Catholic view of Heaven?

[ChickadeeShoes]

Hello all! For some background, I’m a nondenominational Christian who was raised by an Irish Catholic mother and a father who is the son of a Presbyterian preacher. So while I’m not Catholic myself, and certainly don’t know even close to everything there is to know about the religion, I’m familiar with and have a fondness for many of the traditions that go along with it. Since my beloved grandmother’s passing, I’ve been curious to learn more about the Catholic faith which she loved so much.

When I was at the funeral mass for my grandma, something gave me pause. The priest was talking about Heaven and how wonderful it will be in the afterlife, etc., but his description of Heaven was… different than descriptions of Heaven I’ve heard in the past and grown up with.

He phrased everything much more elegantly than I’m about to, but the basic premise seemed to boil down to this:

• We will not have physical bodies in Heaven, so our physical earthly relationships will be unnecessary
• We will not retain our earthly relationships in Heaven, such as spouses, but will instead have deep emotional relationships will *all *of the souls in Heaven, where we will know and love everyone equally
• Our souls will not be separate from anyone in Heaven, but will instead all be joined together

The way it was worded made it seem like we would essentially lose our autonomy and our souls would all join together into some sort of hive mind. This all seemed off to me, although the rest of the mass was genuinely lovely, and I think my grandma would have liked it very much. The priest seemed like a very nice person, and even as a non-Catholic, I felt very welcome there.

Genuinely curious, I wondered if maybe the Catholic Church has a different teaching on what Heaven is like than other Christian denominations. I later asked my mother, who’s been Catholic all her life, and my boyfriend, who is also Catholic, if the description of Heaven given by the priest seemed to match up with descriptions they’d grown up with in the Catholic Church. They both agreed that it surprised them as well, and didn’t seem to match what they had been taught in the past.

So here are my questions for you all:

1. Does the description of Heaven given at my grandmother’s funeral mass match up with what you’ve been taught in the Catholic Church or whichever religion you’ve been brought up in?
2. Does the Catholic Church teach a different view of what Heaven looks like than other Christian denominations? If so, how is it different?
3. What do you believe Heaven is like, whether just personally or based on specific teachings in your church?

Thank you for listening and for giving me your insight and opinions!

 

[adamhovey1988]

Hello all! For some background, I’m a nondenominational Christian who was raised by an Irish Catholic mother and a father who is the son of a Presbyterian preacher. So while I’m not Catholic myself, and certainly don’t know even close to everything there is to know about the religion, I’m familiar with and have a fondness for many of the traditions that go along with it. Since my beloved grandmother’s passing, I’ve been curious to learn more about the Catholic faith which she loved so much.

When I was at the funeral mass for my grandma, something gave me pause. The priest was talking about Heaven and how wonderful it will be in the afterlife, etc., but his description of Heaven was… different than descriptions of Heaven I’ve heard in the past and grown up with.

He phrased everything much more elegantly than I’m about to, but the basic premise seemed to boil down to this:

• We will not have physical bodies in Heaven, so our physical earthly relationships will be unnecessary
• We will not retain our earthly relationships in Heaven, such as spouses, but will instead have deep emotional relationships will *all *of the souls in Heaven, where we will know and love everyone equally
• Our souls will not be separate from anyone in Heaven, but will instead all be joined together

The way it was worded made it seem like we would essentially lose our autonomy and our souls would all join together into some sort of hive mind. This all seemed off to me, although the rest of the mass was genuinely lovely, and I think my grandma would have liked it very much. The priest seemed like a very nice person, and even as a non-Catholic, I felt very welcome there.

Genuinely curious, I wondered if maybe the Catholic Church has a different teaching on what Heaven is like than other Christian denominations. I later asked my mother, who’s been Catholic all her life, and my boyfriend, who is also Catholic, if the description of Heaven given by the priest seemed to match up with descriptions they’d grown up with in the Catholic Church. They both agreed that it surprised them as well, and didn’t seem to match what they had been taught in the past.

So here are my questions for you all:

1. Does the description of Heaven given at my grandmother’s funeral mass match up with what you’ve been taught in the Catholic Church or whichever religion you’ve been brought up in?
2. Does the Catholic Church teach a different view of what Heaven looks like than other Christian denominations? If so, how is it different?
3. What do you believe Heaven is like, whether just personally or based on specific teachings in your church?

Thank you for listening and for giving me your insight and opinions!

I don’t think we’ll have a hive mind. I can tell you that heaven is probably not white puffy clouds blue skies and Angels playing harps. I mean think about something that we Catholics have that a lot of Protestants don’t and this is no offense to Protestants we have the belief in communion of the Saints to mean that not just the Saints on Earth but the Saints in heaven are praying along with us.

 

[ChickadeeShoes]

I don’t think we’ll have a hive mind. I can tell you that heaven is probably not white puffy clouds blue skies and Angels playing harps. I mean think about something that we Catholics have that a lot of Protestants don’t and this is no offense to Protestants we have the belief in communion of the Saints to mean that not just the Saints on Earth but the Saints in heaven are praying along with us.

The common imagery of Heaven as everybody sitting up on fluffy white clouds isn’t what I was taught Heaven is actually like either. I’ve always thought of that depiction as more of a caricature that makes it easier to depict something (whether in traditional art or even in children’s cartoons) that is frankly, probably impossible to accurately depict visually for those of us down here on Earth. Like how cartoon drawings of hearts look practically nothing like the actual organ, but everyone still immediately understands what it’s representing.

 

[dshix]

Very interesting. That description doesn’t seem to line up with the Catholic understanding, however.

Here are some points regarding the things you mentioned. These points are informed by Catholic teaching.

• We will not have physical bodies in Heaven, so our physical earthly relationships will be unnecessary

Yes and no. Those who die suffer the separation of the soul from the body, so yes, right now, everyone in Heaven is a spirit only. However, after the Last Judgement, the bodies of everyone who ever lived will be resurrected, and people’s souls will be reunited with their bodies. For those who are saved, their bodies will be glorified, and for those who are damned, disfigured.

The Last Judgement will occur at the end of time.

• We will not retain our earthly relationships in Heaven, such as spouses, but will instead have deep emotional relationships will *all *of the souls in Heaven, where we will know and love everyone equally

This is flatly wrong, though it hearkens to a certain truth.

In Heaven we will love others in accordance with their objective virtue and grace. We will love the highest saints in Heaven very much and associate with them with great joy, because of their perfections.

However, since we are human, and it is in our nature to be bonded to those to whom we have closeness in this life, we will also have a special love and closeness to those whom we loved in this life.

• Our souls will not be separate from anyone in Heaven, but will instead all be joined together

This does sound like a hive mind. Rest assured, in Heaven we will all be very distinct, so no, we won’t be melded together like some kind of soup.

I think that the priest was actually trying to say that in Heaven, we all are united together in the vision of God. We will all constantly enjoy an intellectual vision of God, called the Beatific Vision.

Everyone will know everything about everyone and everything that ever existed. That sentence sounds silly, but it is true; by looking at God, we will see all of His effects, and so by consequence, we will intimately know every saint, every place, every historical event, etc. We will be able to converse in familiarity with all of the greatest saints, and without any semblance of shyness.

Pretty awesome if you ask me.

 

[Wannabe_Monk_16]

• We will not have physical bodies in Heaven, so our physical earthly relationships will be unnecessary
• We will not retain our earthly relationships in Heaven, such as spouses, but will instead have deep emotional relationships will *all *of the souls in Heaven, where we will know and love everyone equally
• Our souls will not be separate from anyone in Heaven, but will instead all be joined together

The way it was worded made it seem like we would essentially lose our autonomy and our souls would all join together into some sort of hive mind. This all seemed off to me, although the rest of the mass was genuinely lovely, and I think my grandma would have liked it very much. The priest seemed like a very nice person, and even as a non-Catholic, I felt very welcome there.

Genuinely curious, I wondered if maybe the Catholic Church has a different teaching on what Heaven is like than other Christian denominations. I later asked my mother, who’s been Catholic all her life, and my boyfriend, who is also Catholic, if the description of Heaven given by the priest seemed to match up with descriptions they’d grown up with in the Catholic Church. They both agreed that it surprised them as well, and didn’t seem to match what they had been taught in the past.

So here are my questions for you all:

1. Does the description of Heaven given at my grandmother’s funeral mass match up with what you’ve been taught in the Catholic Church or whichever religion you’ve been brought up in?
2. Does the Catholic Church teach a different view of what Heaven looks like than other Christian denominations? If so, how is it different?
3. What do you believe Heaven is like, whether just personally or based on specific teachings in your church?

Thank you for listening and for giving me your insight and opinions!

From the boiled down bullet points that the priest talked about, only the first one is correct, but even that one must have a qualifier. As Heaven currently is right now, only a very few select members of the Church Triumphant have glorified bodies. The only two I know for certain are the Son of God and the Queen of Heaven. After Christ’s second coming, God will create a New Heaven and a New Earth, which all members of the Church Triumphant will have their glorified bodies (and fortunately all the Holy Souls in Purgatory will be admitted into Heaven).
The second bullet point has to be false. As a non-denominational Christian, I don’t know how much stock you put into the St. Thomas Aquinas’s works, but I would look to his Summa for more information.
The third bullet point may be a severely flawed understanding of the Body of Christ. Each individual soul is separate. We are judged separately.

Did this priest cite any Church teaching making these claims?

Please continue to ask questions regarding Catholicism!

 

[JanetF]

Heaven is a trillion trillion trillion times better ALL THE TIME, than even your happiest moment on earth, because you will be in the presence of our Lord, not just imagining it, but really THERE. There will be no need for other relationships, or our physical bodies. All relationships on earth are just a dry run for our relationship with our Lord.

 

[fhansen]

Hello all! For some background, I’m a nondenominational Christian who was raised by an Irish Catholic mother and a father who is the son of a Presbyterian preacher. So while I’m not Catholic myself, and certainly don’t know even close to everything there is to know about the religion, I’m familiar with and have a fondness for many of the traditions that go along with it. Since my beloved grandmother’s passing, I’ve been curious to learn more about the Catholic faith which she loved so much.

When I was at the funeral mass for my grandma, something gave me pause. The priest was talking about Heaven and how wonderful it will be in the afterlife, etc., but his description of Heaven was… different than descriptions of Heaven I’ve heard in the past and grown up with.

He phrased everything much more elegantly than I’m about to, but the basic premise seemed to boil down to this:

• We will not have physical bodies in Heaven, so our physical earthly relationships will be unnecessary
• We will not retain our earthly relationships in Heaven, such as spouses, but will instead have deep emotional relationships will *all *of the souls in Heaven, where we will know and love everyone equally
• Our souls will not be separate from anyone in Heaven, but will instead all be joined together

The way it was worded made it seem like we would essentially lose our autonomy and our souls would all join together into some sort of hive mind. This all seemed off to me, although the rest of the mass was genuinely lovely, and I think my grandma would have liked it very much. The priest seemed like a very nice person, and even as a non-Catholic, I felt very welcome there.

Genuinely curious, I wondered if maybe the Catholic Church has a different teaching on what Heaven is like than other Christian denominations. I later asked my mother, who’s been Catholic all her life, and my boyfriend, who is also Catholic, if the description of Heaven given by the priest seemed to match up with descriptions they’d grown up with in the Catholic Church. They both agreed that it surprised them as well, and didn’t seem to match what they had been taught in the past.

So here are my questions for you all:

1. Does the description of Heaven given at my grandmother’s funeral mass match up with what you’ve been taught in the Catholic Church or whichever religion you’ve been brought up in?
2. Does the Catholic Church teach a different view of what Heaven looks like than other Christian denominations? If so, how is it different?
3. What do you believe Heaven is like, whether just personally or based on specific teachings in your church?

Thank you for listening and for giving me your insight and opinions!

We don’t lose our identities-God didn’t give us one just so He could take it away. A purpose of creating all of us individuals, in fact, is so that we can experience the sheer unbounded happiness that God knows. That’s God’s plan for us, according to Church teachings, and the source of that happiness is God, Himself. As Pope Benedict put it in Jesus of Nazareth, “God *is *heaven.” Merely being in His immediate presence, knowing Him directly, has the effect of absolute and total well-being, peace, joy, happiness, beyond anything we can possibly imagine. Some have been given “glimpses” or “tastes” of this ineffable experience so they can share it as best they can, and so encourage us all.

 

[Techno2000]

Thank you for listening and for giving me your insight and opinions!

A LITTLE BOOK OF ETERNAL WISDOM

Blessed Henry Suso

(1295 - 1366) Dominican and German mystic

Excerpt :

Now, then, ascend thou on high with Me. I will carry thee thither in spirit, and will give thee, after a rude similitude, a distant glimpse into the future. Behold, above the ninth heaven, which is incalculably more than a hundred thousand times larger than the entire earth, there is another heaven which is called Coelum Empyreum, the fiery heaven, so called, not from its being of fire, but from its immeasurably transparent brightness, which is immovable and unchangeable in its nature; and this is the glorious court in which the heavenly hosts dwell, where the morning star with the rest praises Me, and all the children of God rejoice.

There stand, encompassed with inconceivable light, the everlasting thrones, from which the evil spirits were hurled, in which the elect are seated. See how the delightful city shines with beaten gold, how it glitters with costly jewels, inlaid with precious stones, transparent as crystal, reflecting red roses, white lilies, and all living flowers. Now, look on the beautiful heavenly fields themselves. Lo! here all delights of summer, here sunny meads of May, here the very valley of bliss, here the glad moments are seen flitting from joy to joy; here harps and viols, here singing, and leaping, and dancing, hand in hand for ever! here the gratification of every desire, here pleasure without pain in everlasting security!

Now, look how the countless multitude drink to their hearts’ desire at the living fountains of gushing water; look how they feast their eyes on the pure, clear mirror of the revealed Divinity, in which all things are made plain and evident to them. Steal a little nearer, and mark how the sweet queen of the celestial kingdom, whom thou lovest with so much ardour, soars aloft in dignity and joy over the whole celestial host, reclining tenderly on her beloved, encircled with rose-flowers and lilies of the valley. See how her ravishing beauty fills with delight and wonder all the heavenly choirs.

Oh, now behold what will rejoice thy heart and soul, and see how the mother of compassion has turned her compassionate eyes towards thee and all sinners, and how powerfully she appeals to her beloved Son, and intercedes with Him. Now, turn round with the eyes of thy pure understanding, and behold also how the high seraphim and the love-abounding souls of the seraphic choirs blaze up perpetually in Me; how the bright company of the cherubim have a bright infusion and effusion of My eternal inconceivable light, how the high thrones and hosts, the lordships, powers, and dominations, regularly fulfill My beautiful and eternal order in the universality of nature.

Mark, too, how the third host of angelic spirits executes My high messages and decrees in the particular parts of the world; and see, how lovingly, how joyfully, and variously the multitude is marshalled, and what a beautiful sight it is! Turn next thy glance and see how My chosen disciples and best beloved friends sit in repose and honour upon their awful judgment-seats, how the martyrs glitter in their rose-coloured garments, the confessors shine in their vernal beauty, how refulgent the virgins appear in their angelic purity, how all the heavenly host overflows with divine sweetness! Oh, what a company! Oh, what a joyous band!

Blessed, thrice blessed is he who was born to dwell where they dwell! Lo, to this very fatherland I shall carry home from misery and tribulation, arrayed in all the richness of her rich morning gift, My beloved bride in My arms. I shall adorn her interiorly with the beautiful garment of the eternal light of that glory which will exalt her above all her natural powers. She will be clothed exteriorly with the glorified body, which is seven times brighter than the sun’s light, swift, subtle, and to suffering, impassive; then I shall put on her the crown of delight, and on the crown a golden garland.

catholictreasury.info/books/eternal_wisdom/ew13.php

 

[GEddie]

We will have a body, although not identical to the “natural human body.”

As such, the melding of minds as described cannot occur.

The interpersonal geometry of human relationships does not survive (i.e. there are no married couples, as per the words of our LORD, nor will parents be raising children); however, affection for persons will remain.

ICXC NIKA