Blogger Priest

There are a lot of misconceptions about heaven.  It is not simply a place where we can better satisfy hedonistic longings.  Many of the renditions of heaven on television and in movies would in time probably more resemble hell than paradise.  It is not simply a place where nice people go after death.  Being nice will not save us.  The pattern given to us by Scripture is crucial:  repentance, faith in Christ, conversion and loving obedience.  Jesus is the Way and the Truth and the Life.  There is no other way to the Father.  This truth of the kingdom may strike many as unfair, but God is the one who sets the parameters for justification.  The preoccupation of heaven is not further self-absorption; no, it is rather transformation and identification with Christ.  The disposition open to grace and holiness is what remains crucial.  We must empty ourselves to be vessels of the holy.  The saints of heaven have one overriding activity— they give eternal glory to God.  Any vision of heaven that neglects this facet is false.

We were made for God.  Our hearts will know incalculable joy in being within the divine presence.  Heaven is not merely a place where men will reason without feeling like the Star Trek Vulcans attempt to do.  Our minds will acquire the truth for which we have always longed— to see and know God face to face within the beatific vision.  But while we will not be afflicted with fickle emotions, as human beings we will have our hearts and feelings saturated by the divine presence and we will be touched by infinite love.  We will be home with the Lord.  There will be no more sadness and tears.  All will be joy.

We are promised restoration beyond the grave.  We will not be disembodied ghosts forever.  We believe that just as our Lord rose from the dead in a glorified body, so shall we be restored, albeit with immortality.  Further, while on our earthly pilgrimage, our emotions and passions are often rebellious and our nature is wounded by concupiscence.  The saints will not know rebellion in their members.  We will know control and order, not as robots or ants, but as the children of Adam and Eve were meant to be from the beginning.  Of course, we will also be more as the incarnation and work of Christ has merited for us a share in the grace-filled divine life.  Humanity is raised to a level higher than ever before.  Like the angels, there will neither be marriage nor the begetting of children; instead, we will experience in the light of Christ the immensity and purity of love beyond the current shadows.  While our bodies have often had dominion over our souls, the situation is reversed in heaven.  We will be our true selves.  We will know and love and live in grace, no longer subject to the accidents of nature or corporeal chemistry.  We will be able to think and feel without distraction and disorientation.  As Dr. Kreeft said in his essay on heaven, “All our humanity is perfected, not diminished, in Heaven.”

Filed under: Catholic, Eschatology, Heaven |