Care to share some highlights?
“This vision of God is an intellectual act by which the soul is filled to overflowing with an intuitive knowledge of God; a knowledge so perfect and complete that all the knowledge of Him attainable, in this world, by prayer and study, is like the feeble glimmer of the lamp compared to the dazzling splendor of the noonday sun.”
- So, our vision of God is not in the physical sense of seeing him with the eyes, but more like knowing him much more than we ever could in this world.
“In explaining this partaking of the divine nature in heaven, theologians make use of a very apt comparison. If, say they, you thrust a piece of iron into the fire, it soon loses its dark color, and becomes red and hot, like the fire. It is thus made a partaker of the nature of fire, without, however, losing its own essential iron-nature. This illustrates what takes place in the Beatific Vision in relation to the soul. She is united to God, and penetrated by Him. She becomes bright with His brightness, beautiful with His beauty, pure with His purity, happy with His unutterable happiness, and perfect with His divine perfections. In a word, she has become a partaker of the “divine nature,” while she retains her created nature and personal identity.”
-So, we do not lose our personality in Heaven, but we become more like God in His attributes.
“Not only shall we thus retain our personality, when united to God in the Beatific Vision, but we shall, moreover, retain all that belongs to the reality of human nature. For, as St. Thomas teaches, “the glory of heaven does not destroy nature; but perfects it.”* Therefore, when Scripture tells us that “we shall be changed,” we must not imagine that we shall be changed into angels, or into some other nature different from the human. The change means a supernatural elevation and perfection of our whole nature, and not its destruction. The transition or change of the child into the man neither changes nor destroys the faculties of his mind nor the senses of his body; neither does it create new powers or faculties which he had not before. His gradual growth into manhood only develops and perfects what the hand of God had placed in his nature on the day of his creation.”
In the chapter called ‘The Life of the Blessed in Heaven’, this part really stuck out to me:
“2. The life of heaven is one of rest. St. John says: “And I heard a voice from heaven, saying to me, Write: Blessed are they that die in the Lord. From henceforth now, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labors.”* This is one of the most captivating features of heavenly life for the poor, and for all others who labored much in this world. It also gives the most exquisite consolation to those who, on account of peculiar difficulties in the practice of virtue, have been fatigued and wearied almost unto death. Their whole spiritual life was one of continual labor and struggle, which at times so disheartened them, that they felt strongly tempted to give up all further attempt at Christian perfection, and to seek consolation and rest in the pleasures of this world. Oh, how happy they now are! How grateful to God, who gave them the grace of final perseverance! They now enter into their rest, which shall never more be disturbed by toil or struggle.
They now live a life of everlasting rest, though not one of inactivity. For, as we have already seen, the life of heaven is not one of inactivity, but one in which every energy of mind and body has its full and free action. As our life in heaven is a participation of the life of God himself, it must resemble that Divine Life, which, while it is ineffable rest, is ever active and operative in the creation, conservation, and government, not only of our own world, but of those millions of other worlds that shine above our heads. Nevertheless, this continual exercise of our manifold faculties in heaven, does not, as in this world, generate fatigue, weariness, or disgust; but is the never-failing source of the highest and most rational pleasure.”
-This part in bold really struck me as interesting, because it reminded me of something that Dr. Peter Kreeft had said in one of his books on Heaven, that God may allow us to co-create with Him. Kreeft says this on pg. 111 in “Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Heaven, But Never Dreamed of Asking” - “…our love of artistic creation is both a shadow of the Creator in whose image we are created and a foreshadowing of our creative task to come in Heaven. For our power over nature in Heaven may well extend to co-creating, in union with God…” In other words, does our love of creating, whether in art, music, or writing stories, point to some kind of creative power in Heaven, once our wills have been aligned to the will of God? And according to the words of Fr. Boudreau, just what does this activity exactly consist of? We can only ponder, but will not know anything for certain until we join the ranks of the Blessed (hopefully).
