated on Adventist life after death issues

This always causes quite a bit of controversy in my mostly Baptist family that does not take kindly to the thought that their beloved family member is not in Heaven right at this moment.

For the record I believe in the Catholic Doctrine of the what happens to us after we die. Still that does not mean some things trouble me. This is when FAITH has to come into the equation ,Christ is LOGOS and thus reason is a crucial part of the Christian faith. However I know I can't reason everything out. Thus the wisdom of Newman.

There are two parts of the New Testament that always leave me unsatisfied .

So when the Jews who were with her in the house comforting her saw Mary get up quickly and go out, they followed her, presuming that she was going to the tomb to weep there.

When Mary came to where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and said to him, "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died."

When Jesus saw her weeping and the Jews who had come with her weeping, he became perturbed 7 and deeply troubled,

and said, "Where have you laid him?" They said to him, "Sir, come and see."

And Jesus wept.
So the Jews said, "See how he loved him."

But some of them said, "Could not the one who opened the eyes of the blind man have done something so that this man would not have died?"
So Jesus, perturbed again, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone lay across it.

Jesus said, "Take away the stone." Martha, the dead man's sister, said to him, "Lord, by now there will be a stench; he has been dead for four days."

Jesus said to her, "Did I not tell you that if you believe you will see the glory of God?"

So they took away the stone. And Jesus raised his eyes and said, "Father, 8 I thank you for hearing me.

I know that you always hear me; but because of the crowd here I have said this, that they may believe that you sent me."

And when he had said this, he cried out in a loud voice, 9 "Lazarus, come out!"
The dead man came out, tied hand and foot with burial bands, and his face was wrapped in a cloth. So Jesus said to them, "Untie him and let him go."

The Church in her Liturgy always points out this a wonderful event. Sort of a foretaste of the Resurrection we shall all have one day. This scripture never leaves me full of joy. Mostly because at Mass I want to stand up and go WAIT where the heck was he was at those four days! How does this jive with our Catholic view of the after life. For instance according to to Catholic belief he should have been in Hades. The same Hades that Christ went too when he died. See ancient homily for Holy Saturday in which we read in the Office of Readings to this day.

So was he talking to Adam and Eve and then poof he was back on Earth? Did God sort of see that this miracle would need to take place and thus Lazarus was sort of like Warren Beatty in the movie Heaven Can Wait? Sort of detained in Heaven's waiting room before he could board the plane. Or was he just as the Adventist believe asleep in the grave. Scripture and Revelation does not go into all this for reasons that is up to the Holy Spirit. These question I have , and the devil using them to give doubt in my mind, are usually glossed over in the Priest's Homily.

This discomfort of mine comes up again around Easter and the readings we hear.

The Scriptures tells us after Jesus died on the Cross

The tombs broke open and the bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life. They came out of the tombs, and after Jesus' resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many people.

What? Who are these people. Where were they at? We know they are holy so guess they are sort of Saints. Are they happy they are are back or is being back on Earth sort of depressing even as to hades. I mean these Saints were about to have Heaven unlocked to them. Could they sin again and lose it? Where were they for all these years. Again I understand the purpose of this. God is using this to show us our ultimate end. Still I do wonder about these people that came back from the dead. Did they just live normal lives and die again or after a while did they ascend or I guess in proper Catholic language were they "assumed" too like the Virgin Mary..

Scripture is again silent but the devil uses this against me and that whole doubt card.

Last but not least I have a confession. I believe in Ghosts. Yes Ghosts. I have never seen a ghost. But I know too many sane Christian people that have seen them and even lived with them.

I know a Christian family that have a Ghost in their home. "He" as they said is fine but a tad "Mischievous". When he gets a little out of control they tell him to "calm down".

It was quite amazing how this sane family took this Spirit's presence with ease. I think I would become unglued. I am one those people that like their alone time. You know no one is around and you do things in private that would look bizarre to the outside world. Such as talking to yourself and laughing at your own jokes. How can you have "alone time" when you have it roaming around. How do Ghosts fit in the whole scheme of things. I don't think Ghosts are living the average Purgatory. If that was the case we would be running and bumping into billions of Ghost every day


This Respected Christian and Catholic Apologist believes in Ghosts and has tried to show how they fit in the whole scheme of things.

But I do not believe in soul sleep. First I think evidence shows the Jews never thought such a thing existed. Second as Live the Trinity points out there is the Transfiguration. Also the scriptures on the whole argue against the notion. Further as a Catholic we believe in the Saints and I know with all my heart they exist.

God has given us a glimpse of how this works and uses the Church to help explain. But still even the Church cannot give us all the details

In a sense when talking about these issues I also understand most of us are intellectual idiots compared to some our great grandparent's generation. It is quite striking even in the rural south if you were able to get a college education it was a very liberal arts education. They had more of a base in such it things as Philosophy that hardly no college graduates have today.Just look at some of the letters of Civil War Solders even. Their intellectual knowledge puts most of us to shame.

When Live the Trinity talks about Space and time it most us in this day and age are not able to comprehend that. Thus that is why years ago when John Paul the II talked on this subject many went berserk!! They went berserk because sadly we have regressed in understanding the BASIC terminology as to the discussion .
We don't have the a working vocabulary to deal with this meta physics that our grandparents had just generations ago

Anyway those are my thoughts