How do you answer a child’s question about his or her pet? All of us who have given life to a little one sooner or later are faced with this question. And, if we have been good Christian parents, we have taught our ducklings (err children) about heaven. We have taught them that there is a life after this one, a life that will be better than this one. Particularly if grampa or granma has died, we have had long talks with our children about how they are waiting for us.
Father Orthoduck’s ducklings are all grown and he even has granducklings. But, I can remember having that question come up after the death of a pet. And, it was not an easy question to answer. The theology of it all was not the difficulty. It was watching a duckling deal with the pain of death, sometimes for the first time. One would think that with all the death that a duckling sees on TV, even in a household that tightly controls the TV, that a duckling would not be hit so hard. But, often, a pet’s death may be the very first time that the heart of the duckling has been touched by the dark reality of death. And, as a parent, one aches with the thought that their duckling is finally being hit with a glimmering of what happened to us as a result of Adam’s and Eve.
So, how did you answer your ducklings when they asked you that awful question? And, did your heart ache also?
Most theology I learned says no. On the other hand, Scripture does not directly address this question, and I don’t think Holy Tradition does either (correct me on this if necessary).
I love the answer “We don’t know.We will find out for sure in heaven.”
I suspect that part of the reason that Holy Tradition does not address it is that pets were not anywhere near as common as they are nowadays. LOL. And, I learned the same as you on this subject.
Hi Father, after 6 kids and dozens of pets, Orthodoxy has given me a way to deal with it. We lost two dearly beloved dogs a couple years ago (and several cats…but I wasn’t so fond of them as my kids were). I tell them, what we love goes with us into heaven. Jesus didn’t just redeem human beings, He redeemed ALL of creation and everything is “summed up in Christ” Eph. 1 and Col. 1, that includes our animals. We always bury our pets in our cemetary in our back yard and I read the Psalm of Vespers at the funeral. It is fitting.
That is a very good point! He came to redeem all of creation. Thanks!
You’re welcome. Theologically this is what separates Orthodoxy from most western traditions that focus on “the salvation of our souls”. If “all creation groans until the revelation of the sons of God” (Rom. 8) and man is the microcosm of the spiritual and physical world, and OUR redemption is the redemption of the world, then necessarily that includes the animals, plants and all the created order. In that sense it does not matter if the animals or plants or dirt has a “soul” or not, it was created in love by God and if we love it as God loves it, it is a good thing. Hence, our pets will be with us eternally because we loved them like God loves His creation and died to redeem it. I LOVE our faith…it makes sense to a child. 🙂
True dat! BTW, looking at your icon photo, are you on the “Upon This Rock” CD or is that someone else?
Yes, Father, I was on the DVD, Steve Robinson of “Our Life in Christ” and “Steve the Builder”podcasts. Since then I’ve gone “Russian” and grew the beard out. 🙂
The Holy Orthodox Church has never dogmatized the ultimate fate of non-human creatures since they are guiltless before their Creator. She has rightly so been preoccupied with the salvation of human beings who will give account before God for every idle word they have spoken.
And since they have no guilt even though they commit acts that were never intended by God, they either pass out of existence OR they are resurrected and refashioned with a *new* body as befits their nature for existence in the New Creation.
ONLY GOD is immortal; every created being, man included, exists only by the energies and grace of the Most Holy Trinity (Acts: 17:28). And while the Church has rightly discerned the will of God that human beings created in His image will continue to exist after physical death, She has never stated dogmatically concerning the continuing existence of non-human creatures after their physical death.
If a sinner such as I can weep at the death of a faithful and loving dog, then surely from what we know of the character of Christ – He must love them even more.
And since He never intended death for ANY part of His creation (He saw that it was good), and His Father notices even the death of each and every tiny bird, and both Scripture and Tradition clearly imply that there will be animals in the New Creation, why then would He not restore those guiltless creatures who never rebelled against Him, but suffer due to the self-willed rebellion of man?
There are more than a few Orthodox priests and theologians who believe that many if not each and every one of the animals that have lived and suffered through the corruption and death they received because of the Fall of man will be restored in that great Day when Christ delivers up the Kingdom to His Father and God becomes “all in all”.
http://oca.org/reflections/fr.-john-breck/poker-r.i.p
http://www.ukrainian-orthodoxy.org/questions/2005/animals.htm
http://www.ukrainian-orthodoxy.org/questions/2010/pets.html
And this from another Orthodox priest:
“A great saint by the name of St. Isaac the Syrian said that heaven is the presence and love of God. Heaven is not a place high above the earth, like a planet or a star. God is everywhere, and heaven is the enjoyment of the sunshine of his love.
Do animals survive beyond death and go to heaven? That’s a hard question. In the lives of saints, we are told that many had animals as good friends. In Orthodox icons, St. Gerasimos is shown with a lion. The saint has just pulled a thorn from the lion’s paw, which he holds tenderly. Both the man and the lion gaze happily toward Christ, who is in heaven.
St. Seraphim of Sarov, who lived in a forest for many years, is shown peacefully feeding a huge grizzly bear. I have no doubt that these saints would rejoice in seeing their animal friends in heaven.
What does the Bible say about this? Not much explicitly. The Bible’s focus is on people, the salvation of their souls, their resurrection at the end of time, and the fullness of life in God’s eternal light.
However, the first and last books of the Bible tell us something hopeful about all creatures of the earth. The book of Genesis says that “God made the wild animals…and everything that creeps upon the ground of every kind. And God saw that it was good” (Genesis 1:25)!
In the book of Psalms we read: “Every wild animal of the forest is mine…. I know all the birds of the air, and all that moves in the field is mine” (Psalm 50:10).
Would not a loving God want all things that he has made to live with him forever?
A hint of this is in the book of Revelation, which teaches that evil and the power of death, which are a corruption of all that is good, will be completely defeated and a new world more glorious than ours will arise. God’s promise is: “See, I make all things new” (Revelation 21:5).
Why should death finally win out and swallow up any of God’s good creatures? Would not God then be defeated, and death proves stronger than God?
Because God is the ruler of all creation, and loves everything in it with a love that never fails, I have hope that we will our beloved pets again somehow, just as St. Gerasimos will see his lion, and St. Seraphim the grizzly.”
Father Theodore Stylianopoulos
And He Who sat upon the throne said, “Behold, I make all things new.”
(You’ll notice He didn’t say that He would “make all new things!)
Yes indeed. “Come Lord Jesus.”
Robert Ainsworth (Athanasius)
Holy Resurrection Orthodox Church