Can Our Deceased Loved Ones See Us? - Sanctuaire de Montligeon

Do our deceased loved ones know what is happening in our lives? Can they influence our lives? These questions come up very often online. And the answers aren’t always comforting. What does the Christian faith have to say about this?

While psychics and mediums seek to sense the presence of the dead, explaining that they are “around,” the Christian faith asserts that the souls of the deceased are either in Heaven, in Hell, or in Purgatory.

The Christian faith holds that the souls of the deceased are either in heaven, in hell, or in purgatory.

Nevertheless, she remains reserved and cautious on specific questions regarding the afterlife.

However, it does give us some insight into the relationship between the dead and the living. For example, the appearance of the risen Jesus to the apostle Thomas—who is invited to touch his wounds and believe in his resurrection—clearly indicates that Christ is aware of the discussions and questions troubling his group of disciples in his absence. Similarly, the vision of Judas Maccabeus, in which the intercessory prayers of the deceased priest Onias in the realm of the dead on behalf of the Jewish people (2 Maccabees 15:7–17) are mentioned, seems to show that the dead know certain things about the living.

Rooted in Sacred Scripture, the Magisterium of the Church teaches that in Heaven, the souls of the blessed contemplate the face of God immediately and directly. Through this beatific vision, they also see all things in God. That is why, in heaven, the departed know and love us with the very gaze and love of God.

In Heaven, the departed know us and love us with the very gaze and love of God.

And while they do not usually intervene directly and physically in our lives—unless a miracle occurs—they intercede for us in glory and can obtain for us enlightenment and consolation. Thus, Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus recounts that, when her sister Marie entered the Carmelite convent, she felt lonely. She addressed Heaven and called upon her brothers and sisters who had died prematurely. The answer was not long in coming; soon peace flooded her soul, and she understood that if she was loved on earth, she was also loved in heaven…

In Purgatory, souls live in God’s love but do not yet contemplate Him. Scholars and theologians have mixed views on whether they are able to know events on earth. Let us note that, according to St. Thomas Aquinas, while the souls in Purgatory cannot know us through the vision of the blessed as in heaven, or through the senses as on earth, “they can nevertheless know the actions of the living, either through the souls arriving from this world to be near them, or through the angels, or through a revelation of the Holy Spirit.” (Q. 89, a. 8, ad. 1)

Souls can learn of the actions of the living—either through the souls who come from this world to be near them, or through the angels, or through a revelation from the Holy Spirit.

And we know that the Spirit is not stingy with His insights…