Victor r. Claveau, MJ
The Council of Florence (1438-45), in its decree for the Greeks, states,
“…The souls of those who have not committed any sin at all after they received baptism, and the souls of those who have committed sin, but have been cleansed either while in the body or afterwards,…[1] are promptly taken up into heaven and see clearly the Triune God himself, just as he is, some more perfectly than others according to their respective merits.”
The same Council also exhorts,
“The effect of this sacrament (baptism) is the remission of original sin[2] and actual sin, and also the punishment that is due to sin. No satisfaction, therefore, is to be enjoined on the baptized for their past sins; and those who die before they commit any sin immediately obtain the kingdom of heaven and the vision of God.”
God will bestow happiness and the richest gifts on all those who depart this life free from original sin and personal mortal sin, and who are, consequently, in the state of grace, justice and friendship with Him.
The existence of heaven is of course denied by atheists, materialists, and pantheists throughout the centuries as well as by those rationalists who teach that the soul perishes with the body—in short, heaven is denied by all who disbelieve in the existence of God or the immortality of the soul. However, for the rest, the doctrine has never met with any noteworthy opposition. Mere reason can prove the existence of heaven and of the state of happiness that the just experience in the next life.
God made all things for His objective honor and glory. Every creature was to manifest His Divine perfections by becoming a likeness of God, each according to its capacity. However, man is capable of becoming, in the greatest and most perfect manner, a likeness of God, when he knows and loves His infinite perfections with a knowledge and love corresponding to God’s own love and knowledge. Therefore, man is created to know God and to love Him. Moreover, this knowledge and love is to be eternal, for such is man’s capability and his calling, because his soul is immortal. Lastly, to know God and to love Him is not only the noblest occupation of the human mind but also its source of supreme happiness. Therefore, man is created for eternal happiness; and he will infallibly attain it hereafter, unless, by unrepentant sin, he renders himself unworthy of so high a destiny.
God made all things for His formal glory, which consists in the knowledge of and the love shown Him by rational creatures. Irrational creatures cannot give formal glory to God directly, but they should assist rational creatures in doing so. This they can do by manifesting God’s perfections and by rendering other services, while rational creatures should, by their own personal knowledge and love of God, refer and direct all creatures to Him as their last end. Therefore, every intelligent creature in general, and man, in particular, is destined to know and love God forever, though he may forfeit eternal happiness by impenitent sin.
God, in his infinite and perfect justice and holiness, must give virtue its due reward. However, as experience teaches us, the virtuous do not always obtain an adequate reward on earth; hence, they will be recompensed hereafter, and the reward must be everlasting, since the soul is immortal. Nor can it be supposed that the soul in the next life must merit her continuance in happiness by a continued series of combats, for this would be repugnant to all the tendencies and desires of human nature.
God, in His wisdom, must set on the moral law a sanction, sufficiently appropriate and efficacious. However, unless each man is rewarded according to the measure of his good works, such a sanction could not be said to exist. Mere infliction of punishment for sin would be insufficient. In any case, reward for good deeds is the best means of inspiring zeal for virtue. Nature itself teaches us to reward virtue in others whenever we can, and to hope for a reward from our own good actions given by the Supreme Ruler of the universe. That reward, not being given here, will be given hereafter.
God has implanted in the heart of man a love of virtue and a love of happiness; consequently, God, because of His wisdom, must by rewarding virtue establish perfect harmony between these two tendencies. However, because such a harmony is not established in this life, it will be brought about in the next.
Every man has an innate desire for perfect beatitude. Experience proves this. The sight of the imperfect goods of earth naturally leads us to form the concept of happiness so perfect that it will satisfy all the desires of our hearts. However, we cannot conceive such a state without desiring it. Therefore, we are destined for a happiness that is perfect and, for that very reason, eternal; and it will be ours, unless we forfeit it by unrepentant sin.
We are born for higher things—for the possession of God. This earth can satisfy no man, least of all the wise. “Vanity of vanities”, says the Scripture;[3] and St. Augustine exclaimed, “Thou hast made us for Thyself (O God) and our heart is troubled till it rests in Thee.”
We are created for wisdom, for the possession of perfect truth. Our mental faculties and the aspirations of our nature provide proof of this. However, the scanty knowledge that we can acquire on earth stands in no equal proportion to the capabilities of our soul. We shall possess truth in higher perfection hereafter.
God made us for holiness, for a complete and final triumph over passion and for the perfect and secure possession of virtue. Our natural aptitudes and desires bear witness to this. However, this happy goal is not reached on earth but in the next life.
We are created for love and friendship, for indissoluble unions with our friends. At the grave of those we love our hearts long for a future reunion. This cry of nature is no delusion. A joyful and everlasting reunion of loved ones awaits the just man beyond the grave.
It is the conviction of most people that there is a heaven in which the just will rejoice in the next life. However, in the fundamental questions of our being and our destiny, a conviction, so nearly unanimous and universal, cannot be erroneous. Otherwise, this world and the order of this world would remain an utter enigma to intelligent creatures, who ought to know at least the necessary means for reaching their appointed end.
Very few deny the existence of heaven; and these few are practically all atheists and sensualists. Surely, it cannot be that all the rest have erred and that an isolated class of men such as these are not the true guides in the most fundamental questions of our being. For apostasy from God and His law cannot be the key to wisdom.
Revelation also proclaims the existence of heaven. This we have already seen in the preceding section from the many names by which the Bible designates heaven; and from the texts of Scripture, still to be quoted on the nature and peculiar conditions of heaven.
Catholic Christians and all other Christians believe in the blessedness of heaven realized in the possession of God.[4]
Robert J. Schihl and Paul Flanagan, in Catholic Biblical Apologetics lists some of the Scriptural passages which speak of heaven:
- as life;[5]
- as eternal life;[6]
- as the crown of life;[7]
- as the tree of life;[8]
- as glory;[9]
- as eternal glory;[10]
- as the eternal glory of God;[11]
- as rest;[12]
- as the crown of righteousness;[13]
- as the Kingdom;[14]
- as a dwelling in the heavens;[15]
Scripture also describes heaven as:
- the kingdom of heaven;[16]
- the kingdom of God;[17]
- the kingdom of the Father;[18]
- the kingdom of Christ;[19]
- the house of the Father;[20]
- the city of God, the heavenly Jerusalem;[21]
- the holy place;[22]
- Paradise;[23]
- life;[24]
- life everlasting;[25]
- the joy of the Lord;[26]
- a crown of life;[27]
- a crown of justice;[28]
- a crown of glory;[29]
- a incorrupt crown;[30]
- a great reward;[31]
- an inheritance of Christ;[32]
- an eternal inheritance.[33]
Those who are in heaven will have:
In heaven the blessed:
- will be with God;[37]
- will be with Christ;[38]
- will be with the angels;[39]
- will be in the house of the Father where there are many dwelling places;[40]
- are heirs of God, heirs with Christ;[41]
- will see God face to face;[42]
- will see God as he is.[43]
They will reign forever and ever:
- illuminated by God;[44]
- immortal and physically incorruptible;[45]
- with an irreproachable conscience.[46]
The Magisterium of the Church speaks of heaven in many ways as cited in Denzinger: [47]
- as eternal life;[48]
- as the eternal fatherland;[49]
- as heaven;[50]
- as the kingdom of heaven and celestial paradise;[51]
- as the vision and fruition of God;[52]
- as true beatitude;[53]
- as eternal rest;[54]
- as eternal beatitude;[55]
- as the vision of God one and three;[56]
- as glory;[57]
- as eternal retribution;[58]
- as the supernatural end.[59]
As it turns out, the Bible, which is the Christian’s roadmap to heaven, is rife with promise of heavenly rewards.
“Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear.”[60]
“For he will render to every man according to his works: to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life; but for those who are factious and do not obey the truth, but obey wickedness, there will be wrath and fury…but glory and honor and peace for every one who does good, the Jew first and also the Greek.”[61]
“Now this is eternal life, that they should know you, the only true God, and the one whom you sent, Jesus Christ.”[62]
His master said to him, ‘Well done, my good and faithful servant. Since you were faithful in small matters, I will give you great responsibilities. Come, share your master’s joy.’[63]
“In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And when I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.”[64]
“Nevertheless, I am continually with thee; thou dost hold my right hand. Thou dost guide me with thy counsel, and afterward thou wilt receive me to glory. Whom have I in heaven but thee? And there is nothing upon earth that I desire besides thee. “[65]
“Thou dost show me the path of life; in thy presence there is fullness of joy, in thy right hand are pleasures for evermore.”[66]
“As for me, I shall behold thy face in righteousness; when I awake, I shall be satisfied with beholding thy form.”[67]
“Beloved, we are God’s children now; it does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.”[68]
“I assign to you, as my Father assigned to me, a kingdom, that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom, and sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel.”[69]
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By his great mercy we have been born anew to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and to an inheritance which is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God’s power are guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.” [70]
“And when the chief Shepherd is manifested, you will obtain the unfading crown of glory.”[71]
“But nothing unclean shall enter it, nor any one who practices abomination or falsehood, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s book of life.”[72]
“Therefore, they will receive a glorious crown and a beautiful diadem from the hand of the Lord, because with his right hand he will cover them, and with his arm he will shield them.”[73]
“For this slight momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison.”[74]
The teachings of the Fathers of the Church affirm the continual affirmation that heaven exists in the history of our faith.
“And man, being a part of your creation, desires to praise You. You move us to delight in praising You; for You have made us for Yourself, and our hearts are restless till they find rest in you.”[75]
“From all this, it will readily occur to any one that the blessedness which an intelligent being desires as its legitimate object results from a combination of two things, namely, that it interruptedly enjoy the unchangeable good which is God; and that it be delivered from all doubt, and know certainly that it shall eternally abide in the same enjoyment.”[76]
For it is said, “To him that has shall be given”[77]: to faith, knowledge; and to knowledge, love; and to love the inheritance. … Whence at last … it is that knowledge is committed to those fit and selected for it. It leads us to the endless and perfect end, teaching us beforehand the future life that we shall lead, according to God, and with gods; after we are freed from all punishment and penalty which we undergo, in consequence of our sins, for salutary purposes. After which redemption the reward and the honors are assigned to those who have become perfect; … they have become pure in heart, and near to the Lord, there awaits them restoration to everlasting contemplation; and they are called by the appellation of gods, being destined to sit on thrones with the other gods that have been first put in their places by the Savior.[78]
[1] For those just souls who depart in venial sin or who are still subject to temporal punishment for sin there is purification in purgatory. Purgatory is “a state of final purification after death and before entrance into heaven for those who died in God’s friendship, but were only imperfectly purified; a final cleansing of human imperfection before one is able to enter the joy of heaven (CCC p. 896).
[2] The absence of grace in the soul caused by the sin of Adam is called Original Sin. Baptism infuses grace into the soul, enabling us to merit eternal life.
[3] Ecclesiastes 1:1.
[4] Robert J. Schihl and Paul Flanagan, Catholic Biblical Apologetics (Hesperia, CA: Catholic Footsteps Press, 1994) pp. 129-133.
[5] Matthew 18:8.
[6]Ibid., 25:46.
[7] James 1:12.
[8] Revelation 2:7.
[9] Romans 8:18.
[10] 2 Timothy 2:10.
[11] 1 Peter 5:10.
[12] Hebrews 4:3, 11.
[13] 2 Timothy 4:8.
[14] Matthew 25:34.
[15] 2 Corinthians 5:1.
[16] Matthew 5:3.
[17] Mark 9:46
[18] Matthew 13:43.
[19] Luke 22:30.
[20] John 14:2.
[21] Hebrews 12.
[22] Ibid., 9:12.
[23] 2 Corinthians. 12:4; Luke 23:43.
[24] Matthew 7:14.
[25] Ibid., 19:16.
[26] Ibid., 25:21.
[27] James 1:12.
[28]2 Timothy 4:8.
[29]1 Peter 4.
[30]1 Corinthians 9:25.
[31]Matthew 5:12.
[32]Ephesians 1:18.
[33] Hebrews 9:15.
[34] Luke 6:23.
[35] Matthew 6:20.
[36] 1 Peter 1:4.
[37] Revelation 21:3.
[38] Mark 16:19.
[39] Matthew 22:30.
[40] John 14:2.
[41] Romans 8:17.
[42] 1 Corinthians 13:9–12.
[43] 1 John 3:2.
[44] Revelation 22:3–5.
[45] Ibid., 21:4.
[46] 1 Peter 3:21.
[47] Heinrich Denzinger, Enchiridion Symbolorum et Definitionum, Sources of Catholic Dogma, (St. Louis: Herder Book CO.)
[48] D 640.
[49] D 457.
[50] D 464.
[51] D 530.
[52] Ibid.
[53] Ibid.
[54] Ibid.
[55] D 570.
[56] D 693.
[57] D 842.
[58] D 836.
[59] D 1669, 1786.
[60] Matthew 13:43.
[61] Romans 2:6–7, 10.
[62] John 17:3.
[63] Matthew 25:21.
[64] John 14:2–3.
[65] Psalm 73:23–25.
[66] Ibid. 16:11.
[67] Ibid. 17:15.
[68] 1 John 3:2.
[69] Luke 22:29–30.
[70] 1 Peter 1:3–5.
[71] Ibid.,5:4
[72] Revelation 21:27.
[73] Wisdom 5:16.
[74] 2 Corinthians 4:17.
[75] Augustine, Confessions, Book 1, Ch. 1.
[76] Augustine, The City of God, Book 11, Ch. 13.
[77] Matthew 25:29; Luke 19:26.
[78] Clement of Alexandria Stromata, Book 7, Ch. 10.