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Monthly Archives: April 2005
Spirituality : Pope John Paul II’s The Parable Of The Homeless Cat
My favorite Pope John Paul II story – it was nice to have a Pope that really cared about people instead of legalistic doctrines….
The Holy Father had a dream … this story is a parable, and few will understand its true meaning, I suppose. Yet it must be told. John Paul had this dream a long time ago, and it impacted him deeply, to the point where he felt compelled to share it years later.
There is great significance in the fact that the Pope wanted to share this story with the world. We’re talking about a man who lived through Nazi occupation of his home country. The horrors he saw were many, yet it was a dream that moved him, and gave him a special message for the world … a dream about an ordinary, homeless cat.
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The Pope was touring Canada and about to make his first visit to New York. As the reporter asked him about his experiences in Canada and his upcoming visit to New York, His Holiness interrupted…
“I had a strange dream…”
It wasn’t a dream about the beauty of Canada. I suddenly found myself in a different city, and it was no longer summer, but winter, and snow covered the ground. It was a truly severe winter. Everyone was warmly dressed. I was happy I could walk on top of the snow, on avenues of white.
All my physical effort was spent on walking. To this day, the pictures of huge apartment houses on both sides of the avenue are burned in my mind, along with the doormen quickly closing and opening doors as though trying to prevent humanity and warmth from escaping.
Suddenly, walking through the snow, I noticed a brown cat emerge from a side street. I looked closer and to my surprise, I saw six small brown and white kittens were following this scrawny cat, hopping through the snow and struggling to keep in line behind her.
(more…)
Death and Dying Truth, All Of It
Death is big. Death, not life, is the centerpiece of civilization and the basis of what we do. Religion exists because of the fear of death. Our lives rotate around avoiding death, cheating death, flirting with death and denying death. And of course, everyone dies. That is why people want to know what death is really like.
My personal experiences near death and the experiences of others I have interviewed give a good picture of what the death process is really like. If you really want to know the truth, you might as well know the truth. At the same time, it isn’t a really a “fun” story so if you are looking for a soothing tale to brighten your day, this isn’t it.
The first thing I will tell you, from the experiences of all who share a knowledge of the truth is that death is not hard, it is the easiest thing in the world. As my friend who drowned (but was later revived) said, it is like falling asleep. I agree. Yes, you will probably be horribly scared as you realize you are going to die: This is a natural defense designed to save your life whenever saving your life is a possibility. Once you actually begin to die, however, fear and pain cease, as I will explain.
Now, most people are very uncomfortable talking about the truth of dying. This article is about the process of dying from a purely scientific perspective. It is not about Heaven and Hell -those are theological topics. I am talking about what we know about death, not what we wish. It might not be the whole story but it is all the story I can verify from personal experience and objective analysis. If you can’t handle it, don’t read any further than this. If you are merely afraid you can’t deal with the nature of existence, stop reading now. I will not warn you again.
