WHAT IS HEAVEN LIKE (1): NEVER-ENDING LOVE AND HAPPINESS
ALL OF US WANT TO BE HAPPY. One doesn’t have to be educated or brilliant to know and experience this profound aspiration in our heart (though countless philosophers and saints have affirmed and written about this e.g. Aristotle, St. Augustine, St. Thomas Aquinas etc). THIS PROFOUND DESIRE FOR HAPPINESS IS INNATE IN THE HUMAN HEART.
The problem is that we realize that THE JOYS IN THIS LIFE ARE FLEETING (loved ones die, parties and vacations end, binges give way to hangovers and indigestion, noble carnal pleasures are momentaneous, children leave home, money how important it may be to live a decent life doesn’t completely fill us…): all these do not quench our thirst for a never-ending happiness which even death cannot prevent. “All that this earth can offer us is continually passing away: hardly has pleasure begun than it is already ended(St. Josemaria, The Way n.753).”
WHERE TO FIND THIS ETERNAL HAPPINESS THEN AND WHO CAN QUENCH THIS INFINITE THIRST FOR ETERNAL HAPPINESS IN OUR HEART THEN?
In HEAVEN where one will see and live with GOD for ETERNITY. Lord, “you have made us and drawn us to yourself, and our heart remains restless until it rests in you. (St. Augustine, Confessions).”
“Those who die in God’s grace and friendship and are perfectly purified live forever with Christ. They are like God for ever, for they ‘see him as he is,” face to face’(1 Jn 3:2; cf. 1 Cor 13:12; Rev 22:4) (Catechism 1023).”
“THIS PERFECT LIFE WITH THE MOST HOLY TRINITY – this communion of life and love with the Trinity, with the Virgin Mary, the angels and all the blessed – is called “HEAVEN.” HEAVEN IS THE ULTIMATE END AND FULFILLMENT OF THE DEEPEST HUMAN LONGINGS, THE STATE OF SUPREME, DEFINITIVE HAPPINESS (Catechism 1024) The LOVE AND HAPPINESS, the “mystery of blessed communion with God and all who are in Christ is BEYOND ALL UNDERSTANDING AND DESCRIPTION. Scripture speaks of it in images: life, light, peace, wedding feast, wine of the kingdom, the Father’s house, the heavenly Jerusalem, paradise: ‘no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man conceived, what God has prepared for those who love him(1 Cor 2:9)’(Catechism 1027).”
Below is how the Book of Revelation describe the New Heaven and the New Earth (Rev 21 NRSVCE)
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. 2 And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying,
“See, the home[a] of God is among mortals. He will dwell[b] with them; they will be his peoples,[c] and God himself will be with them;[d] 4 he will wipe every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more, for the first things have passed away.”
5 And the one who was seated on the throne said, “See, I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this, for these words are trustworthy and true.” 6 Then he said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give water as a gift from the spring of the water of life. 7 Those who conquer will inherit these things, and I will be their God and they will be my children. […]
10 And in the spirit[f] he carried me away to a great, high mountain and showed me the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God. 11 It has the glory of God and a radiance like a very rare jewel, like jasper, clear as crystal. 12 It has a great, high wall with twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels, and on the gates are inscribed the names of the twelve tribes of the Israelites; 13 on the east three gates, on the north three gates, on the south three gates, and on the west three gates. 14 And the wall of the city has twelve foundations, and on them are the twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.
18 The wall is built of jasper, while the city is pure gold, clear as glass. 19 The foundations of the wall of the city are adorned with every jewel; the first was jasper, the second sapphire, the third agate, the fourth emerald, 20 the fifth onyx, the sixth carnelian, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth chrysoprase, the eleventh jacinth, the twelfth amethyst. 21 And the twelve gates are twelve pearls, each of the gates is a single pearl, and the street of the city is pure gold, transparent as glass.
22 I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb. 23 And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God is its light, and its lamp is the Lamb. 24 The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it. 25 Its gates will never be shut by day—and there will be no night there. 26 People will bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations. 27 But nothing unclean will enter it, nor anyone who practices abomination or falsehood, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s book of life.”
Dear friends, do you want to be perfectly happy, with a complete happiness which never ends? AIM TO POSSESS GOD! AIM FOR HEAVEN WHERE YOU WILL SEE HIM FACE TO FACE! FOSTER THIS INNATE DESIRE OF YOURS FOR COMPLETE HAPPINESS BUT MAKE SURE THAT YOU PUT YOUR HEART WHERE IT CAN BE FOUND.
OTHER POINTS OF THE CATECHISM:
1025 To live in heaven is “to be with Christ.” The elect live “in Christ,” but they retain, or rather find, their true identity, their own name. For life is to be with Christ; where Christ is, there is life, there is the kingdom.
1026 By his death and Resurrection, Jesus Christ has “opened” heaven to us. The life of the blessed consists in the full and perfect possession of the fruits of the redemption accomplished by Christ. He makes partners in his heavenly glorification those who have believed in him and remained faithful to his will. Heaven is the blessed community of all who are perfectly incorporated into Christ.
1028 Because of his transcendence, God cannot be seen as he is, unless he himself opens up his mystery to man’s immediate contemplation and gives him the capacity for it. The Church calls this contemplation of God in his heavenly glory “the beatific vision”:
How great will your glory and happiness be, to be allowed to see God, to be honored with sharing the joy of salvation and eternal light with Christ your Lord and God, . . . to delight in the joy of immortality in the Kingdom of heaven with the righteous and God’s friends.602
1029 In the glory of heaven the blessed continue joyfully to fulfill God’s will in relation to other men and to all creation. Already they reign with Christ; with him “they shall reign for ever and ever.”
SEE AS WELL: WHAT IS HEAVEN LIKE (2)?: THE CONSOLATIONS OF HUMAN LOVE HERE
PHOTO SOURCE: Raffaello, Stanza della Segnatura, Disputa del ss. Sacramento IN https://catholicsstrivingforholiness.files.wordpress.com/2015/11/f390d-disputa.jpg
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