Heaven is the fulfillment of our deepest longings, it is a state of supreme, definitive happiness. Therefore, we could logically claim that if our pet’s presence is conditional on our definitive happiness, we will find our pet in Heaven. We have asked don Jacques Vautherin whether animals go to paradise.
Does God love animals?
In order to put animals at their proper place, we should first apply ourselves to see them as God’s creatures. Like any creature, they bear a reflection of God in them. Anything good in them is evocative of God. Therefore, keeping their memory after their death as graces received from God is quite legitimate.
God himself supports animals with his providential sollicitude. They bless God and give glory to him by their sole existence. Therefore we must be kind and benign to them.
We should remember how delicately saints like St. Francis of Assisi and St. Philip Neri treated animals. With kindness, tenderness, with love even. We can love animals. They are very close to us in our bodily, sensitive condition. They can be of great help to us in our work, our leisure activities as well as our sorrows. We can all conjure up images of a dog guiding a blind person, a dolphin soothing a sick child or, more simply, a cat providing company to a lonely person.
However, such love cannot be equal to the love owed to people. The Book of Genesis shows clearly that man needs a “person opposite”, above animals. “It is not good for the man to be alone, said God. I will make a helper suitable for him.” None of the animals can be that “person opposite” for man. Man needs another “me”, from the same humankind.
In paradise, God alone will fulfill us
That is why, for our happiness, we will live in the communion of saints in Heaven. Even now, the saints in Heaven offer us the chance to live in communion with them in faith. This communion of saints – and indeed any communion between human beings – can be fully realized only in God. We are designed to share the life of God, through knowledge and love. This is what we were made for. “You made us for You, and our hearts are restless until they rest in You,” said St. Augustine to God. St. Teresa of Avila goes so far as to say, “God alone is enough.” He’s the one who fully satisfies our heart’s longings.
Will our beloved pets be in heaven?
Is this the final say? Maybe not. We know that God is a Father and as a father He likes to surprise his children. We know that animals, unlike human beings, do not by nature have a soul that survives after death. But we also know that all creation is expecting the new earth and the new heavens. Will our beloved animals be there? The Father certainly has some wonderful surprises in store for us in this new Heaven and new Earth. So… Let’s wait and see!
Don Jacques Vautherin. This article was published in the magazine Chemin d’éternité no 280, May-June 2017
