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Articles

Heavenly Thoughts

John Donnelly explores a whole tangle of difficulties with the concept of heaven.

Catholic funeral services are somber occasions. Not as sobering as the pre-Vatican II rituals, where the priests wore darkish purple or black vestments, and the strains of the ‘Dies Irae’ reminded us that we are indeed dust and to that we shall return unless the God of theism makes us whole again by the violation miracle of resurrection.

Today the vestments are of a different hue, and the service is often a celebration of life. But the religious message, despite what James Cameron has called the aesthetic ‘prettification of death’, remains the same. Death is terrible, and our only hope for our departed loved ones’ survival lies not in our fond but somewhat tenuous memories, but in God resuscitating us to be with Him in His kingdom.

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