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HEAVEN means the place, and especially the condition,
of supreme beatitude. Had God created no bodies, but
only pure spirits, heaven would not need to be a place;
it would signify merely the state of the angels who
rejoice in the possession of God. But in fact heaven is
also a place. There we find the humanity of Jesus, the
Blessed Virgin Mary, the angels, and the souls of the
saints. Though we cannot say with certitude where this
place is to be found, or what its relation is to the
whole universe, revelation does not allow us to doubt
of its existence. (A pure spirit can be in place only
so far as it exercises an action on a body in that
place, but of itself the spirit lives in an order
higher than that of space.)
We shall speak first of the existence of heaven, then
we shall see what is the nature of this beatitude:
beatific vision, beatific love, and accidental
beatitude.
The Church teaches as a doctrine of faith, defined by
Benedict XII: "The souls of all the saints are in
heaven before the resurrection of the body and the
general judgment. They see the divine essence by a
vision which is intuitive and facial, without the
intermediation of any creature in that view. By this
vision they enjoy the divine essence, they are truly
blessed, they have eternal life and repose." [498] The
Council of Florence [499] says that souls in the state
of grace, after being purified, enter into heaven, see
God the triune as He is in Himself, but with a degree
more or less perfect, according to the diversity of
their merits.
The Testimony of Scripture
In the Old Testament we find a progressive revelation
regarding the remuneration of the just after death.
[500] This revelation is still obscure in the first
books of the Old Testament, because the Old Testament
itself was given, not immediately as preparation for
eternal life, but as preparation for the coming of the
promised Savior, who after His death would open to the
just the gates of heaven. Here lies a very great
difference between the Old Testament and the New. In
the New Testament the expression "eternal life" is
frequent, whereas it is rare in the Old Testament.
Before the time of the prophets Scripture speaks of the
souls of the dead which descend into Sheol, where they
can no longer merit. But the recompense reserved for
the good becomes in time more precise in opposition to
the suffering of the wicked. Thus we read in Genesis
[501] that Abraham, after his death, "was gathered to
his people." The Lord is called "the God of Abraham,
the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob." Again we read
often that Jahve "bringeth down to hell and bringeth
back again." [502] We read that He "killeth and maketh
alive." Moses, [503] after death, "was gathered to his
people."
The prophets speak more clearly of the recompense
reserved for the just after death. Isaias speaks thus:
"The new heavens and the new earth . . ., a rejoicing,
and the people thereof, joy." [504] In Daniel we read:
"The God of heaven will set up a kingdom that shall
never be destroyed." [505] "The saints of the most high
God shall take the kingdom and they shall possess the
kingdom forever and ever." [506] "And all kings shall
serve Him and obey Him." [507] In the Book of Wisdom we
read: "The souls of the just are in the hand of God,
... they are in peace.... God hath tried them and found
them worthy of Himself.... They that are faithful in
love shall rest in Him, for grace and peace is to His
elect." [508]
In the psalms we read: "The Lord is just and hath loved
justice; His countenance hath beheld righteousness."
[509] "Thou shalt fill me with joy with Thy
countenance, at Thy right hand are delights even to the
end." [510] "But as for me I will appear before Thy
sight in justice; I shall be satisfied when Thy glory
shall appear." [511] "God will redeem my soul from the
hand of hell, when He shall receive me." [512]
In the New Testament [513] we read of the kingdom of
heaven, where those who have a pure heart will see God,
and will resemble the angels who "see the face of My
Father." Only the just will have part in this kingdom
and will reign WITH Jesus Christ who has already
ascended into heaven. [514]
St. Paul speaks as follows: "Charity never falleth
away.. . . We see now through a glass in a dark manner,
but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I
shall know even as I am known." [515] God knows us
without a medium, hence we shall also know Him without
any medium. Again St. Paul [516] says that the object
of this vision surpasses all that the ear can hear,
that the eye can see, and that the heart can desire.
[517] And again he speaks as follows: "Every man shall
receive his own reward, according to his own labor."
[518] St. John speaks as follows: "This is eternal
life: that they may know Thee, the only true God, and
Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent." [519] In his First
Epistle he says: "We shall be like to Him (God),
because we shall see Him as He is." [520] In the
heavenly Jerusalem we shall see the throne of God and
of the Lamb "and His servants shall serve Him, and they
shall see His face." [521] .
Thus we see that, from Genesis to the Apocalypse, from
the first book of Scripture to the last, there is a
continuity of revelation. Revelation is like a river.
At its source we cannot see what it will be in the
future. But, little by little, it becomes wider, more
majestic, more powerful. The sense of the divine words
manifests itself more and more to the contemplation of
interior souls, but will not appear in its fullness
until the moment of entrance into heaven.
Witness of Tradition
The existence of the beatific vision is affirmed in
clear and explicit fashion by the Fathers of the
apostolic age. [522] St. Ignatius [523] is penetrated
by this thought, the possession of God in pure light.
St. Polycarp [524] expects the recompense promised to
the martyrs, namely, reunion with Christ at the right
hand of God. It is true that the millenaristic error is
accepted by St. Justin and Tertullian, since they think
that the entrance of the just into the kingdom of
heaven will be retarded until the time of the general
resurrection and the last judgment. Nevertheless these
early writers defend the existence of heaven, even the
most millenaristic among them. And many of these early
Fathers affirm that the souls of the martyrs enjoy the
possession of God immediately after death, before the
general resurrection. In the fourth century this
doctrine is the one commonly received. [525] Among the
ante-Nicean Fathers who most firmly declare the
existence of the beatific vision we must signalize St.
Irenaeus. [526] He writes: "That which God gives to
those who love Him is the gift of seeing Him, as the
prophets have announced. Man of himself cannot see God,
but God wills to be seen by us and He grants to us what
He wills, when He wills and as He wills." St.
Hippolytus speaks in the same manner.
Clement of Alexandria [527] says that to the elect is
reserved the vision of God by the grace of Christ. Also
Origen [528] affirms that they have a clear vision of
God.
St. John Chrysostom [529] is less clear, but he repeats
the words of St. Paul: "We see now through a glass in a
dark manner, but then face to face."
St. Cyprian writes: "What glory and what joy to be
admitted to see God, to be honored with Christ our
Lord! This is the joy of salvation, this is eternal
life: to live with the just, with all the friends of
God in the kingdom of immortality. When God shall shine
upon us we will rejoice with inexpressible gladness,
sharing forever the kingdom of Christ." [530]
St. Augustine [531] often emphasizes the thought that
all the saints in heaven, like the angels, rejoice with
Christ in the vision of God.
Reasons of Appropriateness
In the Middle Ages, certain heretics, Amaury de Bene,
for instance, held that no created intelligence, even
when aided by supernatural light, can ever see God
without medium. Created intelligence, they say, can see
only the created radiance of the divine essence, just
as the eye of the owl is too feeble to see the sun.
Others, on the contrary, like the Beguards, said that
the beatific vision is due our nature and needs no
supernatural light. [532] The teaching of the Church is
here again a summit, elevated above these contrary
positions. In other words, the beatific vision is a
vision of God without medium, but it is an essentially
supernatural vision. [533] What does this mean for the
question which now occupies us?
Reason, left to itself, cannot demonstrate even the
existence of the beatific vision, because this vision
is a gratuitous gift, which depends upon the free will
of God. It is a gift, not due to our nature, not even
to that of the angels. This truth is affirmed by the
Church against Baius. [534] The object of the beatific
vision is nothing less than the object of the uncreated
vision of God. Hence it surpasses the natural object of
every created or creatable intelligence, since every
created intelligence is infinitely inferior to God.
Reason, left to itself, according to the greater number
of theologians, especially Thomistic theologians,
cannot prove positively and apodictically the
possibility of the beatific vision, because this vision
is not only gratuitous, as are miracles but it is
essentially supernatural just as is the grace which it
presupposes. It is a mystery, as are the Trinity, the
Incarnation, the Redemption. [535] Hence it lies beyond
the sphere of demonstration. [536] A miracle is
naturally knowable, since it is supernatural only in
the mode of its production, for example, in the
restoration of life to a corpse. But the beatific
vision, just like grace and the light of glory, is
supernatural in its very essence.
Nevertheless theologians, and in particular St. Thomas
have given reasons of appropriateness for the
possibility and the existence of the beatific vision.
We shall dwell on one reason which constitutes a very
serious probability, and which can ever be scrutinized
anew with advantage, though it can never furnish a
rigorous demonstration, just as the sides of a polygon
inscribed in the circumference can never be identified
with that circumference.
The argument runs thus: [537] There is in man a natural
desire to know the cause when he sees an effect. From
this natural desire arises wonderment, which lasts as
long as the cause is not known. If therefore man's
intelligence cannot arrive at a knowledge of the first
cause of all things, his natural desire would be in
vain.
St. Thomas [538] says more explicitly: "The object of
the intelligence is the essence or nature of things,
and this faculty grows more perfect the more it knows
the essence of things. When we know an effect there
arises in us a natural desire to know the essence or
nature of its cause. [539] If, therefore, we know, not
the essence of the first cause, but only its existence,
this natural desire would not be completely satisfied
and man would not be completely happy." [540]
This natural desire cannot be an efficacious desire, a
necessitating desire, because the beatific vision is a
gratuitous gift, as the Church has defined against
Baius. [541] But it is a conditional and inefficacious
desire: If it pleases God to grant us this gratuitous
gift. Thus, in illustration, the farmer desires rain if
Providence wills to give it to him. Now this desire
supports a serious argument of appropriateness in favor
of the existence of the beatific vision. But it does
not prove positively and apodictically even the simple
possibility of such a vision. This vision is
essentially supernatural, as is grace and the light of
glory which it presupposes and requires. To prove its
possibility would be the same thing as proving
apodictically the possibility of grace and the light of
glory, and these two truths are beyond the sphere of
demonstration. But at least our argument shows that it
is not possible to prove the impossibility of the
beatific vision. Further, it enables us to refute the
contrary reasons, and this is a great gain.
We may understand this argument better if we note that
philosophy, reason alone, can prove with certitude the
existence of God and of His chief attributes. But there
remains for reason a great obscurity in the intimate
harmonizing of these attributes, in particular in the
harmonizing of absolute immutability and sovereign
liberty, of infinite justice and infinite mercy,
especially of omnipotent goodness and the divine
permission of the greatest evils, physical and moral.
Hence arises the natural desire, conditional and
inefficacious, to see the very existence of the first
cause, because this vision, without medium, would show
the intimate reconciliation between these attributes,
which flow from the essence of God.
This natural desire to see God is admirably expressed
by Plato. [542] He says that we must rise from the love
of sensible beauty to the love of intellectual and
moral beauty, to the love of the supreme beauty
existing eternally in itself. He concludes: "What would
we think of a mortal to whom it would be given to
contemplate pure beauty, simple, without any mixture,
and not garbed in flesh and human colors and other
perishable vanities, but the very divine beauty itself
? Do you not think that this man, being the only one
who sees the beautiful by the faculty to which beauty
is perceptible, could bring forth, not mere images of
virtues, but veritable virtues, since he is attached
and united to truth ? Now man who brings forth and
nourishes true virtue is deserving of being cherished
by God. If any man can be immortal, it is this man."
These words of Plato are confirmed by the aspirations
of the human soul, which are found, even though in an
enfeebled state, in many religions.
This argument of appropriateness in favor of the
possibility and existence of the beatific vision can be
proposed independently of divine revelation, without
supposing that we have been called to the life of
grace. Further, this argument shows the suitableness of
our elevation to supernatural life.
But, supposing this elevation, we can also say that we
now have a connatural desire to see God, a desire which
proceeds from grace, as from a second nature. Grace is
indeed the seed of glory, and this seed tends of its
own accord to its final development. From this
viewpoint our desire is not now a conditional and
inefficacious desire, but a desire which is intended to
reach its goal, and does in fact reach it, even if many
refuse to respond to the divine appeal.
This reason becomes stronger if we recall what Jesus
Himself has said in the Gospel of St. John: "He that
believeth in Me hath everlasting life." [543] He has
eternal life already in its commencement. Infused faith
tends of its own accord to the vision which we await.
Further, sanctifying grace and charity are of their own
nature everlasting, and will in fact last always,
unless the fragile vase in which they are received be
broken, when the will turns away from God by mortal
sin, sometimes forever. But whatever we think of these
falls, the life of grace here below is of the same
essence as the life of heaven, just as the germ
contained in the acorn is of the same nature as the oak
fully developed from the germ. Faith will give place to
vision, and hope to possession. But sanctifying grace
and charity will last forever. "Charity never falleth
away." [544]
This desire, connatural and supernatural, proceeding
from grace, which is the second nature of the soul, is
continually renovated in us by the word of the Savior:
"Ask and it shall be given to you, seek and you shall
find." [545] It is this desire which St. Augustine
expresses when he says: "Thou hast made us, O Lord, for
Thee, and restless is our heart until it rests in
Thee." [546]
This is what revelation says to the believer. This view
confirms greatly the argument of appropriateness which
we have developed above. Hence we understand how
decisively the Church [547] condemns those who say that
immediate vision of God is impossible, just as it is
impossible for the owl to endure the splendor of the
sun. This position is true of every created or
creatable intelligence, left to its own natural forces,
but it is not true of the created intelligence when it
is supernaturalized by consummated grace and the light
of glory, which are a participation in the intimate
life of God Himself.
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