An anonymous listener asks Father Dave, “What does the Bible say about reincarnation?”
Father Dave clarifies that Catholic Teaching expands beyond what is in the Bible. “Whenever people ask, ‘What does the Bible say?’ I note that in our Catholic Tradition, we would always augment that with things beyond the actual pages of the Bible,” he says. “[Catholics] believe that the deposit of faith given to us by God’s revelation is not only contained in the pages of Scripture, but is also found in other elements of our sacred tradition.” This includes sacred writings, such as papal encyclicals, as well as the magisterium, the teaching office of the Church.
“If we reframe the question to say, ‘What is the Catholic Church teaching about reincarnation?’ Not much other than the fact that it is something that does not comport with our belief of the afterlife,” Father Dave says.
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He explains how reincarnation is incompatible with Christian beliefs about the human person. “Beyond just the Catholic Church, it is Christian doctrine that the soul and the body are intentionally created by God together as one thing,” Father Dave explains. “[Believers in] reincarnation would believe that the soul is the essence of the person, and the body is somewhat disposable.”
“[According to reincarnation] a soul can live on through centuries, becoming alive in different bodies or different forms. Some beliefs in reincarnation would go beyond just human bodies, that a soul could be manifest in another living creature,” Father Dave says,. “The reason why that’s not compatible with Catholic theology is we believe that body and soul are a composite.”
He continues, “We would say that body and soul are a duality and are important together. One of the feast days in the Catholic Church that underscores this is the Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, that she was assumed body and soul into heaven.” While this does not happen immediately when we die, Catholics believe that God will reunite our bodies and souls one day.
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Father Dave describes how reincarnation does not fit with what Scripture and sacred tradition say about eternal life. “We believe that we are unique as one soul that is connected with a body, and it does have an eternal existence…That’s pretty much what a lot of Christianity hinges on, and if you take that piece out of it, then a lot of it doesn’t really make sense,” he says, and explains that Christian belief of eternal life means we are either in heaven with God or in hell.
“There’s plenty in the Scriptures about Christ being the ultimate judge and separating the sheep from the goats,” Father Dave says. “One group of people will be cast into fiery Gehenna and will spend all of eternity separated from God. If your soul can just quickly bounce over to another body, then the concept of eternal damnation or eternal life doesn’t make sense.”
