Happiness In Heaven?

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dailey

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I know in heaven there is no sadness, just pure joy and happiness. However, I never understood how we could be happy if some of our loved ones were in hell? The answer I always hear is that God’s love is so great that nothing else will matter. I can understand that…but then why do I also hear things like “God wants us to be happy in heaven so he will allow us things” (like our pets, I just lost mine:(). I’m confused. Will I even want my pet in heaven?? I thought once we get in heaven, nothing else matters? It doesn’t make sense to me. What if I need my friends/family to be happy in heaven? If some of them are in hell…then what?

I’m just grieving really bad for my dog right now. I hate the fact that he’s “dead” in all sense of the word. Its not like a person where you can still “talk” to them after they passed and feel confident that they can hear you. guilt stinks…😦
 
Firstly, Catholicism teaches strictly the Beatific Vision, in that Heaven is not some earthly paradise. Instead, we will sit in awe and spend eternity praising the glory of God. To be blunt, any of your loved ones in Hell will be the furthest thing from your mind. Because any iota of attachment you had to them will have been burned away in Purgatory so that there is no impediment between you and God.

Secondly, because animals cannot reason, they cannot sin. I am not sure what Post Vatican-II teaching is on the souls of animals, but I know prior to Vatican II it was pretty much common to say that animals don’t have souls, they aren’t going to heaven or hell. Like I said, though, I don’t know the official position. But because they cannot sin, I doubt your dog is in hell, and I would assume that if animals are to join us in heaven, that your dog is already there, waiting for you to join him in praising and glorifying God.
 
IHeartAquinas said:
Firstly, Catholicism teaches strictly the Beatific Vision, in that Heaven is not some earthly paradise. Instead, we will sit in awe and spend eternity praising the glory of God. To be blunt, any of your loved ones in Hell will be the furthest thing from your mind. Because any iota of attachment you had to them will have been burned away in Purgatory so that there is no impediment between you and God.

Secondly, because animals cannot reason, they cannot sin. I am not sure what Post Vatican-II teaching is on the souls of animals, but I know prior to Vatican II it was pretty much common to say that animals don’t have souls, they aren’t going to heaven or hell. Like I said, though, I don’t know the official position. But because they cannot sin, I doubt your dog is in hell, and I would assume that if animals are to join us in heaven, that your dog is already there, waiting for you to join him in praising and glorifying God.
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No. If the time we spend on Earth with our loved ones is essentially pointless and makes no difference, then so is everything else, including sin. Love is the most important thing of all, as Saint Paul said. Even more powerful than sin (remember “Love covers a multitude of sins”) Can’t have it both ways.
 
Thoughtfulone said:
No. If the time we spend on Earth with our loved ones is essentially pointless and makes no difference, then so is everything else, including sin. Love is the most important thing of all, as Saint Paul said. Even more powerful than sin (remember “Love covers a multitude of sins”) Can’t have it both ways.
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Who said it was “pointless”?

Your time on Earth is like “Purgatory lite”. You’re preparing your soul to be properly disposed to go before the throne of the Holy Trinity. You work this out through love and righteousness.
 
Thanks for the replies.

So are there different “ideas” within the Catholic church on what heaven is? I have heard that we will spend eternity praising God (like IHeartA) stated. But at the same time, I have heard that in heaven we will have every desire fulfilled? To me, that means we will continue to do things that we dearly love here on earth (baking, long walks, playing with dog, etc) , as well as things that we wish we could do (such as have a conversation with my sister who cannot talk due to autism). Hope that doesn’t sound silly?:o
 
I think the definition of “happiness” needs to be reviewed a little here. When Jesus and the ancients talked about “happiness” they didn’t use the same meaning as we have today. Today, happiness really just means “contentedness” or “satisfaction” for the moment. The meaning of happiness in ancient times, however, was deeper. The Greek word, Makarios (sp?), Latin “beatitudino” mean more along the lines of “blessedness” and was more permanent than our English “happiness” which comes from the word “hap” which means luck or fortune.

Dr. Peter Kreeft has an excellent talk on this at the following link:

alabamacatholicresources.com/Downloads/peter-kreeft_happiness.mp3
 
dailey said:
I know in heaven there is no sadness, just pure joy and happiness. However, I never understood how we could be happy if some of our loved ones were in hell? The answer I always hear is that God’s love is so great that nothing else will matter. I can understand that…but then why do I also hear things like “God wants us to be happy in heaven so he will allow us things” (like our pets, I just lost mine:(). I’m confused. Will I even want my pet in heaven?? I thought once we get in heaven, nothing else matters? It doesn’t make sense to me. What if I need my friends/family to be happy in heaven? If some of them are in hell…then what?

I’m just grieving really bad for my dog right now. I hate the fact that he’s “dead” in all sense of the word. Its not like a person where you can still “talk” to them after they passed and feel confident that they can hear you. guilt stinks…😦
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We cannot comprehend the infinite justice of GOD - but perhaps by allegory I can illustrate what I am saying.

Do you think Hitler was bad? If yes why?

Now - think about things this way.

Its obvious that everyone thinks Hitler is bad. Why? Because we pretty much know everything he did.

GOD is infinitely GOOD.

Anyone who is in Hell deserves to be in Hell.

We will know why they are in Hell. And we will know in detail why they are in Hell. We will know that they had opportunity after opportunity to avoid Hell and that GOD did everything in his power to assist them with sufficient grace so as to avoid Hell and we will know he did. So - we will place the blame for their condemnation squarely where it belongs.

We have loved ones - but GOD HIMSELF is the purpose of all of Our Love. If not for GOD we could not love. When we are in Heaven - we will for the first time know love on an infinite scale and thus what we consider as love now will be nothing as compared to what we know as love then. And we will loathe anyone who refused that PURE LOVE given freely by OUR Creator. We will know peace because we will know GOD.

And as good as all that sounds - its even better. Because man cannot fully comprehend the love of Almighty GOD.
 
thanks you so much Scooby and Robert for responding.

Robert, I understand what you are saying. I realize that the people who are going to hell will be there by their OWN account. What upsets me greatly is when I hear that if one dies with a mortal sin on their soul, then they will be lost. When I was a child, I always felt that mortal sins were these horrible crimes, like murder, robbers, etc. Now that I am older, I realize that mortal sins are sins that we commit everyday…well, me at least.:o For example, my husband and I used condoms. I always knew the church was against it but did not know it was considered a mortal sin until I did some reading recently. I try so hard to be a good Catholic, pray the rosary everyday, try to do good deeds, etc. And boom, I die with this sin on my soul and I go to hell. But I love God. How could I be left behind?

Of course, now that I know that using condoms is a mortal sin, I will have to confess.
 
All living things have souls, down to the blades of grass.
However, Humans have a soul that is also a Spirit! It is our intelligence, our will, our mind, our love. Something that animals can have a shadow of but not like us or the higher created beings, angels.
You may be interested in learning about Hildegard of Bingen(1098-1179) a saint, mystic and abbess who talked about a “greening power” called veriditas.
She wrote that God created the world. And from the elements of the world God created Man. It was all good remember. Well, in the ideal situation all things would return to God, Man, and creation. But when the Fall happened the bond between Man and Woman was destroyed, and Man is responsible for returning creation back to God. So all creation was doomed because of man.
But Jesus Christ healed the wounds between Man and Woman, and allows us to return to God once more, and we can bring creation back.
So, in the end, who knows, according to Hildegard perhaps we will see “Fido” in heaven, as the rest of creation can be returned in goodness to God. Perhaps not.
Either way, she was a saint for her many deeds and writings. Popes asked her to write all this stuff down because they thought it was gold. Mostly forgotten now, thank God for the University I’m able to learn this stuff. 😃
 
As you can see, there are pretty much as many schools of thought on this as there are people. Personally, I hope in the infinite mercy of God and i believe that somehow, I will be united with God and my loved ones in Heaven. I believe that the Love that we are required by God to have for people on this Earth and that is spoken of so highly in the Bible by Saint Paul will carry over into the afterlife.

No offense to the people here, but I don’t think we are all just going to sit around with our mouths agape praising God. That’s what the angels are for.

The truth is, no-one knows for sure.
 
Robert_Burns said:
We cannot comprehend the infinite justice of GOD.
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Along the same lines, we cannot comprehend the awesome presence of God. Sure, we can try to equate it to meeting someone wonderful like the Holy Father or Mother Theresa - but that will not even come close. My guess is that our souls will “act” just as God had intended for Adam and Eve - to worship, praise and live with Him.
 
dailey said:
thanks you so much Scooby and Robert for responding.

Robert, I understand what you are saying. I realize that the people who are going to hell will be there by their OWN account. What upsets me greatly is when I hear that if one dies with a mortal sin on their soul, then they will be lost. When I was a child, I always felt that mortal sins were these horrible crimes, like murder, robbers, etc. Now that I am older, I realize that mortal sins are sins that we commit everyday…well, me at least.:o For example, my husband and I used condoms. I always knew the church was against it but did not know it was considered a mortal sin until I did some reading recently. I try so hard to be a good Catholic, pray the rosary everyday, try to do good deeds, etc. And boom, I die with this sin on my soul and I go to hell. But I love God. How could I be left behind?

Of course, now that I know that using condoms is a mortal sin, I will have to confess.
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Well maybe this will help. We all sin and fall short of the Glory of GOD. So , dont get down on yourself. You can also think about it this way. GOD has now brought to your mind the fact that you have sinned against his commandments. He did not allow you to die in a state of Mortal Sin. And you are one good confession away from Sanctifying Grace filling your soul. That is his will or you wouldnt feel so guilty as you obviously do. What a wonderful thing it is that GOD has reached out to you in this way.

Now - are we to assume that he likeiwse didnt reach out the same way to many others - who didnt react with the same guilt as you obviously feel for your sins? Instead of reacting like you have - they just said - Ahh so what - no big deal? You see - it still comes down to us. If we love GOD - we strive to keep his commandments and if we fall - Holy Mother the Church gives us the means to say we are sorry.

Your post is very inspiring for me. I see it as GOD’s love in action.

Pax
 
dailey said:
Thanks for the replies.

So are there different “ideas” within the Catholic church on what heaven is? I have heard that we will spend eternity praising God (like IHeartA) stated. But at the same time, I have heard that in heaven we will have every desire fulfilled? To me, that means we will continue to do things that we dearly love here on earth (baking, long walks, playing with dog, etc) , as well as things that we wish we could do (such as have a conversation with my sister who cannot talk due to autism). Hope that doesn’t sound silly?:o
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What we experience now is earthly, and our desires are earthly. What we will experience in heaven will not be earthly, and what we desire will not be of this earth. We, however cannot comprehend such things, as we are limited to what we experience here. We will be totally transformed, and that leads me to speculate that we will no longer have any earthly desires. But of course only God knows for sure.
 
CB_Catholic said:
What we experience now is earthly, and our desires are earthly. What we will experience in heaven will not be earthly, and what we desire will not be of this earth. We, however cannot comprehend such things, as we are limited to what we experience here. We will be totally transformed, and that leads me to speculate that we will no longer have any earthly desires. But of course only God knows for sure.
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I think there WILL be some “earthly” delights in Heaven. After all, we will all be reunited with our Earthly bodies, yes? Wouldn’t it follow that we will thus experience at least SOME kinds of the pleasures that we enjoyed here? Just an idea.
 
Thoughtfulone said:
I think there WILL be some “earthly” delights in Heaven. After all, we will all be reunited with our Earthly bodies, yes? Wouldn’t it follow that we will thus experience at least SOME kinds of the pleasures that we enjoyed here? Just an idea.
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I agree!

If we were to spend our days just praising God (NOT that I am saying we will not be praising him!) then why would He give us our bodies back and recreate the earth? It would seem, to me, that they would be no used to us.
 
dailey said:
I agree!

If we were to spend our days just praising God (NOT that I am saying we will not be praising him!) then why would He give us our bodies back and recreate the earth? It would seem, to me, that they would be no used to us.
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Exactly! It only makes sense that with a new Heaven and a new Earth, both being a good part of God’s creation, that we will be able to enjoy them with our physical bodies as well as our spiritual ones. I sure hope there’s food in Heaven 🙂
 
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