{"id":26477,"date":"2023-04-14T10:12:25","date_gmt":"2023-04-14T15:12:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.holytrinityweb.com\/weekly\/?p=26477"},"modified":"2023-04-14T10:13:49","modified_gmt":"2023-04-14T15:13:49","slug":"heaven","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.holytrinityweb.com\/weekly\/heaven\/","title":{"rendered":"Heaven"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Certainly you have wondered about what awaits us after our death. Questions come flooding in; some serious, some silly. Will I see my mother\/father? Are there pets in heaven? Can I play golf?! I like to cook. Is there a kitchen I can use? And, what do we do all day (or is there a DAY?). Welcome to the club! All Humankind yearns to know what \u201cHeaven\u201d will be like.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The above questions come from the enjoyments and relation- ships that nourish us here on earth. Will they continue? As reasonable as they are, they leave out the most important fact of heaven. We will see God. God who is the source of all creation. God who thought up the pleasures of human life; He will be present to us as the fulfillment of all that is Good.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nevertheless, the questions continue. Humankind yearns to know what \u201cHeaven\u201d will be like. The following thoughts rely on what is given to us in Sacred Scripture and the teaching of the Catholic Church.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

  1. At its root, heaven is to \u201cbe with God\u201d. (\u201cOur Father who art in heaven . . . \u201c).This means we are joined to God who is Father, Son and Holy Spirit. This is only accomplished by God\u2019s grace (not our doing), who chose to become a human being. Christ (the Son) took our full human nature. From this point on God is forever joined to humanity \u0016 \u0016 We\u2019ve been \u201cgrafted\u201d on to God by His will for us. He will never take back the humanity He took on in being born here on earth.<\/li>
  2. Okay, so heaven is to be with God. What\u2019s that like? Here is the great mystery of which we have only partial answers. Read 1 John 3:1\u00163<\/a>. \u201cWe shall be like God for we shall see Him as He is.\u201d So in some sense we will \u201clook on the face of God.\u201d Looking and seeing is part of heaven.<\/li>
  3. Theologians have reasoned to some pretty wonderful conclusions about heaven. Namely, we only enter heaven by being joined to the Resurrected Mystical Body of Christ. By this, we are taken up into the Blessed Trinity. We find ourselves \u201cin God\u201d from our position \u201cin the Son Jesus\u201d. And when all is accomplished in creation, sin and death have been overcome by the merits of Christ \u0016 \u0016 \u0016 then Jesus turns to God the Father (with us in him) and \u201cGod will be all in all.\u201d 1 Corinthians 15:28<\/a>. It\u2019ll be just God.<\/li>
  4. So will we \u201csee\u201d our loved ones? And all who have tried to love in their lives? Yes, but this will be a different kind of seeing. One description has us seeing loved ones and the part they played in bringing Christ to the world while they lived with us on earth. We will See the Christ they were . . The Christ your loved one embodied.<\/li>
  5. Remember, God did not make us angels (pure spirits). He made us Human beings (body and soul). Jesus\u2019s human nature was resurrected to a glorified body. That tells us we will have glorified bodies too. So that we will see each other. . . (Your mother\u2019s sweetness will shine in her special place in the glorified body of Christ.) And we will rejoice in this communion with them.<\/li>
  6. Lastly, Pope Francis (I\u2019ve not seen his quote) is telling us heaven is not like a \u201cplace\u201d as we think of it here on earth… like Hawaii or Rome! Time and space are dimensions of the created universe. God transcends time and space. So to be with God, and in God, is its own reality.<\/li>
  7. All this we await in Faith when what \u201ceye has not seen, and ear has not heard, nor has it entered the human heart, what God has prepared for those who love him.\u201d
    1 Corinthians 2: 9,10<\/a>.<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n
    <\/div>\n\n\n\n

    May God bless you in this Easter season. May your faith in the Resurrected Christ grow ever stronger. And by your Faith may you be moved to bring the love of Christ into this world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Now let\u2019s get to work! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Fr. Tim<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"linkedin\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Certainly you have wondered about what awaits us after our death. Questions come flooding in; some serious, some silly. Will I see my mother\/father? Are there pets in heaven? Can I play golf?! I like to cook. Is there a kitchen I can use? And, what do we do all day (or is there a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_eb_attr":"","_price":"","_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_header":"","_tribe_default_ticket_provider":"","_tribe_ticket_capacity":"0","_ticket_start_date":"","_ticket_end_date":"","_tribe_ticket_show_description":"","_tribe_ticket_show_not_going":false,"_tribe_ticket_use_global_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_global_stock_level":"","_global_stock_mode":"","_global_stock_cap":"","_tribe_rsvp_for_event":"","_tribe_ticket_going_count":"","_tribe_ticket_not_going_count":"","_tribe_tickets_list":"[]","_tribe_ticket_has_attendee_info_fields":false,"_vp_format_video_url":"","_vp_image_focal_point":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26477","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-weekly-column"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.holytrinityweb.com\/weekly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26477","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.holytrinityweb.com\/weekly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.holytrinityweb.com\/weekly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.holytrinityweb.com\/weekly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.holytrinityweb.com\/weekly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26477"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.holytrinityweb.com\/weekly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26477\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26480,"href":"https:\/\/www.holytrinityweb.com\/weekly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26477\/revisions\/26480"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.holytrinityweb.com\/weekly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26477"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.holytrinityweb.com\/weekly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26477"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.holytrinityweb.com\/weekly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26477"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}