Expert: Griff Ruby - 6/16/2007

Question
I have a couple questions of the Catholic religion.
(1) Why don't Catholics believe in reincarnation?
(2) If yoga is against Catholisism, is meditating?
Thank-you!

Answer
It is appointed to man to live once for all time, and after that comes the judgement - Hebrews 9:27
If there be reincarnation, how could there be heaven or hell or purgatory or limbo?  Where would the personal judgement be, as well as the final judgement ("Great White Throne") be?  Like it or hate it, that's the way God built the universe and us.  We won't change anything by wishing that He had done something else, and indeed the very desire for something else is based on wanting to get away with sin.  It makes life not a serious thing, for in such a world, if a person did wrong, no problem, they get another chance and another and another until they get it right.  But we already have that right now with each new day.  There is no need for another layer of this to happen, and Scripture is quite explicit in stating that it doesn't so occur.
The problem with the eastern mysticisms and practices (such as yoga) is that they are in fact based on various other false religions.  There is one God and all rivals are non-gods, no matter how much people may revere them or serve them.  The false gods are all creations of man, and of demons, and to worship them as one ought worship the one real and actual Creator is idolatry.  That is what makes these things so evil.
There is however such a thing as Christian (Catholic) meditation, but this is something quite different from eastern meditation.  Instead of staring at our navels or emptying our minds (or whatever), we think on the things of God, for example imagining what it was for Christ to go through all that He did being crucified, and all the time gratefully acknowledging our thanks to Him for what He did there and how He did it for us when He owed us nothing.