What Is Heaven?

Christians agree that God invites us all to end our lives in a state of being called ‘heaven’; that is, in a personal relationship with God that is full of joy and oneness for all eternity. The idea of a perfect state of being is very difficult to grasp since we are not perfect, and are not even certain in what perfection consists, try as we might to know. Yet we are assured by Jesus that perfection is our worthy goal. “Be perfect, even as your heavenly Father is perfect.” (Matthew 5:48)

Of all the teachings of Christianity, this is the one that ought to drive Christians through their entire lives and to the place beyond life that Jesus called paradise. For those who are not Christians, this seems a hopeless dream. They little realize the irony that those who do not share the dream are really the ones who live hopeless lives, who wait for nothing at the end but a final and dark nothingness.

An unbeliever asks a Christian how the pursuit of “heaven” could be anything more than an imaginary ego-trip. This is as far from the truth as one can get. While we are in this life, it is true, we seek heaven because we want to live forever with God. To someone who does not believe in God, that might appear egotistical. But in truth it is not. We desire to live with God because we believe God wills us to unite with Him and live with Him forever. So it is not “my will be done,” but rather “Thy will be done.”

United with God in eternity, there will be no more selfish ego to get in the way of our love for God and God’s love for us. Again, this will be a relationship that we cannot perfectly experience in this life, but we can by various ways of pursuing holiness begin to grasp what the Beatific Vision of God will be like.

It will begin first of all in prayer. And this is why it is so difficult to relate to unbelievers what our faith is about. If they do not pray, how can they begin to imagine the proof of God that enters the Christian by way of the earnest heart? The heart is where God wants to know us, rather than the head, which is full of crafty deceits and excuses when a head divorced from its heart commands them. If God is love, as John says (1 John 4:8), heaven must be a state of being in which the heart’s desire is fulfilled, and there is nothing left to desire since we have it all.

Will we meet up with family and friends? Will we be greeted by our guardian angel, which the Church teaches we have been assigned at birth? Will we be able to converse with St. Peter and ask him what he thought of St. Paul (I’d really like to know)? All such matters will be discovered yes or no, but the joy of being held in our Father’s loving embrace is all that really matters.

Premonitions of heaven are possible even in this life, since Christ is with us always and never withdraws his love. The more we love, the more premonitions we have of what heaven must be like; the less we love, the more we sense the nature of hell.

Saint Paul says in Galatians 3:27, “For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free person, there is not male and female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” In heaven the differences between us we see on earth will no longer prevail because they no longer matter. What we know is that true joy has begun and all suffering has ended. How could it be otherwise after meeting God face to face?

Longing for heaven is not an easy state to be in, since we do not know – with all our imperfections – exactly what it is we are longing for. But our final longing is not for seventy-two virgins, or streets paved with gold, or the sight of angels strumming their harps and blowing trumpets everywhere. What we long for is our reward for a life of love and obedience to God’s ever so generous plan for all his children.

In the end we know that God has planted in us the seed of our longing for heaven, or we would not have it in us. We can destroy that seed, even refuse to slake its thirst for water and sun, which many have done because they are not wise and patient gardeners. Or we can tend to the seed with loving care, and watch the growth of its trunk and branches spread longingly toward heaven. For the great gift of this seed we may well find that at last our purpose in heaven is to lift our hands in endless praise.

 

Lift All Hands with Endless Praise – a hymn

 

He walked upon the waters to the beat of drums above,

yet cold men in their frozen hearts denied his talk of love.

They lashed him in the heat of noon and struck his sacred face,

then nailed him to a wooden cross, intent on his disgrace.

 

“Father, forgive what they have done,” the broken Jesus cried.

“Into your hands my Spirit take,” and then … and then … he died.

The prophecy had ended now; no mocking Serpent stood

near mother Mary’s true son men had slain upon the wood.

 

As from the tomb’s black terror burst a mighty flash of light,

when from his grave the Sleeper rising ends eternal night.

Great heaven’s gate now opens wide; a thousand souls rush in.

The sleeping King has fully borne the weight of all our sin.

 

Old Eve and Adam stir to life, their ancient weeping shed,

as angels by the dozens come with garlands for Christ’s head.

Now let us thank the Father for the promise that he kept,

and lift all hands with endless praise for tears that Jesus wept.