The Mystery of Heaven: Understanding Our Journey to God's Home
Our Invitation to God's Home
I cannot emphasize enough just how wonderful a mystery heaven is. The mere fact that we would be invited to the personal home of God is such an extraordinary thing. But more than that, to actually contemplate what the reality of heaven is is just simply extraordinary. Now, I know I talk a lot about different different descriptions of things or using analogies or whatever else. But many times it's the only way that we can appreciate or understand something. So the first thing we need to understand is that we don't belong in heaven. We just don't belong there. We're humans were creatures. We don't actually belong there except for the fact that God gave us a gift to be able to belong there. Not by our nature, not by our own selves, but by the goodness of God and by His own nature which he gives to us in an adoptive state.
Our Adoptive Divine Nature
So while we're still human and we'll always be human, we will have in us, we have within us by grace, God's very nature given to us through adoption. Our Lord Jesus Christ is true God. But He became true man. He took upon himself. He adopted a human nature. And through his actions and through the act of redemption upon the cross, he made us. Even though we are truly humans, he gave us an adoptive divine nature. So we're the converse of our Lord Jesus Christ. Again, a magnificent miracle that God performs every day of our lives, that we don't even think about something truly extraordinary.
The Concept of Grace and Heaven
And it is only through grace that we can even contemplate the very idea of what it means to be in heaven. It is only through understanding the true goodness and love of God, which is exemplified most perfectly by grace that we can understand what it means to be in heaven. We're not there by right. We're there by adoption. We are not supposed to be there also because we're sinners, sinners by original sin, which Adam and Eve condemned us to be cut off from the grace of God by our very conception. But then also grace. And but. But then also we are by our own personal sins, each and every one of our mortal sins and actions that violate the commandments of God to such an extreme degree that it actually kills the life of grace within our soul, cuts us off from the right of heaven, from the ability to enter into heaven, because we can have no union with God when we kill His very life in our own soul. So heaven is not ours by right should make that very clear because we need to be grateful for the opportunity. And so long as we are grateful for the opportunity, we will work, body and soul, day and night for the ability to be a part of that thing, which is so wonderful and so completely outside of our ability to achieve.
The Role of Saint Peter and the Church
So that's the first thing we need to appreciate what heaven is, just as regards our nature. Something that is completely outside of us. The second thing we need to consider is that heaven is guarded. The gates of heaven are guarded by Saint Peter himself. Now we talk about Saint Peter having the kings, the keys to the Kingdom of Heaven, because our Lord Jesus Christ himself gave them to Him. Now, Saint Peter represents the church, the doctrines blessed by the Holy Father. Throughout history, blessed by the Sea of Saint Peter. These are the truths of faith that are necessary for our salvation. Does it matter who the Pope is if he is speaking in unity with the other, with a unity of Catholic doctrine, with all the full authority of the papacy, then it is so and so. If we want to achieve heaven will only be by the Catholic Church. The doctrine of no salvation outside the church has been defined no less than three times by councils and popes as an absolute doctrine. It is only by the power of Saint Peter that we can be saved.
Achieving Heaven Through Spiritual Combat
Another thing we need to consider is that is what our Lord said about the kingdom of Heaven is born of violence and the violent bear it away. If we want to achieve heaven, if we want to achieve the absolute interminable peace of heaven, it comes by waging war. Any time somebody tells us that we don't have to fight for our salvation, or we don't have to fight the world the flesh of the devil, or that we can choose the easier road or whatever else. They're selling you something. The fact of the matter is, the only way to achieve heaven is through waging war against ourselves and our weaknesses, against our ignorance, against our blindness, against the world. With all of its temptations. And against the devil who hates us with the fury of hell itself and who longs for one simple thing to sabotage our salvation. If we talk about hell being the easy road between being the end of the easy road, heaven is the end of the of the road worth taking. It is the road that we must fight to get through. It is the road that is steep, that is difficult, that is treacherous at times, and one that requires an awful lot of faith, because it's not a road that we can see around the next bend very easily. It is something that requires us to have tremendous faith, because only by the light of faith will we get up it.
The Eternal Glory of Heaven
But when we consider how difficult it is to achieve heaven, we must also accept one other thing. It is absolutely worth any pain, any suffering, torment, difficulty, separation, family, feud, anything. Which is why our Lord could say those who those who do not choose me above your father and mother and spouse and brother and sister is not worthy of me. Because if we are not willing to put God first, then we don't deserve the benefit of everything that God gives to us in heaven. Now, one of the things is that heaven is a country of pure delights. When we think about that, this little kids, we can think about all of our favorite activities and foods without consequences, without our parents telling us no or whatever else may be the case. But the fact of the matter is, that is not what happened. That is not the only thing having is. We should never think of it just purely in human terms. Heaven is perfect contentment, perfect happiness, perfect peace, perfect joy, and an absolute revelation of God Himself. Because we do not belong there by nature. Looking upon God is not something that we can actually do. We cannot just look upon God. It would destroy us. Which is why we need something referred to as the light of glory, a created filter, if you want to call it that. And it's going to be based upon it's going to be based upon our level of grace.
The Path to the Beatific Vision
So if you want to consider it as such, there's sunglasses to be able to look directly at God and not be blinded and destroyed and annihilated by that site. Because we cannot fit the infinite into. Our own soul any more than we could fit the ocean into a teaspoon. So God gives us sunglasses, if you want to call it that, a filter, which it puts over our soul, if you will, to be able to look directly upon God and to be able to see only so much of Him as our level of grace can withstand. So it varies from person to person. How much everybody is able to look upon God depends upon their level of grace, how completely grace has possessed that person because God is infinite. There is never anything. At what point? There's never any point where God gets boring or. Humdrum or the same old, same old or anything else. God is the new stance. He is the now. Perpetually God is infinity itself. He is eternity itself. He is perfection itself. He is goodness itself and he is the origin of all of these things. Just the mere concept of contemplating and understanding to even any degree whatsoever how much he loves us will give us an eternity of bliss. If we truly understood the love of God. We would die of joy instantaneously.
Saint Imelda's Story: A Glimpse of Divine Love
The famous story of Saint Imelda or blessed Imelda, I think she's saint at this point, I'm not sure is absolutely magnificent, but it's a simple illustration of what the love of God will do to us. She was a little child in the 13th century. She desperately wanted to receive First Communion at that time. Children do not receive their First Communion until about 12 or 13 years old. She wanted to receive her first communion from the time that she was three. The moment she understood what Holy Communion was, that was her entire life. She pestered her parents constantly. She pestered her priest. Her parents were were nobility. So they actually had a priest in their castle. And she was always annoying him about it. They ended up sending her to the Dominicans, the sisters, as part of her schooling. She annoyed the Mother Superior as constantly about it. That was her one simple goal. I want to receive my first communion. And then one year she was about eight years old. She had to witness all the several of her classmates who were 12 to 15 years old receiving their first communion. And it broke her heart that she couldn't be a part of that. So as soon as she was able to after the celebration, she went back to the church and she wept, who beg God for the grace to break down that barrier where he would be able to come to her. The nuns later came in to the chapel, smelling a powerful radiance of the smell of flowers which had no earthly source. They walked in and they found that the Blessed Sacrament had come out of the tabernacle and was hovering above her head. Well, obviously they called the priest. He immediately grabbed the Blessed Sacrament, put it back in the tabernacle, spoke to Imelda for a little bit, and then decided she needed her first communion.
Holy Communion: The Key to Understanding Heaven
That Sunday she received her first Holy Communion, and she was radiant with joy upon finally receiving what she had long desired. The mothers that the Dominican mothers left her alone so that she could enjoy. That sensation of having received our Lord Jesus Christ for the first time. Because the thing that the priest asked her, the one question he asked of her was, Why do you want to receive the sacrament? And her answer is, I want to taste the love of God. She understood, even at a very young age, what it meant when the sisters came back in after an hour, they found that she had died of happiness. Just the briefest, merest taste of the love of God with true faith, understanding and appreciating how much God loves us, that he took the form of Holy Communion for us was enough to cause her pure soul to leave its body. Now. Should all of us die of joy every time we receive communion? We should. We don't. Our faith is weak. That's okay. We should always try to improve it. But every communion should be an opportunity for us to grow an appreciation of that love of God. Because there's a reason God appears to us in the form that He does in Holy Communion. Why He maintains the appearances of bread and wine is because if we understood the true nature of what he is, there would be no faith left and left to, shall we say, protect us, protect our life from the joy of what it is we are to receive. But we must have faith enough to appreciate how much God loves us, because that is the essential characteristic of what heaven is, the contemplation of God Himself.
Embracing God's Love
What is love? Who is love? When we go to heaven, that is the first thing that we will be conscious of how very much God loves us. That will be evident in our in our in our particular judgment. But once we enter those gates of heaven, once we enter into the actual place of heaven, and the second that we actually see God for for who he is in all his glory, we will see him how he sees us. With perfect, absolute, infinite love. A desire to save our souls. That has caused all of these things to happen. The incarnation, the crucifixion and death, the establishment of the church, the sacraments, everything. Because he so loves us. He comes to us again and again, overlooking our indifference, overlooking our are casual aspect again and again and again, over and over, giving us yet another chance, another confession, another opportunity. This is what heaven is an appreciation and understanding, and not just an understanding by faith, but a direct vision of truly the love of God. Now that love we can either embrace or we can ignore. The fact is, he loves each and every one of us, and we have a choice. We've already discussed what happens if we reject that love. So now let's look at what happens when we receive that love.
Union with God: The Goal of Our Journey
When we embrace that love, we break down the barriers between ourselves and God. We become possessed by him. We become dominated by him. Everything about us starts to explode with his love. Every activity that we perform is influenced and animated by his love. Every word we speak vibrates with his love. Every function that we do, that we perform that we know is from him is given back with as much love as we have to offer. Our life becomes one constant, active prayer of the love that we respond to God. That is the goal. First, we go through the first conversion by shedding our selfish selves, by casting off the more human parts of ourselves. The more selfish parts of ourselves. Purifying ourselves the purgative way. Purifying ourselves, purifying especially our intention. So that we are willing to do whatever it takes to correspond to the love that God has shown us and what we know that He is giving to us. That is the purpose for why we do penance. That is the purpose why we pray. That is the purpose why we ask for help. That is the purpose why we do anything. And we start to take every part of our lives and to transform it into an act of trying to submit ourselves to the love of God That is the goal.
The Spiritual Journey: Purgative, Illuminative, and Unitive Ways
That is the purpose. And it requires a lot of effort. That first conversion, it's really tough, but it's also why we have to go through a night, a night of the senses. We have to go through dark periods where we have to do this not because it's fun or easy, not because we can see the light at the end of the tunnel, but because we know it's the right thing to do. And because God wants us to demonstrate our love freely, voluntarily and selflessly. And then you go in through the illuminated state where we are guided by a direct illumination of God, where he is showing us the way that we are supposed to go, where He encourages us and inflames us with his love and where our activities become more easily and more completely possessed by his love. But then again, we have to go through another purification, this time of the soul, the Dark Knight of the Soul, which Saint John of the Crossroads so beautifully about. Because it's not enough. That we are just guided by God. We have to be able to guide ourselves knowing what God has taught us. And then there comes the unit of way where in theory people cannot longer distinguish between, and we should not be able to distinguish between what God wills and what our will is, or we have annihilated ourselves so completely that we can say with Saint Paul Now, not now. I live not. But he lives in me. Christ is supposed to be the dominant factor within our soul.
Holy Communion: The Precursor to Heaven
Now, what is the one way that we can appreciate this love of God? And the reason I brought up Blessed Imelda was precisely this Holy Communion is the most magnificent, most perfect way that we can practice this absolute submission to God. This appreciation in this faith, in the love of God. Because it is the sacrament of His love. And as a Saint Augustine likes to point out, with every other food, when we eat it, we assimilated into becoming part of us. But when we receive communion, he assimilates us into being more of him. Every time we go to communion, we should disappear into him because that is the greatest precursor to heaven. And if we ever want to understand heaven, that's where it starts. Holy Communion. So I've danced around it enough.
The Essence of Heaven: Seeing God
What is the essence of heaven? Very simply. Seeing God not through faith, but in person. That is the that is the whole thing that heaven is seeing God. There are different extents, different levels, different abilities that everybody has because everybody has a different level of grace. But everybody who is there in heaven receives a vision of God. Each and every one of us will see God for who He really is. But again, through the light of glory, we cannot look directly upon him. But think of what that means. Imagine being able to look upon the sun just to stare at the sun with no fear of blindness. And what do we see in the sun? The source of light and heat. Two very good things. Very important things. Essential things for our lives. Now imagine looking into the source of that light and the heat that the sun produces. A light that makes it look like the weakest candle you could imagine.
The Perfection of Heaven's Joy
Imagine looking at the most beautiful vista you could imagine. Whether you're, you know, fond of the oceans or whether you're fond of the mountains. I'm Colorado. I'm from Colorado. So what can I say? I'm always going to go with the mountains, but. Imagine the most beautiful view that you have ever seen in your life. Then appreciate the fact that you'll actually be looking upon the person who created that beauty who is infinitely more beautiful than that. Imagine those beautiful music you've ever heard in your life, the kind of music that wrenches tears from your eyes. It's so beautiful and so powerful. Or maybe a book you read or a movie you watched or anything else. Any sort of demonstration of beauty and power. And understand that you're going to the very source of that beauty and power, so achingly beautiful that it is infinitely destructive to our very nature because it's too much.
The Sensory Spectacle of Heaven
And just as hell is constructed of the worst and the most terrible things. Hell is constructed of the most perfect and most beautiful things, all resonating through the vision of God Himself. The choirs of angels as opposed to the insane noise of hell. Instead of the foul stench is of the infernal regions. Imagine the glorious smells that are going to absolutely penetrate every sense of our being. Instead of the frightful noise and frightful appearances of everything, instead of the torture and pain to glory, even to the point that our Lord Jesus Christ, the martyrs, and everybody else who has suffered for the faith, their wounds will still be open. Their wounds will still be there, but they'll be glorified. There'll be something that resounds to their glory and will be something in which God is illuminated. God is demonstrated before all those wounds will scream out the name of God in the most joyous tones. The souls around us, the people will be able to share God with every sense will be delighted infinitely.
Eternal Happiness in Heaven
But again, the most perfect and profound sense of absolute perfect joy will come from the fact that we possess God and nothing can take that away from us. One of the reasons why we're never happy here on Earth is because any joy that we have here on Earth can be taken away in a heartbeat or even less. And it's always going to be transient because it can be lost or we can't take it with us, or we will die, or whatever it may be. We'll always be beggars. But. In heaven. It's permanent. Our happiness can be taken by nobody. It's absolute. There is no qualification to our happiness. It's never. I'd be more happy if. And even the people who didn't make it to heaven with us, they won't take that. That will not be a part of happiness stolen away from us. We will still be eternally happy. I always get the question about, well, are pets in heaven too? And the sounds really cold hearted to me to say, but it doesn't matter because all the joy and all the good and all the happiness that pets can bring to us will be ours in a much more complete and perfect way in heaven.
The Joys of Heaven Surpassing Earthly Pleasures
So will they be there? Yes, in God, but maybe not in the way that we expected. Not maybe in the human or animal form. But every delight that we have here on Earth will be completely and perfectly and absolutely given to us in heaven. So imagine your favorite pet or your favorite whatever person. All the happiness and joy that they bring you. All the comfort and security and intimacy and whatever else, all of those things. But without all the drama and problems, without all the sadness of loss, without all the difficulties and fights, without all the whatever, any of the negative sides, and then all that joy and goodness that they bring us here in this world, augmented infinitely, magnified perfectly, and never to be lost. And it's still not enough to understand what it is will have easy for us to think. Well, having them be kind of boring if we look just are sitting around looking at God. Quite the contrary. Every time we look at our favorite wood activity, we do our favorite thing. We listen to our favorite music, whatever it is. We read our favorite book. Every time we should be able to get more out of it. And again, that's the barest hint of what God is, essentially. It's always amazing to see how those little acts of kindness that human beings can perform. We can just see genuine goodness coming out of some people through their charity, their kindness, through their efforts for other people. And when we look upon that, it really moves us. It's a beautiful thing. But again. That's a human kindness and goodness.
Diving Deeper into Divine Beauty and Truth
Nothing compared to the divinity. Who is goodness itself? Truth. There's something so satisfying in being able to sit down and study anything. I don't care. Whatever your particular passion of study is, it could be Catholic doctrine, it could be philosophy, it could be biology, it could be whatever. And there is something so beautiful about discovering the beauty of a truth that is given to us through that study. God is truth itself. All truths will be revealed in him. Whatever your particular passion is, will be found infinitely in him, but not chopped up piecemeal. Not all these things kind of in their little spot. All of them combined into one glorious, absolute, brilliant symphony of simple perfection. God is. He cannot not be. We look upon a rock and it is something that resembles God in some way. We look upon other human beings and there is something of God in them. We look upon. The Church, and we see something of God in it. We look upon God and all of those things melt away into insignificance.
The Longing for Heaven
It is crucial for us to long for heaven. I was just reading a little bit of poetry. Peel's letters. His absolute exhaustion with this life is pretty amazing. Not that he hated his life, but because he's wanted so desperately to get to heaven. He was dying for it. Everybody should be dying to go to heaven in every possible way. Not that we shouldn't enjoy the good things of this life, but we should always see heaven in them. Chesterton loves to point out that children are the best examples of what heaven is going to be like. It's exhausting playing with my nieces and nephews. One, I'm too battered and broken to keep up with them. But two, they just like the same thing over and over and over and over and over and over, etc.. And they'll never tire of it. Uncle Sean will wear himself out in a big hurry and his patience starts to get a little raw. Well, that's because they find joy in the simple and the beautiful. And they never get tired of that simple beauty because they are children. And that is something to be fostered and encouraged in children. And it's something as adults, we should never lose. We do, but we shouldn't. But that simplicity of vision of children is a perfect example, as perfect as we can get as humans of the joys of heaven. We will never tire. We will never be sad. And we will never have any of that joy robbed from us. It will be ever new. Every young, constant. Present, eternal.
The Peace and Order of Heaven
One of the most important things we can contemplate about heaven is its peace. Everything in hell is noisy. It's obnoxious. It's chaotic. It's destructive. It's noxious. Everything in hell is ordered. Beautiful, simple. Lovely light. Peaceful, not silent. But anything that goes on. It's absolutely perfect. Everything as it should be, and no fear of it getting out of place. My neurotic grandmother. God love her. When she would clean the house, she would always close off one of the bathrooms because at least for 24 hours, something had to be cleaned in the house. Some part of the house had to be clean or she'd freak out. So please God, she's in heaven where everything's always clean. That would be her heaven. Everything is in its place. Everything is in order. And not just that. But my messy uncle can't come in to mess things up. So if you can imagine, that is what heaven is. Everything as it should be all the time for everybody. Perfect peace, not the absence of war, but quite the contrary. This piece of knowing that everything is as it should be, because everything is as it should be, because it is God and God is the only thing that matters. He is the source of all things. He is the end of all things. He is the Alpha. He is the Omega. He is the reason for everything and he is the means for everything. And heaven is the place for all of that comes together into one glorious explosion of perfection.
Heaven: Our Ultimate Goal
Heaven is the one thing that is actually worth anything. Absolutely anything. The wounds of the martyrs proclaim his glory and proclaim that truth that he is worth our lives. The teachings of the fathers and the confessors and the doctors of the church proclaim that he is worth knowing, above all things. The doctrines of the church command us that it is that he is worth every possible commandment and guidepost that he has set before us. The sacraments are just the barest tastes of the fact of his love for us, which is so extreme that it crosses time and space and it annihilates the distance between the nature of humanity and the nature of the divinity and unites us both in the most phenomenal way. Because at the end of everything, heaven is the perfect unity between ourselves and God himself. It is the perfect unity between us and every human relationship. And unity here on this earth is a pair pale comparison. It is the barest image.
The Reflection of Grace in Human Union
The union between spouses itself is a reflection of what it means to be in grace. Nothing else. No more than that. As glorious as it is and as perfect and beautiful as it is. It is just a simple reflection. What grace is to a soul. The union between grace and a soul. And even that without the vision of heaven itself, as beautiful as that connection with grace is. It is has nothing compared to heaven, because once we are in heaven, we are possessed by God perfectly, and our union with him is absolute and cannot be taken away. And our union with him is perpetual, and our union with him is well-earned. Not by us, but by his love for us.
Turning to the Blessed Virgin
So let's turn to the Blessed Virgin. If anyone can reveal heaven to us, it is her. I do highly recommend the other Garry's whole divine comedy. His section on heaven. The Paradiso is beautiful. Need a doctorate in theology. But it's beautiful. I highly recommend it. But at the end of everything, the only way that we are going to be able to perceive the full and absolute glory of God is going to be through Our Lady. And so we turn to her and we ask her for help. These four last things that we have contemplated yesterday and today are an essential part of Catholic dogma, and they are an essential part of our spiritual life, and they are a necessary part to appreciate what it is we are doing every moment of our lives so that we consecrated to learn to use all of these things, to love God more and let His love possess us and carry us all the way into Heaven where we will never lose it.
Summary
The contemplation of heaven is central to understanding the journey of faith, where we are not naturally entitled to partake. Heaven is a gift from God, requiring us to adopt His divine nature through grace. Our journey to heaven is one of conversion and purification, necessitating the shedding of selfish desires and embracing God's love through faith and Holy Communion. The attainment of heaven mirrors our struggle against sin and worldly temptations, demanding a profound spiritual combat to emerge victorious.
Heaven is depicted as the ultimate union with God, embodying perfect joy, peace, and beauty. Here, God's infinite love envelops us, erasing all earthly sorrows and tribulations. Our pursuit of heaven is affirmed through our daily acts of faith, emulating the saints and martyrs who have journeyed before. Guided by the Blessed Virgin Mary, we aspire to comprehend the fullness of God's glory and the incomparable joy of eternal life with Him. Heaven is not only a destination but the realization of divine unity and the reflection of God's eternal love in our souls.