God Squad: Finding God’s voice in the storm
From MG: I’m writing quickly as Hurricane Sandy approaches Long Island. The lights are flickering, but I am smiling. When you read this, hopefully I’ll be able to make coffee and toast again. Right now, I’m praying for no loss of life. That is my only prayer. I appreciate the lesson of the storm, which is as powerful and as simple as its winds and rain: We do not master nature! In a world where darkness, cold and heat are nothing to most of us in our snug cocoons, it’s important to occasionally be humbled.
As I await the darkness and the opportunity to read by candlelight, I invite you to take comfort from the words of God to Elijah in 1 Kings 19:11-12 (KJV):
“And he said, Go forth, and stand upon the mount before the Lord. And, behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks before the Lord; but the Lord was not in the wind: and after the wind an earthquake; but the Lord was not in the earthquake. And after the earthquake a fire; but the Lord was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice.”
Dear God, may we all be given the grace to hear your voice through all the storms of our lives. Amen.
*
Also from MG: My recent column on life after death for our souls generated many comments. Some Catholics, like F., of Idaho Falls, Idaho, gently tweaked me:
“I’m sure not the only one to tell you this, but your (statement about) purgatory was way off base. Catholicism has not ‘backed off its view’ in that regard. Please see the CCC 1030-1032. You may need to fire those ‘Catholic’ advisors you have and get a new bunch. Please use the CCC first and then direct questions to knowledgeable Catholics. This is an outlier. You have done great and we look forward to each column.”
Dear F.: Thank you for your gentle reminder that I should stick to answering questions about kosher chickens! My comments about recent Catholic teachings, actually the teaching of Pope Benedict XVI, were based on a report from CNS (Catholic News Service) about the Pope’s remarks at his weekly general audience Jan. 12, 2011, where he was speaking about the mystical writings of St. Catherine of Genoa.
Although St. Catherine is the author of a “Treatise on Purgatory,” Pope Benedict said, “She never received specific revelations about purgatory or the souls that are being purified there.” Rather, her deep prayer and focus on the conflict between human sin and God’s love led her to understand how logically a person who has sinned would not be worthy to be in the presence of an all-loving, all-perfect God, the pope said. Unlike most Catholics of her day, he said, she was convinced purgatory “was not a place, but a process.”
“The soul that is aware of the immense love and perfect justice of God consequently suffers for not having responded correctly and perfectly to that love,” the pope said, adding that “the suffering is purgatory.”
So, my dear F., even though purgatory clearly remains a firm belief, particularly of the Catholic Church, it may perhaps now be imagined more as a state of suffering rather than a place of suffering.
There has been a more substantial change in the theology of the Catholic Church regarding the judgment of unbaptized souls after death. It is the belief in “limbo” as a place for unbaptized babies. On April 20, 2007, the Vatican’s International Theological Commission released a report arguing that “there was good reason to hope unbaptized babies who die go to heaven,” according to CNS. I was, of course, not consulted on this statement, but I endorse its humanity and compassion completely.
I strongly believe that our souls go through a kind of spiritual debriefing about their embodied life here on earth. As a Jew, I believe that the book of the good and bad deeds of my dear father, Sol, was closed when he died, but not completely.
In accordance with the teachings of Judaism, I believe that when I said the prayer for the dead called the kaddish every day for almost a year after my father’s death, whatever merit attached to the saying of that prayer worked redounded to the benefit of his soul during his judgment time in the World to Come. My father taught me this prayer, and so it is to his credit, even after death.
In any event, I may be a rabbi, but I believe our souls are indeed judged. I deeply admire and respect the teachings of Catholicism, and it all began with my dear friend Fr. Tom Hartman.
MARC GELLMAN is the senior rabbi of Temple Beth Torah in Melville, N.Y., where he has served since 1981. Send questions only to godsquadquestion@aol.com.