WHAT IS HEAVEN LIKE? (2):
THE CONSOLATIONS OF HUMAN LOVE…WHAT WOULD IT BE LIKE IN HEAVEN?

In a homily given to grade 4 students years ago, I asked them: “Who among you wants to be happy?” Without any hint of doubt, all of them raised their hands. Then again I asked: “What makes you happy?” A girl immediately waved her hand and replied: “Being with my family.” Another said: “I feel happy when I receive a kiss or a hug from my Daddy and Mommy.”

Being with the people you love most, a kiss, a big, strong hug..,and more things make us happy. Imagine those moments here on earth when manifestations of love and feeling loved by someone gave you the “wings”, the energy and strength to overcome life’s difficulties and convinced you that life is worth living for.

“If Love, even human love, gives so much consolation here, what will Love not be in heaven (St. Josemaria, The Way n.428.” “Consider what is most beautiful and most noble on earth, what pleases the mind and the other faculties, and what delights the flesh and the senses. And the world, and the other worlds that shine in the night: the whole universe. Well this, along with all the follies of the heart satisfied, is worth nothing, is nothing and less than nothing compared… with this God of mine! of yours! ”.

St. Josemaria, The Way n.432

The consolations of human love here on earth…what would it be like in Heaven with God who is Love? Dear friends, let us choose and live a life which leads us to everlasting happiness. Let us choose and love God over and above anything else in this world in each and every action of ours. Once again: Aim for God! Aim for Heaven.

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TEXTS FOR MEDITATION:

“Let not your hearts be troubled; believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And when I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also (John 14: 1-3).”

You suffer in this present life, which is a dream, a short dream. Rejoice, because your Father-God loves you so much, and if you put no obstacles in his way, after this bad dream he will give you a good awakening. -St. Josemaria, The Way, 692.

For ‘others’, death is a stumbling block, a source of terror. For us, death — Life — is an encouragement and a stimulus. For them it is the end: for us, the beginning. -St. Josemaria, The Way, 738.

Heaven: ‘the eye has not seen, nor the ear heard, neither has it entered into the heart of man to conceive the things that God has prepared for those who love him.’ Don’t these revelations of the Apostle spur you on to fight? -St. Josemaria, The Way, 751.

All that this earth can offer us is continually passing away: hardly has pleasure begun than it is already ended. -St. Josemaria, The Way, 753.

Nobody is happy on earth until he decides not to be. This is the way the path goes: suffering — in Christian terms! — the Cross; God’s Will, Love; happiness here and, afterwards, eternally. -St. Josemaria, Furrow, 52.

The path of humility takes you everywhere… but above all to Heaven. -St. Josemaria, Furrow, 282

Fight against your harshness of character, against your selfishness, your spirit of comfort and your dislikes… We have to be co-redeemers; and, besides, consider carefully that the prize you receive will bear a very direct relation to the sowing you may have done.-St. Josemaria, Furrow, 863

If at any time you feel uneasy at the thought of our sister death because you see yourself to be such a poor creature, take heart. Heaven awaits us and consider: what will it be like when all the infinite beauty and greatness, and happiness and Love of God will be poured into the poor clay vessel that the human being is, to satisfy it eternally with the freshness of an ever new joy? -St. Josemaria, Furrow, 891

When encountering the bitter injustice of this life, how the honest soul rejoices remembering the eternal Justice of its eternal God! —With the knowledge of its own wretchedness, it utters with a fruitful desire that Pauline exclamation: Non vivo ego — it’s not me living now! It’s Christ who lives in me! And He will live for ever. -St. Josemaria, Furrow, 892.

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SEE AS WELL: WHAT IS HEAVEN LIKE (3)?: THE JOY OF HAVING GOD IN OUR SOUL HERE.

PHOTO SOURCE: Morgan Weistling (painter) in http://www.greenwichworkshop.com/images/gallery/images/open/MW00051lg.jpg

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