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THE saints in heaven, seeing God face to face, love Him
above all things, because they see with the most
perfect evidence that God is better than all creatures
combined. This love will never pass away. Faith will
give place to vision; hope will be replaced by
possession: but "charity never falleth away. [575]
By charity, already on earth we love God, not only as a
good supremely desirable, the object of hope, but
because of His infinite goodness in itself, a goodness
far higher than any of His gifts. Charity wills He
should be known, loved, and glorified; that His
imprescriptible rights be recognized, His name be
sanctified, His will be done. This is the love of
friendship, whereby we will unto God all that belongs
to Him, wishing His happiness as He wills our
happiness. Thus, even here on earth, we share in God's
intimate life, have our life in common with Him, have
spiritual communion between Him and ourselves. [576]
This charity will last forever. It would be an error,
even a heresy, to think that our love of God in heaven
is merely the consummation of our hope, which makes us
desire God as our supreme Good. Even here on earth, the
act of hope, which can exist in a soul in the state of
mortal sin, is notably inferior to the act of charity,
and love of God in heaven is nothing but the perfect
act of charity, whereby the soul transcends itself,
whereby without cessation it loves God more than
itself, whereby it passes out beyond itself, and enters
into a state of uninterrupted ecstasy. [577]
This love implies admiration, reverence, recognition.
It implies, above all, friendship, with all its
simplicity and intimacy. It is love with all its
tenderness and all its power, the love of a child that
throws itself into the tenderness of its Father, and
wills unto that Father all that belongs to Him, just as
the Father takes the soul into His own beatitude. God
says to us: "Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord."
[578] Christ says: "Come, ye blessed of My Father."
[579] We shall not indeed love God as He loves us, but
the Holy Spirit will inspire a love worthy of Him.
This transforming union, now in a state of
consummation, fuses our life with the intimate life of
the Most High. We rejoice that God is God, infinitely
holy, just, and merciful. We adore all the decrees of
His providence, all manifestations of His glorious
goodness. We subordinate ourselves completely to Him,
saying to Him: "Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to
Thy name give glory." [580] This supreme act of the
highest of the theological virtues is the only one that
is meant to last eternally. God alone, it is true, can
love Himself infinitely, love Himself as far as He is
lovable, but each blessed soul will love Him with all
its power, with a love that no longer knows obstacles.
[581]
The Satiety of the Blessed
This state of satiety is always new and never passes
away. St. Augustine writes: "All our life will be one
Amen, one Alleluia. Sadden not yourselves by
considering this truth in a carnal manner, as if in
heaven, just as on earth, we could become weary by
repeating the words: Amen, Alleluia. This heavenly
Amen, this Alleluia, will not be expressed by sound
which passes away, but by the emotions of love, the
emotions of the soul embraced by love. "Amen" means "It
is true." "Alleluia" means "praise God." God is the
immovable truth, who knows neither defect nor progress,
neither decline nor growth. He is truth, eternal and
stable: truth forever incorruptible.
"We shall sing our Amen forever but with a satiety that
is insatiable. With satiety, because we live in perfect
abundance, but with an insatiable satiety, because this
good, while it satisfies completely, produces also a
pleasure ever new. Insatiably satiated by this truth,
we shall repeat forever: Amen. Rest and gaze: that is
our eternal Sabbath." [582]
Greek philosophers discussed the question whether
pleasure in movement is superior to pleasure in repose.
Aristotle [583] shows clearly that the highest joy is
that which completes achievement, is the terminus of
perfect, normal activity, which is no longer in motion
toward the end, but possesses the end and rests
therein. This truth is realized in the highest way in
celestial beatitude.
Heavenly joy has a newness which cannot pass away. The
first instant of the beatific vision lasts forever,
like eternal morning, eternal spring, eternal youth. It
resembles the eternal beatitude of God. God's life is
one unique instant of immutable eternity. He cannot
grow old. He is not past or future, but eternally
present. He contains eminently all successive events,
as the summit of a pyramid contains all points at its
base, as the view of a man placed on a mountain
embraces the entire valley. Simultaneous totality: that
is the definition of eternity.
As illustration, we may point to Mozart, who heard
instantaneously and completely the melody he set out to
compose. Similarly, great minds embrace their entire
science with one sole glance.
The beatific vision of the saints is measured by the
unique instant of immovable eternity. The joy of that
instant will never pass away. Its newness, its
freshness, will be eternally present. As the vision
will be always new, so likewise the joy which flows
from the vision.
We can get some ideas of this truth by the joy we
experience when we begin to relish the word of God.
This joy, far from passing away, grows ceaselessly. The
contrary is seen in sense goods. Avidly desired at
first, they give us an ever decreasing joy.
Continuance of friendship, ten years, twenty years, and
more, is a sign that this friendship has a divine
origin. Divine friendship, relish for God's word, is a
lasting joy, which lifts us above embarrassed affairs,
domestic needs, and useless pastimes. That which
nourishes the soul is divine truth and the supreme
goodness revealed therein. Bossuet says: "If this
divine truth pleases us when it is expressed by sounds
that pass away, how will it ravish us when it speaks in
its own proper voice which never passes away! God does
not use many words: He speaks one eternal word, His
Word, His Verbum, and thereby says everything. In this
Word we, too, see everything."
"Taste and see that the Lord is sweet." This sweetness
is the prelude of heaven's joy: repose in an action
which never ceases, in an unmediated vision which
floods the soul with a joy forever new.
St. Thomas, [584] following St. Augustine, speaks thus:
"We grow weary of sense goods when we possess them. Not
so of spiritual goods. They do not diminish, they
cannot be harmed, they give us a joy that is ever new."
This joy we sometimes have in prayer. "My Lord and my
God, take from me all that impedes me on the road to
Thee, give to me all that leads to Thee. Take me from
myself and give me to Thee, that I may belong entirely
to Thee." God penetrates the depths of our will. God
seizes and wounds the soul, that it may possess Him
fully.
This doctrine finds admirable expression in The
Imitation of Christ: "Repose in God, O my soul. He is
the eternal repose of the saints. Beloved Jesus, let me
find repose in Thee, not in creatures: not in health,
in beauty, in honors, in glory. Not in power and
dignity. Not in riches, honors, and knowledge. Not in
merit and aspiration. Not even in Thy own gifts and
rewards. Not even in the transports of spiritual
gladness; not in the angels and archangels and the
whole host of heaven: not in anything visible or
invisible, not in anything which is not Thyself, O my
God. All Thou canst give me outside of Thyself, all
that Thou dost discover of Thyself to me, is too
little. It does not suffice me if I do not see Thee, if
I do not possess Thee fully, if I do not rest in Thee
alone." Such is the joy of heaven, always new. We speak
of heaven as the future life. A better term is
"everlasting." [585]
Love beyond Liberty
In heaven charity takes on new modalities. It becomes a
love higher than liberty itself, a love we can never
lose.
Here on earth our love of God is free because we do not
see God face to face. God is seen by us as good under
one aspect and severe under another aspect. His
commandments can displease that which is still to be
found in us of egoism and pride. Hence our love for Him
remains free and therefore meritorious.
In the fatherland, on the contrary, we shall see
infinite Goodness as He is in Himself. We cannot find
in Him the least aspect which can displease, nothing to
drive us away, not the least pretext for preferring to
Him anything whatsoever. Our eternal act of love will
never suffer the least shadow of weariness. Infinite
Goodness, seen without medium, fills so perfectly our
capacity of love that it attracts us irresistibly more
than any ecstasy that can be had on earth, where love
is still free and meritorious. In heaven there will be
a happy necessity of love. [586]
Here especially we see the measureless depth of the
soul, in particular of our will, of our capacity for
spiritual love, which God alone, seen face to face, can
satisfy. [587]
But this love, though it is not free, is still not
forced and compelled. Nor is this something lower than
liberty and merit, as are the involuntary acts of our
sense nature here below. Rather, it is something higher
than liberty and merit, like that spontaneous love
which God has for Himself, that love which is common to
all three divine persons. As God necessarily loves His
own infinite goodness, so our love, arising from the
beatific vision, can never be interrupted or lose aught
of its fervor.
In a manuscript written by one who lacked human culture
but who was far advanced in the ways of prayer, I
recently read these words: "In heaven the soul receives
God into itself. Received thus by Him and in Him, it
loses in Him its liberty. Entirely drawn to God, it
surrenders to joy in God. It possesses God, and is
possessed by Him. It knows and feels that this joy is
its eternal state." Heaven's joy is an everlasting
morning.
Impeccability
The blessed in heaven cannot sin. Their state is a
state of sinlessness, not only because God preserves
them from sin, as here below He preserves from sin
saints who are confirmed in grace, but because one who
has the beatific vision cannot turn away from it by
sin, cannot feel the least pretext to love Him less for
a single moment. [588]
Here on earth no one ceases to will happiness, although
he may often search for happiness there where it is
not, even perhaps in suicide. The saints in heaven,
too, cannot cease to love God, seen face to face, but
they cannot be tempted to turn elsewhere. They are
indeed free to love this or that finite good, this or
that soul, to prefer one soul to another, to pray for
it, to follow the commands of God to assist us. But
this liberty never deviates toward evil. It resembles
the liberty of God Himself, which is at the same time
free and impeccable. Again it resembles the human
liberty of Christ, who enjoyed the beatific vision from
the first instant of His conception. But in Jesus these
free acts were still meritorious, because He was still
a viator, a traveler, whereas the free acts of the
blessed are no longer meritorious, because they have
arrived at the terminus of their meritorious voyage.
The soul confirmed in grace has no longer need to
merit.
Beatitude That Cannot Be Lost
It follows from all we have been saying that the saints
in heaven cannot lose their beatitude. Scripture calls
this beatitude "eternal life." As the wicked go into
eternal punishment, so the just go into eternal life.
[589] St. Peter speaks of "a never-fading crown of
glory." [590] St. Paul says that this crown is
incorruptible. [591] He goes on to say that our
afflictions, light and momentary, gain for us an
eternal weight of glory. [592] The Creed ends with
these words: "I believe in life everlasting " [593]
The expression "eternal life," everlasting life, means
much more than future life. Future is only a part of
time, which passes, which bears within itself a
succession of moments. But eternal life is not measured
by time, neither by solar time nor by spiritual time.
Eternal life is measured by the unique instant of
immovable eternity, an instant which cannot pass, which
is like an eternal sunrise.
Theologians say that the eternal life of the blessed is
measured by participated eternity. This participated
eternity differs, without doubt, from that essential
eternity which is proper to God. It differs, because it
had a commencement at the moment of entry into heaven.
But it will not end, and has not within itself any
succession. It is truly the unique instant of immovable
eternity. This instant is not dead, but sovereignly
alive, because it fuses perfect intelligence and
perfect love.
This vision and this love exist at the topmost point of
the beatified soul. But, beneath this topmost point,
there will be a region less high of intelligence and
will, a succession of thoughts, of emotions, of
desires, in the form of prayers addressed to God in
regard to this or that soul still on earth.
The inamissibility of beatitude follows from the
essence of that beatitude. Heavenly bliss, by its very
nature, satisfies all aspirations of the just soul. But
this satisfaction could not exist if the blessed could
say to themselves: "Possibly a time will come when I
shall cease to see God." Such cessation of beatitude,
after it has been possessed, would be the greatest
suffering, and a suffering inflicted without guilt. If
we cling so closely to the present life, in spite of
all its sadness, how much more will we cling to the
life of heaven? Hence nothing can bring the beatific
vision to an end, neither God who has promised it as
recompense, nor the soul which has reached it. [594]
The Catechism of the Council of Trent says: "He who is
happy, must he not desire ardently to enjoy without end
that which makes him happy? And without the assurance
of a stable and certain felicity, would he not be the
prey of fear?" [595]
The blessed souls live above the reach of our hours and
days and years. They live in one unique instant which
does not pass. This instant, when we enter heaven, when
we receive the light of glory and begin to see God
forever, must be prepared for. In this preparation
three other instants of life have pre-eminent
importance: that of receiving justification by baptism,
that of reconciliation with God if we have offended Him
gravely, that of a happy death, that is, final
perseverance. Beatific love, we know, corresponds to
the intensity of our merits. Not in heaven do we learn
to love God, but here on earth. The degree of our life
in eternity depends on the degree of our merits at the
moment of death. There are many mansions in the
Father's house, corresponding to varied merits. [596]
"He who soweth sparingly shall also reap sparingly; and
he who soweth in blessings shall also reap blessings."
[597]
Christian life on earth is eternal life already begun.
Sanctifying grace and charity endure eternally. St.
John of the Cross speaks thus: "In the evening of our
life we shall be judged by our love for God and
neighbor."
Eternal joy, beatific love, is ineffable. If here on
earth we are enchanted by the reflection of divine
perfection in creatures, by the enchantments of the
visible world, by the harmony of colors and sounds, by
the immensity of the ocean, by the splendor of the
starry heavens, and still more by the spiritual
splendors revealed in the lives of the saints, what joy
shall we feel when we see God, this creative center of
life and of love, this infinite plenitude, eternally
self-existent, from whom proceeds the life of creation!
Each soul will rejoice, not only in the reward it has
received, but also in the reward given to other elect
souls, and still more in the glory of God, in the
manifestation of His infinite goodness. This joy will
be an act of the virtue of charity, the normal
consequence of love of God and of creatures for the
sake of God.
Such is the essential glory which God has reserved for
those who love Him. "The eye hath not seen," says St.
Paul, "nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the
heart of man, what things God hath prepared for them
that love Him." [598]
Then, too, we shall see the immense distance between
goods that are spiritual and goods that are material.
The same material good, the same house, the same field,
the same territory, cannot belong simultaneously to
many persons. Possession by one hinders possession by
another. On the contrary, spiritual goods, the same
truth, the same virtue, the same God seen face to face,
can belong simultaneously to all. Nay, we possess these
spiritual goods the more, the more others possess them.
Their joy multiplies our joy.
Similarly we shall see clearly that goodness is
essentially self-communicative. God the Father
communicates His entire nature to His Son and through
His Son to the Holy Spirit. The person of the Word
communicates itself to the humanity of Jesus, and
through this humanity He communicates to us a
participation in divine life.
The elect in heaven belong to the family of God. The
Blessed Trinity, seen clearly and loved sovereignly,
dwells in them as in a living tabernacle, as in a
temple of glory, endowed with knowledge and love. The
Father engenders in them the Word. The Father and the
Son breathe forth the personal love of the Holy Spirit.
Charity renders them in a measure similar to the Holy
Spirit; vision assimilates them to the Word, who
Himself assimilates them to the Father of whom He is
the image. They enter therefore in a sense into the
cycle of the Blessed Trinity. The Trinity is in them,
rather, they are in the Trinity, as the summit of
reality, thought, and love. [599]
Love of the Saints for Our Lord and His Holy Mother
Beholding the three divine persons, the saints
understand likewise the personal union of the Word with
the humanity of Jesus, His plenitude of grace and
glory, His charity, the treasures of His heart, the
infinite value of His theandric acts, of His merits,
the value of His passion, of His least drop of blood,
the unmeasured value of each Mass, the fruit of
absolution. They also see the glory which overflows
from the soul of our Savior upon His body, and they see
how He is at the summit of all creation, material and
spiritual. In Him they see also Mary co-redemptrix, the
infinite dignity of her divine maternity, her position
in the hypostatic order, superior to the orders of
nature and of grace. They see the greatness of her love
at the foot of the cross, her elevation above the
angelic hierarchies, the radiation of her universal
mediation. This vision of Jesus and Mary belongs to
essential beatitude as its most elevated secondary
object. [600]
Hence the saints love our Lord as the Savior to whom
they owe everything. They see that without Him they
could have done nothing in the order of salvation. They
see, down to the least detail, all the graces they
received from Him: all the effects of their
predestination, namely, their vocation, justification,
glorification. They live by Him. Each sees in Him the
Bridegroom, the Bridegroom of the Church militant,
suffering, and triumphant. What love they must have for
the mystical body, of which Jesus is the head! What
bliss in being loved by God in Jesus Christ, whose
members they are!
Such is the vision described in the Apocalypse: "I
heard the voice of many angels saying with a loud
voice: The Lamb that was slain is worthy to receive
power and divinity and wisdom and strength and honor
and glory and benediction. The Lamb was slain and has
redeemed us . . . in His own blood out of every tribe
and tongue and people and nation." [601] "The heavenly
Jerusalem hath no need of sun, nor the moon to shine in
it, for the glory of God hath enlightened it and the
Lamb is the lamp thereof." "There shall not enter into
it anything defiled, . . . but they that are written in
the book of life of the Lamb." [602]
Bossuet writes as follows: "Let us here below begin to
contemplate the glory of Jesus Christ, to become like
unto Him by imitating Him. The day will come when we
shall be like unto Him in glory, when we shall be
inebriated with His love. Thus will be consummated the
work for which Jesus Christ came on earth." [603]
Again [604] he writes: "Jesus says of the elect, 'I am
in them.' [605] They are My living members, they are
Myself. The eternal Father sees in them nothing but
Jesus Christ, loves them by pouring forth on them the
love He has for His Son. Let us, then, remain in
silence with our Savior. In wonder at the grandeurs
given us in Him, can we have any other desire than to
render ourselves worthy of His grace?"
Here we find the true meaning of the term, "spiritual
gospel." This is written by the Spirit, not with ink on
parchment but with grace on our minds and wills. This
spiritual gospel is the complement of the one we read
in daily Mass. It is being printed day by day, century
by century, and will be finished on the last day. It is
the spiritual history of the mystical body. God knows
it from all eternity. The blessed read it in God. [606]
Mary is loved by all as the worthy Mother of God,
mother of divine grace, the powerful virgin, mother of
mercy, refuge of sinners, consoler of the afflicted,
help of Christians, queen of patriarchs, of prophets,
of apostles, of martyrs, of confessors, of virgins, of
all the saints. The love of the saints for Jesus and
Mary belongs to essential beatitude. It is the highest
among the secondary objects of the beatific vision.
Love of the Saints for One Another
Seeing one another in God, the saints love one another.
The degree of this love is measured by nearness to God.
Each rejoices at the degree of beatitude which others
have received. Yet each loves with special affection
those to whom he has been united on earth. [607]
What an immense throng! Here we find, not only
patriarchs, prophets, the precursor, St. Joseph, [608]
the apostles, but the souls of children who died after
their baptism. And in this immense assembly we find
harmonized the greatest variety with intimate unity,
the highest intensity with the deepest repose. The
saints whom we call dead, because they have left the
earth, are in reality overflowing with life.
Each of the saints has his personal distinction. Each
is himself, with all his natural gifts and supernatural
privileges, all of them perfectly developed. St. Paul
differs from St. John, St. Augustine from St. Francis
of Assisi, St. Theresa from St. Catherine of Siena. Yet
they resemble one another since each contemplates one
and the same divine truth, each is on fire with one and
the same love of God. Hence the masters of the
spiritual life tell us: Be supernaturally yourself.
That means, eliminate your faults, that the image of
the Father and the Son may be formed in you. Let each
reproduce that image in his own fashion. Unity in
diversity is the definition of beauty. And spiritual
beauty is deathless beauty.
Lastly, the blessed love us. They pray, in particular
and without ceasing, for those whom they have known
here below. So near the source of all good, they heap
benefits upon us. They draw from God's treasury the
gifts which His goodness wishes to bestow. Further, all
the saints in heaven love us, even those whose very
existence we know not, because we with them are members
of that mystical body of which Jesus is the head.
Hence we, too, must love the saints. This love is a
sure and abundant source of spiritual progress. Who can
tell the fruits of that intimacy of grace which exists
between us and this or that saint in heaven whom we are
moved to imitate? In each of them we find our Lord, the
supreme model. [609]
This love of the saints for one another belongs to
essential beatitude, because they see and love one
another in the Word. What joy flows from the
contemplation of uncreated good in all its radiation!
We read in The Imitation: [610] "Think, My son, on the
fruits of your labors, of the end which will come soon,
of the recompense and repose there in great joy. They
cannot turn their heart to any other object because,
filled with eternal truth, they burn with charity which
cannot be extinguished. They do not glory in their
merits, because they do not attribute to themselves the
good they have. They attribute it all to Me, who have
given them everything in infinite charity. [611] The
more they are elevated in glory, the more they are
humble in themselves, and their humility renders them
more dear and unites them ever more closely to Me.
[612] It is written: 'They fell down before the Lamb
.... and adored Him that liveth forever and ever.'
[613] O ye humble souls, rejoice! Ye poor, leap with
gladness! The kingdom of God belongs to you if you walk
in the truth."
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