Different Levels in Heaven?

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paramedicgirl

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Do you believe there are different levels to heaven dependant on the state of holiness that a soul has reached? This quote from John 14:2 makes it seem so: In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. (KJV)

How much other scriptural support is there for this? It makes sense that God will reward each of us differently, just as we each have varying levels of sanctity.

Consider the Blessed Virgin Mary. No other soul has achieved the greatness that she has been rewarded with. How could we possibly expect the same reward for us?

What are your thoughts?
 
I think if there are different “levels” the people at the lower “levels” are estatic by the love they experience from those at the higher “levels”. My point is that in Heaven any “levels” can only be a cause for joy for all so we have to be very careful how we think of levels. It cannot compare to how we think of status and levels on earth. Other than that I’m not sure although I think I read something that indicated there could be.
 
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paramedicgirl:
Do you believe there are different levels to heaven dependant on the state of holiness that a soul has reached? This quote from John 14:2 makes it seem so: In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. (KJV)

How much other scriptural support is there for this? It makes sense that God will reward each of us differently, just as we each have varying levels of sanctity.

Consider the Blessed Virgin Mary. No other soul has achieved the greatness that she has been rewarded with. How could we possibly expect the same reward for us?

What are your thoughts?
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Matthew 18:5

Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

It is consonant with God’s justice.
 
I was taught this - Scripture says we will each be rewarded according to our deeds. I heard this means we will each experience happiness/rewards to the fullest extent each of us can - determined by how much we have surrendered ourselves to God in this life and how open we were to Him and his grace. *We will each be perfectly happy, each according to his capacity to be happy. *

Some people - JPII comes to mind - may have more capacity than others due to their extreme surrender to Christ. But nobody will feel slighted because again, everyone is perfectly happy. Hope this makes sense - not sure if it’s right, but it is what I’ve heard Father Larry Richards say on one of his tapes. Unfortunately, he didn’t provide the bible passages he based this on or any paragraph numbers from the CCC.
 
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Elzee:
I was taught this - Scripture says we will each be rewarded according to our deeds. I heard this means we will each experience happiness/rewards to the fullest extent each of us can - determined by how much we have surrendered ourselves to God in this life and how open we were to Him and his grace. *We will each be perfectly happy, each according to his capacity to be happy. *
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That is my understanding, as well. Does anyone know what the Church’s official teaching on this is?
 
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paramedicgirl:
That is my understanding, as well. Does anyone know what the Church’s official teaching on this is?
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I’m pretty sure that is the Church’s official standing on this. However, let me do some research. 🙂
 
Hello paramedicgirl,

Do you think that Mother Theresa of Calcutta and the good thief on the cross next to Jesus are equal in heaven? Yes they are both in heaven and in this they are equal. However, Mother Theresa is loaded! Rich beyond compare! Mother Thresa has sold all that she had on earth to purchase the “pearl of great price” in heaven. It is earthly free from the will of God gifts of love for God which makes the difference in heaven.

Are there any starving people to feed out of love for God in heaven? Are there any naked to clothe or thirsty to give drink in heaven out of love for God? Can you choose not to hate your brother through adultery, theft, or coveting in heaven? The gifts of free willed love for God are created on earth where free will exists and are brought into God’ store house in heaven on judgement day.

Your treasure of free willed love for God that you have when you die is your treasure for all eternity. In this there are infinitely different levels in heaven. Love for God, being the greatest possession in heaven, gives us a vast amount of different levels in heaven.

Please visit: Parables Painting Pictures of Paradise
NAB LUK 12:31

"Instead, seek his kingdom, and these other things will be given you besides. Do not be afraid any longer, little flock, for your Father is pleased to give you the kingdom. Sell your belongings and give alms. Provide money bags for yourselves that do not wear out, an inexhaustible treasure in heaven that no thief can reach nor moth destroy. For where your treasure is, there also will your heart be."NAB MAT 13:44

“The reign of God is like a buried treasure which a man found in a field. He hid it again, and rejoicing at his find went and sold all he had and bought that field. Or again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant’s search for fine pearls. When he found one really valuable pearl, he went back and put up for sale all that he had and bought it.”
 
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paramedicgirl:
Do you believe there are different levels to heaven dependant on the state of holiness that a soul has reached? This quote from John 14:2 makes it seem so: In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. (KJV)

How much other scriptural support is there for this? It makes sense that God will reward each of us differently, just as we each have varying levels of sanctity.

Consider the Blessed Virgin Mary. No other soul has achieved the greatness that she has been rewarded with. How could we possibly expect the same reward for us?

What are your thoughts?
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Your passage from John speaks of quantity, not quality. The “different levels of heaven” angle is popular among Protestants who are very focused on reward. The seed of this philosophy is found in, if I am not mistaken, the apocryphal portions of Esdras that were excluded from the canon. I believe they speak of 7 levels in heaven; from which we get the expression, 7th heaven.

Thal59
 
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Thal59:
Your passage from John speaks of quantity, not quality. The “different levels of heaven” angle is popular among Protestants who are very focused on reward. The seed of this philosophy is found in, if I am not mistaken, the apocryphal portions of Esdras that were excluded from the canon. I believe they speak of 7 levels in heaven; from which we get the expression, 7th heaven.

Thal59
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So are you saying that it is not a Catholic belief that we are rewarded differently in heaven according to the level of sanctity that a soul reaches? How do you support this?
 
I’m pretty sure that this is the official Catholic position, but at the same time, it’s not something that has to be believed by all Catholics.
 
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paramedicgirl:
So are you saying that it is not a Catholic belief that we are rewarded differently in heaven according to the level of sanctity that a soul reaches? How do you support this?
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It is the teaching of the Church that each soul reaps the fruits of the intensity of the love for God that the soul had in its life on earth. This is reflected in the works of both St. Thomas Aquinas and St. Augustine. The belief is simply expressed in the Catechism of the Council of Trent:
And if the possession of a spacious and magnificent mansion contributes to human happiness, what more spacious, what more magnificent, can be conceived than heaven itself, which is illumined throughout with the brightness of God ? Hence the Prophet, contemplating the beauty of this dwelling?place, and burning with the desire of reaching those mansions of bliss, exclaims: How lovely are thy tabernacles, O Lord of hosts! my soul longeth and fainteth for the courts of the Lord. My heart and my flesh have rejoiced in the living God. That the faithful may be all filled with the same sentiments and utter the same language should be the object of the pastor’s most earnest desires, as it should also be of his zealous labours. For in my Father’s house, says our Lord, there are many mansions," in which shall be distributed rewards of greater and of less value according to each one’s deserts. He who soweth sparingly, shall also reap sparingly: and he who soweth in blessings, shall also reap blessings. (The Creed - Article XII)
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cin.org/users/James/ebooks/master/trent/tcreed12.htm
 
It seems to me that the following has something to say about different levels in the kingdom of God as well as about those who actually reach the kingdom of God.

From the 5th chapter of Matthew

"Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have come not to abolish but to fulfill.
18 Amen, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or the smallest part of a letter will pass from the law, until all things have taken place. 19 Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do so will be called least in the kingdom of heaven. But whoever obeys and teaches these commandments will be called greatest in the kingdom of heaven. 14 20 I tell you, unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter into the kingdom of heaven. "

It seems that being a faithful observer of the laws and commandments does result in a greater position in God’s kingdom. Although we must be sure to live a life in touch with God’s spirit (righteousness) or all the letter of the law that we might follow will not be of much use to us

Jim
 
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paramedicgirl:
That is my understanding, as well. Does anyone know what the Church’s official teaching on this is?
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This is official, infallible Church teaching. From p. 479 of Fundamentals of Catholic Dogma:

The degree of perfection of the beatific vision granted to the just is proportioned to each one’s merits. (De fide.)
The Decretum pro Graecis of the Union Council of Florence (1439) declared; The souls of the perfectly just “clearly behold the Triune and One God as He is, but corresponding to the difference of their merits, the one more perfectly than the other.” D 693. The Council of Trent defined that the justified person merits an increase of the heavenly glory by good works. D842.

…
 
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paramedicgirl:
So are you saying that it is not a Catholic belief that we are rewarded differently in heaven according to the level of sanctity that a soul reaches? How do you support this?
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There is nothing, to the best of my knowledge, in either the Catechism, or the bible, that defines levels of heaven; at least not on the supposed basis of levels of quality. The closest thing in scripture I can think of is the parable of the workers who complained that the handful of workers who labored for a far shorter time than they did received the same reward. The first workers, wo labored all day, complained that since they worked longer, they should be given more.

To the best of my knowledge, no one knows what heaven or the eternal life will be like.

To the best of my experience, “desiring” to believe that there are greater rewards available is the product of personal greed.

The only possible difference I can infer from scripture that might materialize goes to the benefit of the priests; “Thou art a priest forever after the order of Melchizidek.”

Thal59
 
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Thal59:
There is nothing, to the best of my knowledge, in either the Catechism, or the bible, that defines levels of heaven; at least not on the supposed basis of levels of quality. The closest thing in scripture I can think of is the parable of the workers who complained that the handful of workers who labored for a far shorter time than they did received the same reward. The first workers, wo labored all day, complained that since they worked longer, they should be given more.
From post # 13 This is official, infallible Church teaching. From p. 479 of Fundamentals of Catholic Dogma:
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The degree of perfection of the beatific vision granted to the just is proportioned to each one’s merits. (De fide.)
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To the best of my knowledge, no one knows what heaven or the eternal life will be like.

To the best of my experience, “desiring” to believe that there are greater rewards available is the product of personal greed.

The only possible difference I can infer from scripture that might materialize goes to the benefit of the priests; “Thou art a priest forever after the order of Melchizidek.”

Thal59
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I don’t think personal greed has anything to do with it. It’s all about the desire to be holy, to live a life that draws us closer to God and to achieve sanctity out of love for God.
 
Someone said it something like this: One soul might be like a small glass and another like a large vase. Both have different capacities when filled with water, but each is still “full”. Some souls have larger capacities for grace and understanding of the things of God than others. St. John of the Cross or Padre Pio’s experience of eternity might be vastly more exhaulted than that of our own saintly grandmothers, but they are all still “full” to their own capacities and completely fulfilled. I don’t think anyone would even sense that their own “level” was lower or higher than another’s. If so, there’ll be no such thing as envy anyway so no big deal. 😃
 
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Thal59:
There is nothing, to the best of my knowledge, in either the Catechism, or the bible, that defines levels of heaven; at least not on the supposed basis of levels of quality. The closest thing in scripture I can think of is the parable of the workers who complained that the handful of workers who labored for a far shorter time than they did received the same reward. The first workers, wo labored all day, complained that since they worked longer, they should be given more.

To the best of my knowledge, no one knows what heaven or the eternal life will be like.

To the best of my experience, “desiring” to believe that there are greater rewards available is the product of personal greed.

The only possible difference I can infer from scripture that might materialize goes to the benefit of the priests; “Thou art a priest forever after the order of Melchizidek.”
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It is not a question of levels (7,8, 9 or 1,000,000,000), but of intensity. Each individual will experience the Beatific Vision with a unique intensity suited to how his soul has corresponded to the graces received from God while on earth. Each soul will be the fulfillment of God’s action in that soul to the degree that the soul has consented to His action upon it in Divine Charity. The greater the conformity to the Image of the Incarnate Son, the greater the intensity of Communion. It is not at all a matter of “greed”, but of desiring to correspond fully to one’s graced capability to be a true image of the Christ, and Him Crucified.

Read St. John of the Cross’s The Spiritual Canticle to get a better idea of this.
 
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