St. Anthony the Abbot Catholic Church

Most of us have heard about reincarnation, a common belief among Hindu and Buddhist religions that originated in the Orient.  Reincarnation teaches that at death, unenlightened human souls transmigrate from our body into another body, either of an animal, vegetable, or mineral. That process of transmigration is repeated over and over, until the soul is completely enlightened.  No good and evil here, no heaven and hell - just a forced recycling process ending when the enlightened individual self finally dissolves into nirvana (which means "nothingness").

Some people who say that all religions are the same claim that reincarnation is just an eastern version of what Christians in the west call resurrection. Really? In the Bible we read, "Just as man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people" (Hebrews 9:27-28). Christ died once, and rose again once. We will all die once, and will be judged, and then spend eternity either with God or without God.

Jesus said the same thing in today's Gospel. At the end of time there will be the harvest, and the weeds, unrepentant sinners, will not be planted again to see if they come up as wheat, but will be "thrown into the fiery furnace, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth." But the wheat, the righteous, who spent their brief earthly lives resisting the seductions of evil, repenting from their sins, and battling against selfishness in order to follow Jesus Christ, will enter into the joy of eternal life, shining "like the sun in the kingdom of their Father."

That doesn't sound like reincarnation at all. To claim that they are the same empties both doctrines of their real meaning. That's why this approach is so tempting. If doctrines don't really mean anything, we have a good excuse to just go around doing whatever we feel like, instead of trying to follow a clear moral code.

Claiming that all religions are the same sounds like a nice thing to do. But it isn't. To tell people that their most sacred beliefs are generic is the same thing as telling them that those beliefs are meaningless. To claim that reincarnation and resurrection are the same thing, or that Mohammad really did believe that Jesus rose from the dead even though he said he didn't believe it, for example, is arrogant and disrespectful. It's like me telling you that you only think you like ice cream, but if you really understood yourself as deeply as I understand you, you would realize that you don't like it at all.

The decent and truly Christian thing to do is to respect other people enough to try and understand their beliefs: that is loving our neighbor as ourselves. And since all people share the same human nature, this isn't so hard. All human beings feel a deep need to answer the basic questions of life: Who are we, where did we come from, what is the secret to happiness?

All religions try to answer these same questions, but they give different answers. Sincere respect and understanding, whenever possible, will help create a relationship of openness in which we can share the Good News of Jesus Christ with those who don't yet know Him; meet others where they are; only then try to bring them a step closer to Christ.

When we recite the Creed, let us do so with all our hearts, thanking God for giving us the saving light of Truth, and promising Him that we will never abandon Him, the one and only Lord who died for our sins and rose from the dead to give us eternal life.