Aquinas on the Four Last Things w/ Dr. Kevin Vost

by | Mar 30, 2021 | Podcast

Sophia Lebano: [00:00:00] You are listening to Hear and Now Podcast where we dive deep into faith, hearing loss, and lifestyle, and talk about all the things that you need to be equipped in this journey we call life. I’m your host, Sophia Lebano, and this show is here for you to find encouraging in everyday life that God created for you.

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[00:00:29] Hello, everybody. What’s up. Welcome back to another episode of Hear and Now podcast. I’m very excited to welcome Dr. Kevin Vost today to talk about his book Aquinas On the Four Last Things. So Dr. Vost, thank you for coming on today. 

[00:00:40] Dr. Kevin Vost: [00:00:40] Thanks so much for having me Sophia. 

[00:00:42] Sophia Lebano: [00:00:42] Yeah, you’re so welcome. So why don’t you take a second to, um, introduce yourself to the audience?

[00:00:47] Dr. Kevin Vost: [00:00:47] Sure, sure. Yeah, my name’s Kevin  and some of my background, I was a person who is born and raised a Catholic. In my late teens, I became very fond of philosophy and read some of the wrong kind, became an atheist. It lasted for about 25 years. During that time period, I went to school for the doctorate in Clinical Psychology got married, had had two young boys, 

[00:01:11] but about 25 years later, after I became an atheist, in my early forties, through a series of events, I read the works of St. Thomas Aquinas for the first time. And he showed me that these are what I thought were unanswerable arguments of the atheists that drew me away from the faith, I found that he had answered him more than 700 years ago. Borrowing on church philosophy, theologians and philosophers who live long before and him.

[00:01:37] Uh, so he’d answered these beautifully. Well, I had no idea, you know, even though I was raised Catholic, but thanks be to God. You know, it, it showed me the reasonable, the face size did, would come back to Christ and the church, less than, boy almost 17 years ago since that time. Uh, but as I did come back, I’ll just mention my specialty area in psychology was memory, memory and true improvement, memory training.

[00:01:59] And Thomas Aquinas himself is considered one of the key figures, in the history of the development of memory aiding techniques. So I did a first Catholic book called Memorize the Faith, introducing people to his methods, applied to Catholic materials, like, well, the 10 commandments,  the mysteries of the rosary, the virtues, the vices, all the books of the Bible and that kind of thing.

[00:02:18] But anyway, since that time, that was since I started writing in 2004, I’ve done over 20 Catholic books now, and all of them in one way or another, have borrowed  from the writings of St. Thomas Aquinas. So it’s always a joy for me to talk about any aspect of his writing.

[00:02:35] Sophia Lebano: [00:02:35] I mean, I am the kind of person that loves St. Thomas Aquinas. I’ve read briefly his Summa Theologica and high school continuing into college. And it’s just so jam packed that you almost, you can’t just comprehend one thing at a time. Like it takes years to understand that. So have you read, this is a personal question, have you read the Summa Theologica, like in full? 

[00:02:55] Dr. Kevin Vost: [00:02:55] Yes. Yes I have, because it took several years though. Early, when I came back to the faith, I wanted to do a book to kind of summarize the Summa Theologica, but it took me years to prepare. But I did come out with the book in 2014 called the One-minute Aquinas, which is kind of a 300 page summary of his multi thousand page Summa.

[00:03:13] So to do that, I have to read the whole thing, you know, front to start. But in all the books, I normally, I normally dig into one particular part of the Summa and then try to really drill deep. So that’s what was done with this last book and his writings on the four last things. 

[00:03:27] Sophia Lebano: [00:03:27] Yeah. I’m excited to, to dive into that. So why don’t you kind of start by summarizing? What are the four last things? 

[00:03:35] Dr. Kevin Vost: [00:03:35] Sure. And the Church has taught these two for a century. The four last things are death, judgment, heaven, and hell. You know, and these are things we’re all gonna experience, at least, we’re all going to be. We’re all gonna die, one day, we, we know that whether we’re believers are not. The Church teaches, we are going to be judged and we can get into this more detailed maybe later, but just in brief, there is a particular judgment, right?

[00:03:59] At the moment that we die, that determines, you know, where our soul is going to go. And then there’ll be a final judgment, a last judgment, a general judgment when Christ returns, and then our souls will be reunited with our bodies. And we’ll, we’ll go where we will be residing forever. in heaven or hell so very, very important material.

[00:04:17] And I will say in some ways it’s the most important material there is because it regards the fate of our eternal life, after our brief time here on earth. 

[00:04:27] Sophia Lebano: [00:04:27] I think it’s something that’s so kind of incomprehensible for a lot of people, this aspect of like life after death. And I was actually talking about it today, um, with my parents and how the ancient Greeks used to believe, you know, they would weigh your souls and this is where you would go. And after reading like Dante and all of these ancient believers, it’s really cool, to kind of see how this belief has evolved, but it’s stayed very consistent that there is something to look forward to after we died. It’s not that’s it. So what do Catholics believe about life after death? 

[00:05:01] Dr. Kevin Vost: [00:05:01] Yeah, well, well, uh, one thing is right when we die, there is this particular judgment where we’re judged as the individual person that we are, and this will, and, and also at this point, our soul will have separated from our body though later at the final judgment, we will ultimately be reunited.

[00:05:18] But we believe that, and that when we die, our soul is separated. There’s a judgment that determines where our soul is going to go. And according to Church teaching, if we are mired in this grave, serious, mortal sin, if we die in a state where we basically, willingly rejected God rejected His grace, then our soul will, will go immediately to hell.

[00:05:39] Now. If we are blessed to die in such a state that we’re in grace with God, we have no grave mortal sins on our soul, and we also don’t even have minor venial sins that we haven’t confessed, that we haven’t done penence for, then it’s possible our souls will go immediately to heaven, which is where like all our canonized saints are.

[00:05:59] We recognize that their souls are in heaven, but there’s another condition that, that, you know, I don’t know for sure, this may affect a huge number of us, and this is where we would die without mortal sin on our soul, but still with venial lesser sins that we haven’t what’s called satisfied or done penance for, or possibly even mortal sins that we have confessed.

[00:06:23] We’ve been forgiven for them, but we’ve not yet done our penence, you know, satisfied them so to speak. Then our souls go to what’s called purgatory. This is where they can become cleansed of this debt of sin. God has given us a way, so our souls can be purified because we read in revelation, nothing unpure will enter heaven.

[00:06:44] So God gives us this beautiful mechanism of purgatory to cleanse our souls in one day and then one day to attain heaven. So those are the three, you know, primary destinations there. And Saint Thomas, you know, people are often daunted by him because he does speak in deep philosophical, logical terminology.

[00:07:02] But sometimes he also gives nice, simple little analogies and here’s one that’s taught for the state of our souls after death. He says that lighter than air will immediately rise. You know, kind of like a hot air balloon will go up while heavier bodies will immediately fall unless some obstacle impedes their path.

[00:07:22] So he says a soul that is free from all debt of sin will rise immediately to heaven. A soul that is mired in mortal sin will sink, you know, descend into hell. And he says an obstacle that can prevent a soul free of mortal sin from rising to heaven is the debt of venial sin. For which the soul’s flight must be delayed until the soul is first of all, cleansed.

[00:07:45] So I can think of like, you know, you see some movies, people are in a hot air balloon and it’s sinking it’s not rising. We need to get rid of this excess baggage. So in a sense, Thomas tells us in purgatory what’s holding us back from heaven is going to be purged and burned away. So just a nice little example that I got from, from St. Thomas about the state of our souls, right at the time of death. 

[00:08:05] Sophia Lebano: [00:08:05] No, that’s really cool. And yeah, that’s such a great way to put it. And I, I think like, thank God for purgatory because without it,  we kind of, we just wouldn’t have this choice. You know, you’re either going to heaven and you have to spend the rest of your life, making sure you do everything perfect.

[00:08:19] Or if you don’t, you’re going to hell. So, can you compare that belief to those of other religions? And I know that’s a very blanket generalized statement, but say maybe Protestants or Buddhist religions. How do Catholics believe that they just have this more hopeful thing in life after death? 

[00:08:37] Dr. Kevin Vost: [00:08:37] Yeah, now, Thomas is, you know, Thomas was writing in the 12th century. So a few centuries before the formal Reformation, you know, the break with the Protestants. But even in his time, whenever he writes about something, he tells you what people before him said about it. And many of the views and Thomas’ day, you know, mirror what we saw later in the Reformation.

[00:08:55] So Thomas actually addressed that kind of thing, but he said that anyone who would speak against purgatory, he said, they’re really speaking against the justice of God. Yeah, and his love and his mercy. So, so if we die in, in sin, but it’s not a grave serious,  He still opens a path or is there still a way cause He wants us to join him in heaven. To, to, uh, you know, for sake life in heaven with God.

[00:09:19] We almost have to choose it to be obstinate in our sin. Uh, but those, those who, who do want heaven, but we’re frail where we have these sins, He gives us this mechanism to get there. So it’s a very, very beautiful thing. In terms of, other, uh, religions, like what happens to the soul after death? And this is another reason I love Thomas because you mentioned the Greek philosophers earlier, Plato on a state and the soul, Thomas knows all this, and he addresses this and he knows like the idea of reincarnation that we usually probably associate with Eastern religions, but the, the ancient Greek philosopher Pythagoras had a similar view and our souls might go on and into other animals.

[00:09:56] And Thomas there in keeping with the teaching of the Catholic Church, he clearly explains that we are not just some immaterial soul trapped inside a bind. God created us as in soul beings were made to be a unity of body or soul. So like Plato would say in a sense, our, our soul is trapped in the body and can’t wait to get out or people who believe in reincarnation, but think that our soul can go and become inside a dog or an insect or something later on.

[00:10:23] And Thomas says, no, no, we are crafted uniquely as human beings. As this composite of body with an immortal soul and we’re destined to be reunited with our bodies someday. So just, there’s very, very nuanced reasoning there based on scripture, based on prior Church teaching. And oftentimes Thomas bases it on the best of natural philosophy.

[00:10:46] For example, he compares and contrasts Plato’s view of the soul with Aristotle’s. Aristotle was the one who believed we are in soul, composite, the body and soul. Uh, and the Church teaches that says the soul is the form of the body just as Aristotle. So Thomas weighs in all the, all these things very, very respectfully, and comes out with answers and you’re like, wow, that really makes sense.

[00:11:08] And then he also often you buttresses it with just specific verses from scripture, that show is not just based on philosophical reasoning. It’s also right there and print in the inspired word of God. 

[00:11:20] Sophia Lebano: [00:11:20] I love how St. Thomas is very logical and a lot of his thinking, you know, he’s got the argument for first movers and just all of these things that just logically make sense.

[00:11:31] And so that’s why I personally love his teachings because it can just be so applied to real life, of course, with the basis of scripture. So this is probably going to be a little bit of a difficult question to ask as well, but what about people who, don’t get baptized, whether they’re children or adults, what happens to their bodies after they die and their souls?

[00:11:51] Dr. Kevin Vost: [00:11:51] Yeah. Yeah. And this is, this is something, you know, and some of these issues like the Church has clearly defined, or it’s very clear in scripture. Some it’s not, we’re not certain. So, so like for some of these questions, Thomas, will even say there are many opinions on this matter. And then Thomas being Thomas, he might list a dozen of those for you, you know, before he settles on the best one. 

[00:12:09] But okay, in the state of like what happens to a person who dies without baptism? We might often think of this within the Church, we would think possibly of a newborn child who had died before Baptism. And Thomas sites from a previous theologian from the East Saint John Damascene had talked about different classes of baptized people, some just outright refuse it.

[00:12:29] Now they don’t, they don’t want it. Others, especially in the olden times, they might wait towards the end of their life because it was known that Baptism erased all sins, so some people think, well, I’m gonna try and get baptized right before I die. And, you know, to get that the stairway to heaven, immediate stairway again, but he said, others are not baptized through no fault of their own.

[00:12:49] Now this is what we probably think of most often, it’s the young children who’ve been unbaptized again. And during Thomas’ day, the 13th century, there was what was called the Theory of Limbo. A state or place called limbo. And this was the reasoning there. What happens to these children here? Now? Some people said, Oh, they suffer like in hell.

[00:13:08] Uh, because they, they aren’t united in grace with God. And Thomas gives  reasons why he says no, that that’s not the case. It is true that they have, they have not achieved Baptism so that you’re not united in charity with God. You know, Christ told us, you know, we, we must be born of water, to be saved. He said, but, though they bear the stain of original sin. They have no personal sin not chosen sin. He said so they would not suffer. So, so Thomas believed his best thoughts at the time, were the state of limbo, where he said, those children’s souls would experience the highest attainable, natural bliss by the fact that they’re made as human beings, you know, made by God.

[00:13:46] He said they would be unable to experience the beatific vision and be united with God lacking that grace. But when he said that, did not mean that they would suffer though. And interestingly he sites another, a Roman philosopher, Seneca here. And he said, Seneca says a wise person, is basically, not upset by things that are impossible for them.

[00:14:06] He said we don’t walk around and sit all day because we can’t fly like a bird, you know, or we’re not the emperor of the world. So he said the same to these children and they will be happy in a normal state. They would know they didn’t loss heaven because if anything they did. They, it would just be impossible to them.

[00:14:20] So they even enjoy their natural happiness in awareness of God. But I, but I must jump to the present though, current Church teaching, uh, and it’s in our current Catechism, basically it does not use the word limbo now. It is basically stating that yes, it’s clear in scripture, the very, the, the necessity, the importance of baptism, uh, Christ made that clear.

[00:14:40] So we want to try to baptize, uh, make sure people are baptized. Make sure infants are baptized. But he also said, you know, Christ showed His, uh, He wants us to be saved. He showed his love for children. He said, bring the children to me. So the current teaching is that, you know, we can hope and trust in God’s mercy might be a way there might be ways for their salvation.

[00:15:00] And in an earlier part of this, uh, the treatice on the four last things for Thomas. I love a line he quotes from Saint Jerome, when they’re arguing some issue. And Jerome says the people he’s arguing against wouldst thou then lay down the law taught? It’s like, you know, we have to be careful when we tell God what He can and cannot do.

[00:15:20] So in terms of the state of these, uh, these unbaptized children, the Church teaches baptize ’em if you can, but, but we must also trust in God’s mercy that there might be of their salvation. 

[00:15:32] Sophia Lebano: [00:15:32] I think for me, the coolest thing that I’m looking forward to is when I get to heaven, and seeing all of these unsolved mysteries and answers just finally come to life like, hey, there are dogs and haven’t or babies don’t end up in purgatory, they go straight to heaven. 

[00:15:47] And so I think just having all of these, like unsolved mysteries on earth is kind of like a cool way to just be like, hey, just keep moving, go figure it out when you die, you know? 

[00:15:57] Dr. Kevin Vost: [00:15:57] Exactly. And another aspect of, how, how could, you know, some people think,  oh, heaven will be boring and you know, why don’t I just play harp all day and sing, sing hymns, you know?

[00:16:06] Because like you said, all these mysteries, everything you’ve wondered about, you’re going to know, and you’re going to see it by looking upon the face of God. You’re going to know all truth from Him. So it’s going to be an a magically amazing glorious thing. 

[00:16:20] Sophia Lebano: [00:16:20] I’m excited. Well, I know this is like the whole Memento Mori thing, and it’s not to sound morbid at all, but you’re just, you know, as a Christian, as a Catholic, you just have so much hope for life after death.

[00:16:31] And so I feel like it just kind of keeps moving you along in your early life, but where is purgatory mentioned in the Bible, if at all? 

[00:16:39] Dr. Kevin Vost: [00:16:39] Yeah. It, it gets mentioned in several places. One of the earliest is in the second book of Maccabees. 

[00:16:45] Now, this is a book that the modern Protestants would consider apocryphal, are not valid scripture. The Catholic Church actually, you know, laid out what is the Canon of scripture for both testaments. They’ve also always included this among those, those books. And their Judas Maccabee, the Jewish, uh, leader after, uh, fighting against the Greek suppression, at that time. When some soldiers had died, he advised his troops that we’re going to pray for these dead soldiers.

[00:17:12] They’re gonna  pray and do atonement for them. And, and if they were already in hell and heaven, your prayers, aren’t going to do anything. So, so th th the teaching  indicated that you can help people who have died by praying for them. It’s carried on a different verses of the New Testament. For example, we mentioned  Revelations, tate nothing unclean will enter heaven.

[00:17:34] And though the word purgatory is not in scripture, we can’t rule it out because you know, the word Trinity is not in there, either. Many of our fundamental concepts are not, but the concept of purgatory is there in many places, St. Paul talks about it and it’s the first letter to the Corinthians. And he talks about would double and hate and be shown in our works and that the things we tested by fire.

[00:17:55] So there’s several different verses. Oh yeah.  1 John 5:16-17, he says there is a sin, which is mortal. I do not say that one is to pray for that. All wrongdoing is sin, but there is sin, which is not moral. So here’s where our idea of venial sin comes from. And he says, you can pray for that. So people perhaps who’ve died with venial sin, then we can pray for them so that sin can be removed.

[00:18:20] And this whole idea of purgatory, you know, when you read about it in St. Thomas and the Catechism really is a beautiful and amazing thing. And it also really does show the justice of God. The mercy of God and the power of his charity is one of the fundamental teachings is. 

[00:18:36] You know, the Church talks about the Church militant, those of us who are still alive on earth. The Church triumphant, those of us who’ve been raised to heaven, the saints. And  also the Church suffering, the souls that are now in purgatory. And we’re taught that we, all three,  we’re all bound together by charity. So there are even actions that we, the currently living people can do, that will will help those people suffering and preparatory. 

[00:19:02] And one of the things we can do is pray to the saints in the Church triumphant for their intercession, with God, to help us and to help those people in purgatory. So just really, really amazing and beautiful teaching that that really shows just that.

[00:19:17] Um, just, it’s just amazing what God does for those who choose to believe Him and love Him. 

[00:19:23] Sophia Lebano: [00:19:23] Yeah. It’s like this aspect of like divine teamwork. You’re always praying for somebody and you’re always asking for somebody’s intercession and it’s like, you’re never doing it alone, which is so hopeful and so helpful for all of the people who are in purgatory and you need our players.

[00:19:37] And then this question, I guess, could be kind of stereotypical, is do our bodies glow when we become glorified after the resurrection? 

[00:19:47] Dr. Kevin Vost: [00:19:47] Yes. Next question? 

[00:19:52] Sophia Lebano: [00:19:52] Good answer. 

[00:19:54] Dr. Kevin Vost: [00:19:54] Let me start with St. Paul. This is 1 Corinthians 15:43. Yeah. Oh, he starts at 1 Corinthians 15:42.. So it is with the resurrection of the dead, what is sown is perishable. What is raised is imperishable. It is sown in dishonor. It is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness. It is raised in power. It is sown a physical body, it is raised a spiritual body. So from those four little statements that the resurrected  body will be imperishable. Will be glorious. Will be powerful. And will be spiritual. 

[00:20:31] w get what they’re called, the four key qualities of the resurrected body. One is impassability, it’s imperishable. Our bodies won’t degenerate and our bodies, our limbs will obey our, our, our reason. Another is this, this power is agility. We’ll be able to move. You know, like I said, we’re like running as fast as a flash. Our bodies will completely and immediately obey our commands. 

[00:20:53] Another right, idea, they’ll be spirit-like is called, the gift of subtlety. Our bodies, won’t be just all thick and lumpy like our current bodies. Will be, we’ll even interpenetrate and move through things gracefully like a spirit, that we’ll actually have a body. 

[00:21:07] But now to get back to your question at fourth, it’s called the quality of clarity. And this is where he gets his idea of the bodies will glow.  Thomas calls clarity, a radiant brilliance or body is beautiful, glowing, and light. So when says, yes, in a sense, our bodies will glow. Well then you go, how can a body glow? I think, well, I dunno where it, however they call them where you live. But around here we call it have these things, we call lightning bugs. Or maybe you call them fireflies. 

[00:21:32] They actually do generate their own light. There’s also these deep sea creatures that exhibit a phenomenon, they call bioluminescence, you know, they’re so far under they, they get no sunlight, but they can actually generate their own body light.

[00:21:45] They’re they’re lighting from their own body tissues. Well, you know, biologists tell us actually all living beings, even ourselves, we actually do emit light even now. Because of the chemical reactions that go on in our bodies, but of course it’s so faint. We can’t even begin to see it. But the Church teaching is that when we die, it will be there.

[00:22:03] Our glorified, our new perfected bodies will be glowing. They’ll be radiant and beautiful for all to see. So, yes, according to Saint Paul, Saint Thomas Aquinas the teaching of the Catholic Church, our glorified bodies will glow that they’ll really be something to see. 

[00:22:18] Sophia Lebano: [00:22:18] That is really cool. I’m excited to see that.

[00:22:20] And I, like I said, think back to Dante, um, and his divine comedy and, I read that, I think last semester. And I was like, whoa, this is really cool. Especially, you know, when you got the entrance of Beatrice and have them actually get to heaven and everybody’s just glowing and it’s like, their souls are just on fire and I’m like, wow. Like I really want to see that. 

[00:22:42] Dr. Kevin Vost: [00:22:42] Yes, absolutely. 

[00:22:44] Sophia Lebano: [00:22:44] I’m all for it. 

[00:22:46] Dr. Kevin Vost: [00:22:46] And another famous example of course, is Christ in His  transfiguration. Yeah. It says His face shone like the sun. 

[00:22:52] Sophia Lebano: [00:22:52] It’s so cool. It’s just so incomprehensible sometimes. And you’re just like, wow, I want to see that. Like, I want to see it in a movie, but that’s like, it’s life, it’s life after death. Like I want to be able to experience that someday, which kind of gets to the next question. 

[00:23:04] What kind of rewards way await us in heaven? 

[00:23:08] Dr. Kevin Vost: [00:23:08] Yeah. And here, you know, Thomas, you know, he’s, he’s drilling through all the previous church teachings. So he goes into very various different categories of, of different kinds of rewards.

[00:23:16] There will be special rewards for people who were like virgins or martyrs or great teachers for different things that we’ve done in life. 

[00:23:22] And he, Christ talks about different mansions. He says, there’s basically going to be different levels of beatitude depending on how closely we bond ourself with God and charity, our attitude, our happiness will be even higher and higher, you know, levels. But the fundamental reward there for, for all who attain heaven is, you know, what’s called the beatific vision, basically that we will look upon the face of God and Thomas says we will see God in His essence. You know, he would give us this, this capacity. 

[00:23:49] So when we see him, you know, we’ll have these glorified, perfected bodies. We’ll even have vision like we never had before, but even those eyes won’t be able to see God as He is, who is the spirit of God, will give us this grace to see Him. 

[00:24:01] And one way to think how amazing this is, Thomas writes about things that we see in this life, on earth.  Think of anything that like awes you. If you’re looking at a mountain range, or you’re looking up at the stars at night and you’ve, you’ve learned how far away they are, how many they are. I mean, just amazing to think about. Or you look at something as cute and, and touching as a little, a puppy dog, or a little human baby, you know, or you think of the amazing complexity as well. All the species of dogs, all the species of animals and plant life that exists. 

[00:24:30] Well, Thomas says every one of these creative things in some small way reflects the goodness, that’s there all in one, in God. So in heaven, when you look upon the face of God, you are seeing every single goodness you’ve ever seen or ever imagined, but the original source, you know, the Goodness with a capital G, so just be unfathomable.

[00:24:53] And Thomas even writes to that, no, the universe itself will be perfected. We’ll see it with eyes, like we’ve never, more powerful vision than we’d ever seen before. And even now, scripture tells us and the book of wisdom that the beauty of things on earth, you know, reflects the beauty of their Creator. So in heaven, we will see that connection like never before.

[00:25:12] So just a totally, totally awesome experience. And we can’t even really begin to comprehend on earth. But as you said, even the pod Curt is just an amazing thing. 

[00:25:20] Sophia Lebano: [00:25:20] I mean, if you think about it.  Combine, you know, like you said, the sunset, the stars, the mountains, everything like that is just like one sliver, and it’s almost like blinding, if you were to look at the face of God and see all of those things at one time. Like, it’s just so cool that I know, I keep saying that, but, it really is so unfathomable until you actually get to experience it for yourself. And so I’m glad that we have things like that on earth that can just reflect slivers of beauty, which I did talk about in another episode. And I think back the end of January, um, with Bill Donaghy, I’m learning the way of beauty and how things were just, you know, if you look at somebody, it’s not necessarily looking at their physical beauty, but it’s looking at their souls for their beauty, that they were created, in the image and likeness of God.

[00:26:03] And so I’m like, wow, it just puts this new perspective on the human race. And you know, sometimes we’re flawed. We have sins. And even if you look at somebody. And they could be a terrible person, but they were made in the image and likeness of God. And so I think that’s so like helpful and inspirational.

[00:26:19] So last question that I have, and this might not be able to be answered completely is where can and what can we do to get to heaven? 

[00:26:28] Dr. Kevin Vost: [00:26:28] Ah, very, very excellent question there. To get to heaven, we want to die in a state of grace united to God in charity. So we want to think about these four last things and live in such a way that we do, we ask for it, we pray to the saints, we pray to God, the blessed mother to help us avoid sin. And when we fall into sin, we need to avail ourselves of the sacraments. We need to go to Confession and we need to receive Christ in the Eucharist. Thomas calls the Eucharist, the sacrament of charity. So basically we want to unite ourselves to God as much as possible and uniting ourself to the Church, embracing its sacraments, and then living in the way that the Christ taught us to live by loving our neighbors as ourself, by loving God, above all above all things.

[00:27:10] You know, if we can do that and if we can strive to do that, you know, even though we may spend some time suffering in purgatory, we can have a real hope of enjoying all those glorious things in heaven. The very virtue of hope itself is our trust. Our hope that one day we will be there with God and heaven.

[00:27:27] And our recognition that He’s given us all the tools that we need to get there. If we cooperate with them, 

[00:27:33] Sophia Lebano: [00:27:33] I think of the Sequela Christi. I’m reading that right now for my gospel morality class. And you know, if you follow the beatitudes, you follow the 10 commandments. There you go. That’s it. But of course there’s all those other aspects, you know, you can’t do things without having faith, of course, hope, charity, love, everything. So I’m really glad that there are resources like the sacraments that can help us kind of get past that flaw that we have in human life to be able to get to heaven. So of course, to kind of wrap all of this up, where can people buy your book, so we can hear more about your insights into St. Thomas Aquinas? 

[00:28:07] Dr. Kevin Vost: [00:28:07] Sure. Well, the book is  by uh, Sophia Institute Press. It’s a nice name, isn’t it?  Their website’s sophiainstitute.com. You can also, if you have a local Catholic bookstore, they may have it or can probably get it. And it’s also, available through your typical internet sites.

[00:28:21] My own website is Dr. Vost dot com just drvost.com. I don’t sell them there, but if anyone would like to contact me, I do have a comment box. 

[00:28:31] Sophia Lebano: [00:28:31] Perfect. Do you have any social media? Is there anything that they can connect with you on too? 

[00:28:35] Dr. Kevin Vost: [00:28:35] I’m there on Facebook, have a few things on YouTube, but I’m not particularly active other than Facebook.

[00:28:40] Sophia Lebano: [00:28:40] Thank you. All of those links will be in the show notes for everybody to check out so Dr. Vost,  thank you for coming on today. I was definitely very like intellectually into this conversation. This is something that I’m like really passionate about. So thank you for all of your insights. 

[00:28:52] Dr. Kevin Vost: [00:28:52] Well, you’re most welcome. I appreciate your, uh, questions. You really got me thinking. 

[00:28:56] Sophia Lebano: [00:28:56] I’m glad, so my philosophy homework is coming in handy some days for this too, but thank you again for coming on the show. And thank you guys for tuning into this week’s episode of Hear and Now Podcast, have a wonderful week and we will see you next time.

[00:29:09] Bye-bye.

 


SHOW NOTES:

It’s the 84th episode of Hear and Now Podcast! Thank you for joining me this week as I have Dr Kevin Vost on to talk about our life after death and the resurrection.

Transcript

Where to find Dr Vost: BookWebsite

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Thank you to Shae Taguba for editing today’s episode