Heaven

The Church teaches that to live in Heaven is to be with Christ, writes Cathal Barry

The Church teaches that “those who die in God’s grace and friendship and are perfectly purified live forever with Christ”.

The Catechism states that 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 fulfilment of the deepest human longings, the state of supreme, definitive happiness”, the document says.

The Church teaches that to live in Heaven is “to be with Christ”.

“For life is to be with Christ; where Christ is, there is life, there is the kingdom” (St Ambrose).

By his death and resurrection, the Church holds that Jesus Christ has “opened” Heaven to us.

Possession

“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,” the Catechism states.

This mystery of “blessed communion” with God and all who are in Christ, according to the Church, “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).

Because of his transcendence, the Church holds that 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”:

Happiness

“How great will your glory and happiness be, to be allowed to see God, to be honoured 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” (St Cyprian).

The Catechism states that “all who die in God’s grace and friendship, but still imperfectly purified, are indeed assured of their eternal salvation; but after death they undergo purification, so as to achieve the holiness necessary to enter the joy of Heaven”.

From the beginning the Church has honoured the memory of the dead and offered prayers in suffrage for them, above all the Eucharistic sacrifice, so that, thus purified, “they may attain the beatific vision of God”.

The Church also commends almsgiving, indulgences, and works of penance undertaken on behalf of the dead:

“Let us help and commemorate them. If Job’s sons were purified by their father’s sacrifice, why would we doubt that our offerings for the dead bring them some consolation? Let us not hesitate to help those who have died and to offer our prayers for them” (St John Chrysostom).