“Do dogs go to heaven?” that is the question.

This question gets asked very often, especially with children but more and more with adults. The simple answer is according to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, (CCC 1024 and 1043) that because animals lack eternal souls, they would not experience the “beatific vision” and therefore cannot experience heaven as we human beings would.
But…listen to one of the early church fathers, Tertullian in his treatise “On Prayer” where he writes, “ All angels pray. Every creature prays. Cattle and wild beasts pray and bend the knee. As they come from their barns and caves they look up to heaven and call out, lifting up their spirits in their own fashion. The birds too rise and lift themselves up to heaven: they open out their wings, instead of hands, in the form of a cross, and get voice to what seems to be a prayer.”
I think there is a bigger question which needs to be answered here and that is: “What do I expect in heaven?” Ultimately, all we do on earth, from the moment of conception to our natural death, should point us in the direction of heaven and God. That is the first and most important priority. God, in His creation, has given us stewardship over all of creation (Gen 1:26-28) and through history but especially in recent years the Church has spoken very forcefully over our need to be “good stewards” of God’s creation. So how does this answer the first question?
Simply put, does the companionship of your pet, bring you closer in union with God through the sacrificial love and service of our brothers and sisters in Christ? This is where we return to our Lenten discipline. Does our prayer, fasting and alms giving bring us closer to Jesus in living our life of loving God and our neighbor? If not, then our sacrifice is not a good thing.
The same goes with our pets and any other thing that I can and do love. If I make it an object that obstructs my walk with Jesus then this is not a good thing. But if it opens my life to greater service and love of others and stewardship of creation (including dogs/pets) then this is a good thing and those blessings us follow us all the days of our life…and continue in the life of heaven.
The struggle comes when these things (including dogs/pets) become obstructions within our relationships. Our call to treat, in good stewardship, our animal companions with care and love must always be weighed against the good we are doing. Do dogs go to heaven? Yes, but only if we get there with them. There are many stories of a pet becoming an object of obsessions in which a person fulfills what is a natural desire to love and be loved with the pet and pushes away the normal loves of family, friends and perhaps current or future spouses. Several years ago, in premarital counseling this was a large obstacle as one person felt that the “pet” was more important than their growing relationship.
Questions that can seem silly, often lead us to deeper truths about how God desires us to live our lives. We are called to love but always in the correct order…God, neighbor and then creation. This is our call to stewardship.
God Bless
Fr.Mark