Dear Catholic Exchange:
Someone on this BBC TV Show, “Heaven and Earth” said we were Spirits having a human experience. This means that when we die we go back to being Spirits. I thought when I died I would recognize my parents in exactly the same way in Heaven as I did when they were living here on Earth. I thought the only difference would be that we would not have suffering like illness and poverty.
Peter Tulips
S.W.Glasgow,Scotland
Dear Peter:
Here is the teaching of the Catholic Church:
“I believe in the Resurrection of the Body”.
The teaching of the Church is that the body will be raised in a glorified state on the Last Day and that a new heaven and a new earth will be wrought by God. The notion that we are “ghosts in a machine”, spirits who happen to reside for a time in a body like gas in a balloon, is gnostic, not Christian. For Christians, the body is a vital part of what it is to be human. The spirit can indeed survive without the body (just as we can indeed, survive without our legs). But a fully human existence requires the body. So we shall be given one by the Risen Christ who is, himself, still dwelling in the body in which he rose.
Mark Shea
Senior Content Editor
Catholic Exchange
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Dear Catholic Exchange:
Hi. I'm writing you because of your article today. First of all, excuse me for my English, it's not my main language. Second, I write to tell you I agree with what you describe. In a certain way, it's more an American phenomena (I'm from Portugal, South of Europe, nominally a Catholic country) and a Protestant/Evangelical one. It was never a strong issue in my country. In fact, here people tend to forget altogether that there is an enemy (not too stupid, not too smart either, and we already know that God prevails), and even that there is a God.
My experience is quite uncommon in my country: I was raised a “rebel Catholic”, so to say (my parents taught me some doctrine and gave me the Bible to read, but at the same time taught me things not quite
Catholic). Then I started searching by myself, and created my own heresies, going astray. Then I decided I was no longer Christian; I chose pantheism, and then a mixture of pantheism/paganism. And finally I started flirting (thank God, just flirting superficially!) with the occult. Then I returned to Christianity through some Evangelical friends, and finally I returned to the Catholic Church last December, and it is home…
Well, one of the funny things that happen when I talk to my Evangelical friends about my conversion process is that I tell them I used to listen to satanic music. And they start talking about music that supposedly when played backwards has “occult messages” and things like that. And I answer, “No, I'm not that sophisticated. Before I converted, I listened to things explicit. Songs that had verses like “I worship thee, you are my shield and your message I shall reveal”, but unfortunately those verses were not referred to God. They referred explicitly to the enemy”. Funny thing is that they know a lot about music played backwards, and almost nothing about things clear and explicit.
So, you are right when you say there is the danger of losing sight of the obvious while searching for hidden dangers. And I wrote you just to say that, to my experience, I agree.
In Christ,
Tania
Portugal
P.S. Could you please pray for 3 persons: for the conversion of an atheist friend, for guidance of another friend (Catholic, who was going to study abroad and gave up in the first week), and for comfort to the family (all of them atheists) of a friend of mine which died last June, especially for the father of that friend, who is not able to cope. Thanks and God bless you!
Dear Tania:
Thanks for this word of encouragement. You are right. The devil is clever, but not *that* clever. Evil music you can understand is a much greater problem than some mythical “backward masking”.
Welcome Home!
Mark Shea
Senior Content Editor
Catholic Exchange
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