Catholic Marriage and Relationships in Heaven

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As many of you know, I’m a former mormon now enrolled in RCIA. I have a question about Catholic marriage and the type of relationship spouses on earth will have in heaven. I married my wife in an LDS temple and mormon teaching is that such a marriage is for time and eternity. That is, in the mormon view we will still be husband and wife in heaven. It’s my understanding that Catholic marriage is for time (please correct me if I’m wrong). What then will the relationship between spouses be like in heaven? This is important since I hope one day that my wife will follow me into the Catholic church and I need to offer her something to replace the traditional mormon view that she believes in and values. Once I’m baptized next Easter Vigil, the mormon teaching is that my wife and I will no longer be married eternally since I will have renounced those eternal blessings by becoming Catholic. I suspect the answer lies in the purpose of marriage as intended to bring children into the world and that in heaven the nature of our relationships will change since we will all be united in an eternal communion of love, all saints united with Jesus and that this will be more glorious and fulfilling than anything we can imagine, almost as if we will all be married to one another and all of us to Christ, if what I’m saying makes sense. Am I off base here? Any advice from married Catholics regarding what you expect your relationship in heaven to be like will be most helpful. Thanks so much!

God Bless,
NewSeeker
 
:confused: Wow…I’m anxious to see what everyone says about this. I’ve never really thought to ask this and I’m just as curious as you. I always thought that if we married on earth, we stayed married in heaven too. Hmmmmm…
 
In heaven, we will neither marry nor be given in marriage. I wish I could remember which verse that was…

Anyway, in heaven, it will not matter. the happiness you feel in heaven is infinitely greater than any pleasure we may feel in our earthly lives. You and you wife have a special relationship and special obligation to help each other be saved.
 
Tim_Kirchoff said:
In heaven, we will neither marry nor be given in marriage. I wish I could remember which verse that was…

Anyway, in heaven, it will not matter. the happiness you feel in heaven is infinitely greater than any pleasure we may feel in our earthly lives. You and you wife have a special relationship and special obligation to help each other be saved.
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I believe the Scripture verse you are looking for is Matthew 22:30.
 
NewSeeker said:
As many of you know, I’m a former mormon now enrolled in RCIA. I have a question about Catholic marriage and the type of relationship spouses on earth will have in heaven. I married my wife in an LDS temple and mormon teaching is that such a marriage is for time and eternity. That is, in the mormon view we will still be husband and wife in heaven. It’s my understanding that Catholic marriage is for time (please correct me if I’m wrong). What then will the relationship between spouses be like in heaven? This is important since I hope one day that my wife will follow me into the Catholic church and I need to offer her something to replace the traditional mormon view that she believes in and values. Once I’m baptized next Easter Vigil, the mormon teaching is that my wife and I will no longer be married eternally since I will have renounced those eternal blessings by becoming Catholic. I suspect the answer lies in the purpose of marriage as intended to bring children into the world and that in heaven the nature of our relationships will change since we will all be united in an eternal communion of love, all saints united with Jesus and that this will be more glorious and fulfilling than anything we can imagine, almost as if we will all be married to one another and all of us to Christ, if what I’m saying makes sense. Am I off base here? Any advice from married Catholics regarding what you expect your relationship in heaven to be like will be most helpful. Thanks so much!

God Bless,
NewSeeker
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I was originally Catholic but converted to the LDS Church more than 30 years ago. I had been taught that marriage was “until death do you part”. Once I began attending the LDS Church and heard about eternal marriages the idea seemed to make a lot of sense. Even though my husband and I were not married “for time and eternity” in the LDS Temple and we are not active in the LDS Church, I personally feel that we will be together after death. This is not a biblical idea since the Bible states that we do not marry nor are we given in marriage (Matthew 22:30) but I still firmly believe that we will be with those we love here on earth. Faith is believing without seeing and I have faith that I will be with my loved ones in Heaven!
I don’t know how you will be able to convince your wife to follow you into the Catholic Church. This is a decision she will have to make on her own, just as you did.
 
I have always been of the opinion that since in heaven, we will all experience perfect love, marriage will simply have no meaning in the way we traditionally think of it on earth. The recognition of our spouses, relatives, and loved ones will of course still be there, but since we will experience total and full love for God and all of his creation, the point will be moot. In heaven, it won’t be possible to love anyone (except God) greater than anyone else, since heaven is perfect. We will love ALL people equally and totally, just as we currently love our own family. The whole human race (that makes it to heaven) will be elevated to the level of perfect love with each other.
 
I agree with this 🙂
Rolltide said:
I have always been of the opinion that since in heaven, we will all experience perfect love, marriage will simply have no meaning in the way we traditionally think of it on earth. The recognition of our spouses, relatives, and loved ones will of course still be there, but since we will experience total and full love for God and all of his creation, the point will be moot. In heaven, it won’t be possible to love anyone (except God) greater than anyone else, since heaven is perfect. We will love ALL people equally and totally, just as we currently love our own family. The whole human race (that makes it to heaven) will be elevated to the level of perfect love with each other.
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pigtown said:
I don’t know how you will be able to convince your wife to follow you into the Catholic Church. This is a decision she will have to make on her own, just as you did.
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I agree that it is a decision NewSeeker’s wife will have to make on her own. No one can MAKE anyone else convert; it must be a free choice. All NewSeeker can do is continue learning and practicing his new faith, let her see his peace coming from it as opposed to the frustration and anger he was feeling previously, be available to answer questions about Catholicism, but don’t push it. It may be too emotional a subject for her to hear her husband clearly, so she may need to hear about the subject from someone else, an objective third person.

When I, a Catholic, was engaged to my Jewish fiance, now husband, he took RCIA classes at a local parish and attended Catholic Masses with me, all with the understanding (between us and with the RCIA teacher) that he had no intention of converting at that time, it was just to understand my faith and me better. I took a course in Intro. to Judaism at the local synagogue, too. My husband knows I’d be thrilled if he converted to Catholicism, but I didn’t make it a condition of our marriage. I did insist that I be able to raise our children Catholic, and he agreed to that.

NewSeeker is already married with kids and is changing courses mid-stream, so it’s a much more difficult situation. He said in another post that his wife and her family have a lot of misconceptions about Catholics, so she definitely needs a source of accurate information, but she may not be able to hear it from him. It’s just too emotionally charged right now. Maybe someday she’ll be able to take RCIA classes or find some other explanation of the Catholic faith that can help her understand it better and find peace with her husband’s conversion, whether she eventually converts or not.
 
pigtown said:
I was originally Catholic but converted to the LDS Church more than 30 years ago. I had been taught that marriage was “until death do you part”. Once I began attending the LDS Church and heard about eternal marriages the idea seemed to make a lot of sense. Even though my husband and I were not married “for time and eternity” in the LDS Temple and we are not active in the LDS Church, I personally feel that we will be together after death. This is not a biblical idea since the Bible states that we do not marry nor are we given in marriage (Matthew 22:30) but I still firmly believe that we will be with those we love here on earth. Faith is believing without seeing and I have faith that I will be with my loved ones in Heaven!
I don’t know how you will be able to convince your wife to follow you into the Catholic Church. This is a decision she will have to make on her own, just as you did.
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The idea of the marriage bond being broken at death does not mean that we won’t enjoy Heaven with our spouse. I’m sure we’ll all still be together with our spouses, just like we will be with our parents, children etc. But there just won’t be a need anymore for sex, procreation, taking out the trash and doing dishes etc. (which is the purpose of marriage)
 
masondoggy said:
The idea of the marriage bond being broken at death does not mean that we won’t enjoy Heaven with our spouse. I’m sure we’ll all still be together with our spouses, just like we will be with our parents, children etc. But there just won’t be a need anymore for sex, procreation, taking out the trash and doing dishes etc. (which is the purpose of marriage)
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I didn’t know that doing dishes was the purpose of marriage! Maybe we should simply use paper plates.
I do look forward to being with my parents in Heaven and even finally getting to meet my sister who died before I was born. I do have one relative that I do not want to meet again. Sure hope she’s in a different part of Heaven than me. I’d hate to run into her when I’m out enjoying the beautiful sights.
 
I’m not sure if this post was a joke or not…but we will all be perfect in heaven, having been purified through purgatory. So, there will be no reason to dislike anyone in heaven.
pigtown said:
I didn’t know that doing dishes was the purpose of marriage! Maybe we should simply use paper plates.
I do look forward to being with my parents in Heaven and even finally getting to meet my sister who died before I was born. I do have one relative that I do not want to meet again. Sure hope she’s in a different part of Heaven than me. I’d hate to run into her when I’m out enjoying the beautiful sights.
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Thanks for the great replies! This is great info. I did some more digging in the Catechism and it speaks about the great happiness and joy we’ll experience in heaven in the Marriage Feast of the Lamb. The perfected, infinite love we will all experience with Christ and with each other will far surpass the love we experience here on earth, even in marriage.

That’s very helpful. If it ever comes up, I’ll be sure and share this with my wife.

NewSeeker
 
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