I pray for them, I pray not for the world, but for them whom thou hast given me; because they are thine.
— St. John 17:9
THE subjects of Heaven and Hell are always worth pondering. We can’t think about them too much. We can’t overestimate how much reflection upon them can set us in the right direction, like a compass pointing the way in a storm. Countless problems would be solved if more people spent 15 minutes a day meditating on Heaven and Hell, as they really are.
Sadly, fear, ignorance, prejudice and a lack of God’s grace keep people away.
I recently came across a sermon by an Episcopalian minister in the course of research and in it, she point-blank said to her prosperous congregation gathered beneath an historic, white steeple, “You may have noticed that we don’t talk much about Hell here.” Of course, they noticed it. They probably wouldn’t have been there if she talked about it. Hell is not a successful product in the religious marketplace. The slightest suggestion of it is enough to send a shopper to another retailer down the street. Still, I thought, “That’s sad.” If they don’t talk about Hell, well then, they must not understand a thing about Heaven. I wondered anew at this phenomenon by which the most important and interesting subjects are averted, subjects Jesus Christ placed in the forefront again and again of his sublime and unexpected message.
One aspect of Heaven that people don’t consider enough is the friendships to be found there.
Heaven is a place of love. Not the sentimental, false thing often called love. The moment Adam and Eve fell from grace they institutionalized betrayal. They wounded our capacity for love and brought about this meretricious imposter. No, not that, but love that is true and deep. The closest bonds of earth are a pale foreshadowing of this love. Yes, the happiness of heaven is supremely social. There is no unwanted isolation, no dissension, no conflict, no distrust and no disappointment. No cliqueishness, no gossip, no stabs in the back. No desire for understanding or acceptance is unmet. The social joys to be found there will be, after the general judgment, all-encompassing: intellectual, emotional, physical — on every plane of a glorified being.
Albert H. Dolan, O. Carm., in his little book St. Therese Returns (Carmelite Press, 1932) writes quite profoundly on this issue:
Love, historically, is the strongest human passion, the greatest natural motive power on earth; yet the purest and holiest of earthly loves, yes, the love of all lovers on earth together cannot equal the love of the lowest soul in Heaven. In Heaven we shall love and be loved with a great, indescribable love, of which earthly parental, filial, conjugal, and fraternal loves are only poor imitations, and only represent some portions or elements.
Have you considered how often you take a utopian view in social matters? Have you considered that if you kept this truth of Heaven always in sight, you might bear with the disappointments of this life, realizing they are only a passing phase?
Fr. Dolan continues:
Each one of the Blessed in Heaven will love us with a might of love beyond all earthly love, and the Blessed are innumerable. Each one of the angels will love us with a love far more deep, and more beautiful, and more possessing, than any human love, and of these angels there are legions upon legions.
I hadn’t considered that possibility, ever.
Then who can imagine that bliss of love with which the sinless Mother of God will endow us. No earthly mother ever hung over her first-born with a fondness like that to which the Mother of Jesus will bestow upon each one of the Blessed. Then we have no words to describe the bliss of that love which our Lord will bestow upon us. This is true of His humanity, which besides, out of every perfection of His divinity, there will flow out into us torrents of love. If a great King were to smile kindly on a peasant, and show the peasant real affection, the peasant would be supremely happy — a thrill of joy never before experienced would run through every fibre of his frame. But this is but a faint reflection of the eternal, undying thrill of joy which the loving smile of the King of Kings will produce in us. On the one hand we shall see the All-Holy, All-Powerful God, and on the other side our own littleness and, in spite of our insignificance, we shall see that great God love us with infinitely more tenderness than any Mother can love her child. And never in all eternity will there dawn a day, when we shall notice a growing coldness in God for us, or in ourselves toward God, — on the contrary, our love and happiness will constantly increase and grow more perfect.
And then think of what it is to be with those noble, generous and wise human beings, the Saints, and to enjoy their exalted companionship forever, the beauty of their souls and countenances penetrating our hearts and filling us with a love so sweet and enduring it would overcome us if we were to experience it in this life. There would be no embarrassment then that we too love God. Our inadequacies would be overshadowed by their heroic heights, in the way immense mountains cradle, and form one exquisite panorama with, the flecks of flowers and grasses far below.
Here is a love worth any price. Here is a love the ancient martyrs saw so vividly. It overcame them with joy when they were fed to wild dogs in the amphitheater or set alight in the imperial gardens. Joan of Arc, betrayed as few have ever been betrayed, called out in a resounding voice, Jesu, Jesu! as the flames encompassed her and the hatred of the world consumed her earthly existence. She saw love and nothing else. Her heart was already on fire.
Oftentimes, people talk of Heaven as if it were a state of mindless euphoria, almost a state of drunkenness. But it is nothing like that. In mindless bliss, in depersonalized nirvana, little of our selves would survive. Little of our selves would love or be loved. The heartlessness of this world, its scorn for the holy and marvelous intimacies of heaven, can only prepare us to know true charity if and when we see it. If we must sacrifice attachments in this life for the love of God, we are not without friends. They await us, and they want nothing more than that we love what they love.
