Trying to imagine what Heaven is like must ultimately turn out to be a frustrating exercise. The utter perfection of Heaven and the nature of existence there necessarily transcend all earthly experience. The Holy Scriptures inform us that no mortal man can look upon the face of God and live. To enjoy directly the vision of Almighty God – and this is the essence of life in Heaven – a soul must be elevated to a new level of existence. In Baptism we have already been raised supernaturally to the state of Grace, so that we are able to participate in the life of the Blessed Trinity. And in Our Saviour, Who is God made man, the divine is communicated to us through the medium of His perfect human nature. But to see God face to face in His divine essence we need not only to be in a state of Grace, but to be lifted further again to a new and higher plane altogether – to the state of Glory. This is something that can happen only after we have died and been purified of all remaining effects of sin on our souls.
The Beatific Vision, then, is not really possible for us to visualise with any effectiveness. The Ascension of Our Lord, which we celebrate this month, does however make a great difference to our limited perception of Heaven. It brings Heaven much closer to us. When Christ ascended there, He did not leave His humanity behind. He ascended in His Body, taking His full humanity with Him. This means that human flesh is now enthroned at the right hand of the Father. The marks of the wounds from His Passion may have been glorified as a sign of His triumph over suffering and death, but those wounds are still present, as an everlasting testimony of His tender love for each one of us.
As a Mystery of the Faith, the Ascension serves to humble our human reason. When philosophers deign to acknowledge the existence of God, they consider it more ‘rational’ to suppose that, being a spirit, God is in every place, and in no one place more than any other. As Christians we can answer yes, maybe, but on a certain day in the history of our world, this pure supreme Spirit adopted our human nature and united Himself with our human flesh in the Incarnation, and since His glorious Ascension, He reigns in that flesh in Heaven. If we were left in any doubt about the implications of this for our own bodies, then the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin body and soul into Heaven at the end of Her earthly life is our guarantee that our bodies as well as our souls have been created for everlasting life. A body does not exist in just a ‘state’ but in a place, and so the presence of at least two bodies in Heaven makes it a real place for us, albeit a place in which our bodies are to be perfected, ‘spiritualised’ and glorified forever.
Since Our Lord’s Ascension, the Church has lived in eager expectation of His return in Glory. It is at this ‘Second Coming’ that our mortal remains will be raised from the dust to be reunited with our souls in eternity (we pray, in Heaven). Meanwhile, we must carry on our earthly lives in a realm of light and shadows. Look at the world today. Of course, there are great opportunities that never existed before, including opportunities for doing good that never existed before. But there is also much anxiety at the present time, and fear about what the future holds. In this fallen world, earthbound solutions to human problems often take us to the abyss of conflict and all the miseries which attend it. Many live in terror of death and injury from war and terrorism. And if our vision, as Christians, is allowed to become earthbound, then we shall easily end up disheartened, debilitated, and of little use in building the Kingdom of God in the here-and-now.
Meditating on Our Lord’s Ascension liberates us from this earthbound mentality. When injustice and hubris seem to be gaining the upper hand down here, we raise our eyes to Heaven and we receive hope and courage from the knowledge that justice, humility and charity will ultimately prevail. In sickness we are sustained by the knowledge that in Heaven these broken and worn-out bodies will be renewed and made whole, released from earthly frailties forever. In the pain of bereavement, we live in the hope of reunion, in Christ, with those whom we have loved and lost for a while. In conflict, we receive the courage to fight for a just peace, in the knowledge that even if the odds seem stacked against us, the ultimate victory must be on the side of justice.
At the Roman Oratory, a Father who died a few years ago used to tell the congregation that if they wanted to imagine what Heaven is like they should look up at the interior of the dome in the Chiesa Nuova to the magnificent frescoes depicting Our Lord, Our Lady and St Philip surrounded by a host of angels and saints. This masterpiece by Pietro da Cortona is probably as close as we shall come in this life to a vision of what awaits those who die in God’s friendship. The artworks in the sanctuary of the London Oratory church are not quite in the same league, but surely only the most stringent aesthete would deny they possess devotional value. Next time you come into our church, please make time to meditate on the images of the angels and saints in the presence of Almighty God, and allow your hearts to be lifted heavenwards.
Father Julian Large