Resurrection vs. Reincarnation

When I was in college, about a year after my friend Becky was killed in a car accident, I thought I saw her in the grocery store. She was standing further down an aisle from where I stood with my shopping cart. I remember turning my cart toward her, with the intent of approaching her and saying hello when I suddenly remembered that Becky had died.

I thought, Wait! Did she die? Maybe I just dreamt she died.

I stood there, still, while my brain wrestled with reality. The great debate on whether Becky was alive or dead. By the time I quasi-convinced myself that Becky had indeed died – by assuring myself that if Becky was still alive after all, we would laugh about this the next time we saw each other — the Shopping Becky had moved onto the next aisle.

This experience has remained vivid in my memory and just today, has gotten me thinking about resurrection.

—   —   —

The Roman Catholic faith believes in the resurrection of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. We also believe that through His resurrection, Jesus opened the doors for the rest of us to achieve eternal life.

As a child, the thought of eternal life in heaven, didn’t seem that appealing. We learned that heaven was a perfect place where everyone is happy. I associated “happy” with getting everything I wished for and I pictured heaven itself as a bunch of clouds that people — dead people — stood around in. Picture this: twenty-or-so people, all dressed in white, standing in a circle about a foot away from each other, on top of some clouds. One of the people is me and someone has just delivered to me yet another white cake with white icing. That was how I pictured my heaven. I used to think, can’t we at least sit down sometimes? Won’t I get sick of white cake with white icing after a while?

Now that I’m an adult, I wonder, what does eternal life really mean?

—   —   —

My eighth grade religion teacher thought that heaven and eternal life might be like being asleep but having a really good dream. Your dreams would be filled with all the positive things you did in your life, times when you helped others and had a positive influence on the lives of others and the world. The dream would keep repeating on a reel that never stopped. Hell, she thought, might be the very opposite. In hell, you were asleep but having a nightmare where you continually watched how, in your lifetime you had hurt people, caused pain and were a negative influence in the lives of others and a destructive force in the world.

—   —   —

Ever since I saw the 1975 movie, The Reincarnation of Peter Proud, I have been intrigued with the possibility of reincarnation. I was only twelve when the movie was produced and I don’t know how old I was when I watched it on late-night television, but it certainly made an impact on me and my beliefs about reincarnation. That our spiritual life continues to live on in the body of another. And, if I were Buddhist, perhaps in the body of an animal.

I’ve been told that Catholics don’t believe in reincarnation. But why not? Why couldn’t reincarnation be what God means by eternal life?

—   —   —

If you know me, you certainly know that I’m not the most informed Catholic in the world and because I’m not the most learned person of either the Catholic faith or Christianity in general, I have taken to my trusted friend, the Internet, to educate myself on what the Catholic Church believes about reincarnation.

I am a bit dumbfounded in what I read. First, I learned that I was correct, the Catholic Church does not believe in reincarnation. (Remember, though, that it wasn’t until quite recently that the Church accepted cremation in lieu of burial of our deceased.) Moreover, I learned that the Catholic faith is steadfast in its belief that Christians will be resurrected in the same body they had on Earth. I can’t understand why Catholics – and I purport to be one – believe that our physical bodies are as important as our souls. I guess I wasn’t paying much attention during my twelve years of parochial school religion classes!

—   —   —

Okay. So if we are all resurrected in the body we had while alive on Earth, are we resurrected in the body we had at the time of our deaths or do get to choose whether it’s the body we had when we were nineteen, the one we had when we were forty, or the one we have when we die at the age of 120 years? And what about all the children who die in infancy or childhood? Are they like Peter Pan and remain children in the afterlife? Questions! Questions!

—   —   —

Here are some of my arguments supporting the theory of reincarnation.

00 Reincarnation would explain why some people are considered “old souls”. Because this life isn’t their first rodeo. Maybe this is their twentieth life! And maybe you retain some of the knowledge and wisdom you gained in your previous lives when you proceed to your next one.

00 Reincarnation explains déjà vu’. I’ll admit that I haven’t experienced this phenomenon for a long while but when I was a kid and teenager, I had feelings of déjà vu’ pretty regularly. If I’ve been reincarnated, maybe I am experiencing something that I’ve experienced – and vaguely remember – from a previous life.

00 Reincarnation may also explain why sometimes we have an instant affinity for or take an instant dislike to a person we’ve only just met. Maybe we’ve had some dealings with these people in a previous life.

— — —

Don’t you wonder sometimes, if your deceased loved ones are trying to communicate with us from the great beyond, about what to expect after we die? Maybe my dad right now, as I’m writing this, is sending me signs – signs I’m completely oblivious to – about life after death. In fact, maybe he’s urging me not to post this article because it won’t go over very well with God. On the other hand, maybe Dad is encouraging me to use the mind God gave me to look for the answers I seek.

—   —   —

Maybe it really was Becky in the grocery store all those years ago. Maybe she appeared to me that day because she wanted me to think of her, to remember her.  (I’ve always thought that our deceased loved ones are comforted whenever someone thinks about them or prays for them. That’s why it’s important to pray for all of our deceased family and friends often.)

In the end. I guess that’s when we find out what happens in the end. Right? In the end.