Reflection: "Heaven"
Dante and Beatrice gaze upon the highest heavens; from Gustav Dore’s illustrations of the Divine Comedy
“If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitters on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.” -Colossians 3:1-2
Heaven is a slightly less controversial topic than judgment or Hell. Still, our thinking about eschatology is often imprecise. It’s admittedly a difficult topic because the Scriptures use disparate and complex images to describe what Heaven will be like. Many people like to create mental pictures of what they think Heaven will be like. We see this in the proliferation of books like Heaven is for Real, Proof of Heaven, To Heaven and Back, etc. These books are helpful in providing testimonies that counter many of the materialist assumptions of our modern age, but they heavily rely on experiences rather than the Scriptures or the teachings of the Church. This is a topic that we could talk about at length, but for today, there are three important lessons about Heaven that are especially helpful because they have practical implications for how we live.
Last week, I mentioned that Hell is both an eternal destination and a present reality. The same is true about Heaven. Heaven is often associated with the term “eternal life” which is usually interpreted to be a quantity, a never-ending paradise. It is that! “Eternal life,” however, also refers to a quality of life. When we grow in grace and virtue, when we live in accordance with God’s design for human flourishing, when we participate in the sacramental life of the Church, we experience a preview of what is to come for those who love and serve God. “The kingdom of God is within you” (Luke 17:21).
Heaven may conjure up images of floating on clouds and playing on harps. This caricature often distracts us from the real nature of Heaven. Heaven is where we experience the Beatific Vision where we see God, our Creator. In Scripture, humans are not allowed to see God. In Exodus 33:18-20, Moses was only allowed to see God’s back because “Thou canst not see my face: for there shall no man see me, and live.” Yet, we also have the words of our Lord in the beatitudes: “Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God” (Matt 5:8). St. Paul anticipates this vision in 1 Corinthians 13:12, “For now we see through a glass darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.” This is what you were made for! This is what we were all made for: intimate union with our Creator.
If it’s true that Heaven is breaking into the present and if it’s true that it can be characterized by the Beatific Vision, then it means right now is significant because we have our end goal in mind. When you take a road trip, the destination determines your route. If our ultimate destination is the Beatific Vision, then that determines the choices we make now. It’s important to note the words of Jesus in Matthew: “the pure in heart shall see God.” For us to arrive at purity of heart, we must embark on the journey of sanctification. Abbot Moses exhorted John Cassian and his companion Germanus to, “follow completely anything that can bring us to this objective, to this purity of heart.” This means that “anything which pulls us away from it must be avoided as being dangerous and damaging…With this as our continuous aim, all our acts and thoughts are fully turned toward its achievement…For a mind which lacks an abiding sense of direction veers hither and yon by the hour, and by the minute is a prey to outside influences and is endlessly the prisoner of whatever strikes it first.” Heaven, the Beatific Vision, and sanctification are different ways of expressing our goal; the Christian life is about acquiring the virtues that will help us along that trajectory.
It’s hard to believe Christmas is almost here. On Christmas, we celebrate the fact that the Word of God, the Second member of the Trinity, assumed a human nature by uniting a body and soul to his Person. In the Christ child lying in the manger, we see the convergence of Heaven and earth. He shows us who we are supposed to be. He was effectively constantly in the Beatific Vision, experiencing perfect union between humanity and divinity. So as we celebrate this wonderful festival, we must remember that being conformed to his image is the most important thing. “If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitters on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth” (Col 3:1-2).