Hound of Heaven

Two neighboring churches engaged in a spirited dialog on their lettered front-yard signs.

Serial pictures of the signs posted on the Internet have drawn millions of viewers seeing:

ALL DOGS GO TO HEAVEN

ONLY HUMANS GO TO HEAVEN, READ YOUR BIBLE

GOD LOVES ALL HIS CREATURES, DOGS INCLUDED

DOGS DON’T HAVE SOULS, THIS IS NOT OPEN FOR DEBATE

CATHOLIC DOGS GO TO HEAVEN,

PRESBYTERIAN DOGS CAN TALK TO THEIR PASTOR

CONVERTING TO CATHOLICISM

DOES NOT MAGICALLY GRANT YOUR DOG A SOUL

FREE DOG SOULS WITH CONVERSION

DOGS ARE ANIMALS

THERE AREN’T ANY ROCKS IN HEAVEN EITHER

ALL ROCKS GO TO HEAVEN

As it turns out, the great sign debate never actually took place in the churchyards.

Someone with an active imagination, and Photoshop, faked it all on the Internet.

But the fabricated jousting draws us to a real question.

What do we know to be absolutely true about souls and spirits?

Quite a bit; we’ve recognized ourselves as spiritual beings for thousands of years.

We know it’s the soul that animates the body.

We know that humans are both physical body and spiritual soul.

But there’s also a lot about the invisible spiritual world that we don’t know.

We have to settle for a poor partial understanding.

Much or most of our “understanding” comes to us only through faith.

And some things remain a total mystery.

We clearly recognize that the unseen spiritual world exists.

We believe in one god, the Father almighty, maker of … all things visible and invisible.

At death, observers can’t see, hear, smell, taste or feel the departing spirit.

But they know that animating spirit has left.

Today, our Gospel presents a dialog between two spirits who recognize one another.

The evil spirit in the possessed man immediately recognizes the inner spirit of Jesus.

It sees him and recognizes him as the holy one of God.

And Jesus immediately recognizes that other spirit as an evil spirit, and drives it away.

The once-possessed man still has his own soul, his own spirit.

But he had been spiritually infected with that evil spirit as well.

Today is also the feast of Gregory the Great, one of the four original Doctors of the Church.

A great thinker, scholar, and teacher.

Who in the 6^th Century pondered and wrote of the soul in his book of Dialogues.

Bad news for our puppies—he sided with the Presbyterian in our fake Internet dialog.

He reasoned that non-human animals have souls, but unlike our souls, theirs are mortal.

They die along with the body.

But good news—the Church has never declared his position to be puppy dogma.

His Dialogues also recognized the evolving human understanding of the spiritual world.

He asked, How do we know so much about the soul today—in 590—

When we knew so little in ages past?

He answered, The current world moves toward its end and the new world approaches.

And as that new world draws closer we see it more clearly.

Much as we see with increasing clarity as we move gradually from night to day.

We’re in the twilight and see images, but have no perfect knowledge of the new world.

Fifteen hundred years later, we’re still in the twilight.

We still can’t grasp or prove invisible spirits with our five senses.

And our knowledge of the soul is still imperfect.

But we now have equipment that lets us look into the human brain and “see” thoughts.

Maybe God will someday give us the science to better understand souls and spirits.
We might have specter-detector goggles.

Until then, or until we arrive at the new world, we can refine the tools and gifts we have.

We can work at listening to the Spirit within us, the voice of Jesus, the voice of God.

Work at discerning spirits, distinguishing that voice from others we might hear.

Work at connecting with the spirit within others.

We can already see them.

Not through our physical eyes.

But through our spiritual eyes.

Through the eyes of faith.

Tuesday, 22nd Week in Ordinary Time

Lk 4:31-37           Read this Scripture @usccb.org