A question for Catholics about Judaism (part 2)...?

Question

In what way does the afterlife of a Jew differ from the afterlife of a Christian?

Answer 1

Do you mean "Roman" catholics?

The Catechism affirms the granting of salvation to all individuals of good faith, but it states that the Church recognizes that all human beings can be saved if they strive to do God's will and act ethically. How do the Jews fit into all this? The Catechism holds the following: "To the Jews 'belong the sonship, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises; to them belong the patriarchs, and of their race according to the flesh, is the Christ,' 'for the gifts and the call of God are irrevocable.'"

The Jews are thus conceived as being there with the Church up until the end, when the full mystery of revelation and salvation is fulfilled. The Jews are included with the Church in a divine plan that will find its fulfillment at the end of days (when, it is expected, Christ will return). The Jews' expectation of a Messiah that, according to the Church, the Jews erroneously believe not to be the Christ, is to be accepted as part of the divine plan. Until then, it must be understood that biblical claims as to the "chosen people," embodied in scripture and especially in Paul's epistle to the Romans, stand firm. The Jews are the people of God.


I guess we'll just all have to show up and see!

Answer 2

Tebone gives the complete answer about Peter. Paul was one of the Apostles, an especially gifted teacher sent out by the leaders of the Church to spread the gospel. Here's the evidence that Paul was under Peter's authority: When the Judaizing Christians insisted that converts from paganism to Christianity should be subjected to the Law of Moses, Paul and Barnabas were sent from Antioch to Jerusalem, to consult "the apostles and presbyters at Jerusalem about this question" (Acts 15:2); and, after a long debate, Peter got up and said to them: "Brethren, you know that in early days God made choice among us, that through my mouth the Gentiles should hear the word of the Gospel and believe. And God who knows the heart, bore witness by giving them the Holy Spirit just as He did to us.... Why then do you now try to test God by putting on the neck of the disciples a yoke which neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear? But we believe that we are saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, just as they are" (Acts 15:7-11). Then it was that "the whole meeting quieted down" (Acts 15:12). Cheers, Bruce

Answer 3

Even if Dante (a Catholic) described Paradiso as having different spheres, Catholics talk of only one heavenly existence for all people and not one for some people and another for different people.

We simply do not know exactly what heaven or hell will be like so we keep the doctrines rather vague and trust in the Lord.

+ Heaven +

Heaven is eternal life with God; communion of life and love with the Trinity and all the blessed.

Heaven is the state of supreme and definitive happiness, the goal of the deepest longings of humanity.

+ Hell +

Hell is the state of complete and final self-exclusion from communion with God and the blessed, reserved for those who refuse by their own free choice to believe and be converted from sin, even to the end of their lives

No one really knows what hell is like. It has been described by people who have not been there as everything from flames to a frozen lake (Dante).

For more information, see the Catechism of the Catholic Church, section 1023 and following: http://www.nccbuscc.org/catechism/text/pt1sect2chpt3art12.htm#1023

With love in Christ.