Questions for Catholics? How can you answer this?

Question

my cathecism class have many questions about life after death. they ask:

how will we look?
will our family be there?
what is purgatory?
how do we get out of purgatory?
do we get our same body back?
do we grow?
what if we were in a horrible accident before we died, what will our body look like then?

I dont know how to answer them and tomorrows Gospel talks about heaven, Im sure this will come up.

Answer 1

Well, my answer is that our bodies will be almost the same as we are now, with a few improvemements...We will be perfected, without flaws in apperance........
Our families will only be there if they were Born Again believers in Jesus Christ !! If they were not born again, they will not be there, very plain and simple......
Revelation 21: 4-6
21:4 And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away."
21:5 Then He who sat on the throne said, "Behold, I make all things new." And He said to me, "Write, for these words are true and faithful."
21:6 And He said to me, "It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. I will give of the fountain of the water of life freely to him who thirsts........

Now, for the purgatory issue- The best way to answer that is that there is NO SUCH PLACE !!! None what so ever..........
That would negate the great and horrible suffering of Jesus' death and resurrection.....When Jesus died, He said " It is
Finished"
John 19:30
So when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, "It is finished!" And bowing His head, He gave up His spirit.......

When Jesus said that, he meant the price is "paid in full".....
We can add nothing more, and we need to do nothing more...
To say that after we die, we go to a place called "purgatory"
to get our sins fully forgiven is like slapping Jesus in the face and saying that when He died on the Cross for us, that wasn't enough, I must add my part....When we die, we are either forgiven of ALL our sins, OR we are not !!! (Those that are born again, we ARE Forgiven) There is NO second chances
for salvation after you take your last breath here on Earth !!!
>>Hebrews 9:27 And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment,
Hebrews 9:28 So Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many. To those who eagerly wait for Him He will appear a second time, apart from sin, for salvation ............
.The whole concept of "purgatory" goes against all Jesus teaches in the Bible. We are saved by Grace through Faith...
From Ephesians 2:8-10
"For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God,
2:9 Not of works, lest anyone should boast.
2:10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.......
When you die, there is ONLY 2 choices available that we can go to.......Heaven OR Hell !!....You are either saved or you are not!!!!.....All of your life is the decision time.....If you are a "Born Again" Believer, you will go straight to Heven...........
If you are NOT a "Born Again" Believer, you will go straight to hell !!!...That is it, and if you go to hell, there is NOTHING AT ALL that can get you out !!!! No amount of prayers or money or candles or ANYTHING can get you "released" from Hell..
Jesus told a true story (not a parable, because He used real names) in Luke 16:19-31....The story of the Rich man and Lazarus.......
Luke 16:19 There was a certain rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and fared sumptuously every day.
16:20 "But there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, full of sores, who was laid at his gate,
16:21 "desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man's table. Moreover the dogs came and licked his sores.
16:22 "So it was that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels to Abraham's bosom. The rich man also died and was buried.
16:23 "And being in torments in Hades, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom.
16:24 "Then he cried and said, 'Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame.'
16:25 "But Abraham said, 'Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things; but now he is comforted and you are tormented.
16:26 'And besides all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed, so that those who want to pass from here to you cannot, nor can those from there pass to us.'
16:27 "Then he said, 'I beg you therefore, father, that you would send him to my father's house,
16:28 'for I have five brothers, that he may testify to them, lest they also come to this place of torment.'
16:29 "Abraham said to him, 'They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them.'
16:30 "And he said, 'No, father Abraham; but if one goes to them from the dead, they will repent.'
16:31 "But he said to him, 'If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rise from the dead.'" ((that was JESUS))

Answer 2

After death we will look perfect and feel perfect and be beautiful. We can choose to be any age that we like. Yes our family members who have already passed will be there to help us on the other side. Purgatory is where most of us will end up and it is a place to work on our souls and get closer to heaven. I happen to believe that if we want we have many more chances to return to earth in different bodies and work further on our souls here. Once you have done all the work in purgatory or on earth then you graduate into heaven. It helps to pray for the souls in purgatory to help them along. No we don't get our own bodies back - hopefully not! It is our soul that will shine through as we will be spirit. If you were in a horrible accident you will still look great in purgatory and heaven. Hey I sound like a total nut don't it!

Answer 3

I am not catholic but I went to a catholic church regularly for over five years so I know some of their beliefs. We will be neither male or female, Our loved ones who are not still in purgatory will be there, purgatory is the place you go to wait for judgement from God. That is why people have mass for the deceased catholic loved one, the living try to pay for the sins of their loved ones so they can go on to heaven, our bodies are changed,we are only spirits, you don't grow older , you are given a new body, you are a new body in Christ in heaven there is no sickness or death or disease so no one would ever know you were in a car accident you are made new, whole again. NOW I do not believe everything the catholics do. I do not believe in purgatory because the Bible says " to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord" that means when you die your spirit goes straight to God, not somewhere in-between (like purgatory) I don't believe you have to have mass for your deceased so they can earn their way to heaven, they are already there according to the bible. Like I said I am not catholic but they use the same scriptures other religions do so I don't see how they come up with some of their beliefs.

Answer 4

Let me see if I can help, I was once Catholic.
how will we look? The same, but rather transparent I suppose or not. Maybe with white clothing? Now I am imagining.
will our family be there? Maybe, children who die young go imidiatelly to Heaven, the rest to the Purgatory.
what is purgatory? Where the dead *souls* go to repent for their sins, that is where they wait to see if they shall be saved or condemned to the fires of Hell. I imagine they kneel & pray for their salvation.
how do we get out of purgatory? By Praying, especially those on Earth praying for the souls of the Purgatory, you know repenting.
do we get our same body back? I do not know about that.
do we grow? I don't think so...
what if we were in a horrible accident before we died, what will our body look like then? I don't know...

"If our family beleived in Jesus and followed the commandments"

May I add that is not truly so, as long as the person was good or repented they would be forgiven, and be saved. Even after you die, you still have a chance to be saved before your spirit moves on, for I heard your spirit stays elevated from your body for a couple of seconds or minutes, even then God gives us the chance for salvation.

Answer 5

We'll look "glorified" but nobody on earth knows quite what that means.

God willing, our families will be there!

Purgatory is the process by which you get cleaned up for heaven -- all your final attachment to sin will be removed by the grace of Christ and you will be perfectly purified.

Christ removes us from purgatory when we are purified. Saints on earth can pray for us to help us along through the process.

We are supposed to get glorified bodies, but nobody knows quite what that means.

No, we won't be growing any more, because we will be in an eternal state, which is outside linear time. This is a difficult concept to grasp because we are still stuck in past-present-future, but in heaven there is only NOW. That's why God is called the great "I AM."

Glorified bodies mean they will be better than our current standard of perfect, but nobody knows exactly what that will look like.

Answer 6

You will have no physical appearance as only the soul (pure spirit)enters into eternity.

Your family will either be in purgatory,heaven or hell.

Purgatory is a state of purgation,expiation basically a purification before the soul enters heaven no stain of sin shall enter.You merited heaven but the stains of venial sin are not accounted for before your life expired.

You cannot be released from purgatory on your own merits as your time for meriting is over it is left to the church militant, catholic faithful on earth to pray and do penance as an act of charity towards the deceased acting in your stead; is why we have a momento in the mass for the dead the priest and faithful pray on your behalf and when released you enter heaven and can return the favour in praying for us.

Charity is the only virtue practised in heaven.Because you give God your love, praise,adoration and also pray for others is the reason why charity towards neighbour is imperative for the christian life and sanctification.

You will once again be united with your former vessel (body however glorified) that once kept your soul on the day of general judgement in order to reward or punish the complete being(all components)for it was not only the soul that sinned or merited but the body as well for divine justice.

Whatever way you died the body will have no fault when united as it will be a glorified version much like our Lord's Transfiguration ?

God bless,

JMJ

Answer 7

http://www.scripturecatholic.com/purgatory.html
this will cover purgatory,you will need to fashion the answers to their age group.

try this website,you can e-mail this question and others for great answers
http://www.askmeaboutgod.org/

these questions are primarily theoligical, when you are not comfortable with certain questiions steer the class back to the main message, here being heaven-goodness and life with god. i think a catechism of the catholic church can help you with most of these questions,there are on line versions. try also the question and answers forum at ewtn.com try the archives or enroll and receive answers there. sorry i couldn't answer but i didn't want to give an answer to something i am unsure of,i have some idea but as you are teaching impressionable people about something so important i don't wanna hinder that in any way or confuse it in any way.

Answer 8

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We don't know.


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Hopefully.


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A place where souls must be cleansed before entering heaven.


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When the cleasing process is complete. Also, the prayers of others aid the cleansing process.


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Sort of. Eventually, our bodies will be both spritiual and physical - but in a glorified form that is beyond our understanding.


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If you mean Spritual growth, then yes.


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Our glorified bodies will be "perfect" in every sense of the word.

Answer 9

I think a lot of this isn't asking for you to come up with specific examples from Scripture. It's just to get you to think about these things and try to form your own opinions.

With that said, we can turn to Scripture to see some clues.

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?book_id=73&chapter=21&version=31 That's a link to Revelation Chapter 21. It uses a lot of imagery, so don't take it literally. Just read it with the idea of wanting to imagine it. It may help you a lot in a starting point to what you think Heaven would be like.

As far as the difference in the body, take a look at the resurrection stories. It seems Jesus' body changed, as there were times people simply did not even recognize him at first. What, exactly, that means, we don't know.

From there, just use your imagination and try to describe what you think of the questions.

Matt

Answer 10

We will have heavenly bodies... whatever those look like.
If our family beleived in Jesus and followed the commandments, yes our families will be there.
Purgatory is part of Heaven. It's a final penance.
Again, the Heavenly body.

Answer 11

I think that we won't have a body, but be more of an energy.
Our family will be there.
Purgatory is where we go to get rid of our sins...like a rinse cycle .
We get out if people pray for us, or depending on how many sins we commited.
I don't think we get a body...
I'm sure we grow. We are always growing in spirit and mind.
Again, I don't think we get a body.

Hope that helped.