Some of the simplest questions can lead to the most profound theological investigations. Below are a few of them that I have received over the last few months.
Dear Fr. Leo,
Will I see my dog in heaven? – M
Dear M.,
Roy Rogers once famously quipped, “If dogs don’t go to heaven, when I die, I want to go where they went!” Not a bad thought, but to help answer this question, I like to invoke the theological principle: “Lex orandi, lex credendi.” Literally, “the law of praying is the law of believing,” or more colloquially, “As the Church prays, so she believes.” To this end, I would direct your attention to the Eucharistic Prayer IV. It’s one of my favorites, but it doesn’t get a lot of use, unfortunately. The beauty of the fourth Eucharistic Prayer is its sweeping catechesis of salvation history, from the first moments of creation, through the people of Israel, to the coming of the Christ, to His passion, death and resurrection, to the foundation of the Church at Pentecost, all the way up to the final judgment at the end of the age when as we read in the Book of Revelation, there will be “a new heaven and a new earth.” (Rev. 21:1) In Latin, the Eucharistic Prayer IV refers to our entry into the Kingdom of Heaven with Mary and all the saints, “There, with the whole of creation, (ubi cum univérsa creatúra) freed from the corruption of sin and death, may we glorify you…” I’m not sure about you, but for me, the whole of creation includes all of creation, not just some of it. This would necessarily include dogs and all other creatures.
There is also an argument to made from the famous maxim of St. Thomas Aquinas: “That which is received, is received according to the mode of the one who receives it. (Quidquid recipitur ad modum recipientis recipitur.) Thomas presupposes a hierarchy of being with the Holy Trinity at the top, then created beings such as the Blessed Mother, the angelic beings, human beings, animals, plants, rocks, and so forth. Since the Kingdom of Heaven is primarily about relationships, namely communion, then any given creature’s participation in that Kingdom could be contingent on its ability to relate to other beings. The Trinity, of course, is relationship itself. Then follows the rest of us according to our nature in the order I just described. We human beings relate to God and to one another according to our nature. Likewise, anyone who has spent any time with dogs knows that they are too are social beings, albeit they relate to others according to their canine nature. So, you could make a case for dogs in heaven based on their ability to enter into relationship according to their nature. The presence of cats in heaven, based on this same criteria, is still a matter of theological speculation.
Dear Fr. Leo,
How many angels can dance on the head of a pin? – L
Dear L:
That depends. Do you mean with the four-piece jazz ensemble or with the full Big Band orchestra?
This was actually a question asked by the Scholastics in the Middle Ages, primarily as a rhetorical exercise, but it does lead to some fun things. The question as stated is a bit cumbersome because it fails to consider the nature of angelic beings. Unlike human beings, who have a physical body and a spiritual soul, angels are purely spiritual beings. They don’t have a physical body. As such, they don’t take up any physical space. So, the answer to the question could just as easily be “All of them.” or “None of them.”
But let’s take things one step further. If angels don’t have a physical body, but humans do, what are the implications for us in God’s plan of salvation? There is an attractive myth out there in popular literature that when we humans die, if we have lived a good life, we become angels. That’s a nice thought, but that’s not how it works.
As human beings, we have a body and a soul. In God’s plan of salvation, we don’t metamorphose into something that we are not. Rather, we become fully what God has created us to be, body and soul. We become perfectly human.
What’s the process by which this takes place? The resurrection of body at the end of the age. We know this because of the resurrection of Christ. Remember, Christ was fully human as well as fully divine. He didn’t simply shed his human nature and its physical body when his mission of salvation on earth was done. Rather, God raised up his mortal body. The Risen Christ is humanity perfected. That is what awaits us if we remain in communion with him. As St. Augustine said, “The joy of God, is the human person fully alive.” For us humans, that means “the resurrection of the body and the life of the world to come.”
Loved your post!
You have such a loving way of bringing Gods word to us in your blog.