Heaven

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laylow

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For the lucky souls that make it to Heaven (hopefully, we pray everyone), will the experience be the same for everyone, or will some people be “given more.” For instance, for responsibility, more joyous experience, etc?
 
My understanding is that the rewards will vary depending upon our sanctification. Some may be nearer God than others.

Let’s use Saint Paul’s analogy of gold and straw. Person A dies and is saved at at a current level of sanctification of 90% gold to 10% straw. Person B dies and is saved at 50% gold and 50% straw. Both will have the straw burned away before entering Heaven, both will enter as pure gold, but Person A will end up with a greater volume of gold than Person B.

That’s a very simplified analogy for personal sanctification and heavenly rewards, and I don’t propose that it is real, literal gold that will be given, or that percents like that are actually used.

To be in Heaven at all is a wonderful gift, and there will be no envy there. If someone winds up with more than you, you’ll know they deserve it and love them for it without begrudging it or being unhappy with your own lot. Likewise, if someone else has less, you wouldn’t be prideful about what you have over them.
 
laylow said:
For the lucky souls that make it to Heaven (hopefully, we pray everyone), will the experience be the same for everyone, or will some people be “given more.” For instance, for responsibility, more joyous experience, etc?
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I’ve always heard it explained in capacity, like drinking glasses being filled with water. My “glass” is not as big as Mother Theresa’s, but both will be filled to the brim.

Part of how big our capacity is might depend on our actions here on earth; certainly part of it just depends on our “starting capacity,” so to speak. Some people just naturally have larger “glasses” than others. Does that mean that some people in Heaven will be happier than others? In a certain sense, yes, but no one will have any sadness. We will all be 100% filled with joy.

In Heaven, you will feel as much joy from the Beatific Vision as you are capable of receiving. 🙂
 
I was under the impression Jesus explained it pretty well thru the Beatitudes…
 
laylow said:
For the lucky souls that make it to Heaven (hopefully, we pray everyone), will the experience be the same for everyone, or will some people be “given more.” For instance, for responsibility, more joyous experience, etc?
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I think one of the concepts that I hold is that of realization. The more one invests him or herself in those things that are pleasing to our God, the more one will realize the beauty and experience of heaven. A good phrase I have heard is "We say to God in the Our Father, ‘thy will be done’. At our judgment, we will hear Him say to us, ‘thy will be done.’ The more we do the will of the Father here and now, the more the joy and fulfillment we will realize in His Kingdom.
 
laylow said:
For the lucky souls that make it to Heaven (hopefully, we pray everyone), will the experience be the same for everyone, or will some people be “given more.” For instance, for responsibility, more joyous experience, etc?
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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. The Council of Trent defined that the justified person merits an increase of the heavenly glory by good works. (Ludwig Ott, Fundamentals of Catholic Dogma, 479)

An Unpublished Manuscript on Purgatory:

excerpt

I am going to try to make you understand, as far as you can upon earth, what Heaven is like. There are ever new feasts which succeed each other without interruption. There is happiness, always new and such, it would seem, as has never been enjoyed. It is a torrent of joy which flows unceasingly over the elect. Heaven is above all and beyond all — GOD: God loved, God relished, God delighted in; in one word, it is to be satisfied with God without ever being satisfied!

The more a soul loves God on earth, the higher she advances in perfection, the more she will love and understand God in Heaven.

Jesus is the true joy upon earth and the eternal felicity of Heaven.

catholicculture.org/culture/library/view.cfm?recnum=6253
 
If you haven’t read St. Faustina’s diary, “Divine Mercy in My Soul,” Jesus explains about Heaven to her in there, too.

He explains it like it’s mentioned in this thread, where we experience it in varying degrees.
 
Tis not luck.

(thankfully! …no such thing as luck).

One can say no their experience will not be “the same”.
 
Beryllos said:
What of the Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard?
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Different emphasis. Being the first to join doesn’t mean you’ll be in first place in rewards.

That’s not to say that being a Christian longer can’t give you better time to prepare, but length of time as a Christian in itself isn’t a measure of sanctification. It’s what you’ve done in that time.
 
oldgraymare2 said:
If you haven’t read St. Faustina’s diary, “Divine Mercy in My Soul,” Jesus explains about Heaven to her in there, too.

He explains it like it’s mentioned in this thread, where we experience it in varying degrees.
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Beautiful!
 
joeybaggz said:
Well, if the body of Jesus is any indication of a glorified body at his Ascension, we will take our scars with us. Beyond that, I have no clue.:rolleyes:
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I’m always curious as to what people think about them.
 
laylow said:
Any info on glorified bodies?
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Sacred Scripture and Catholic theology teaches that our glorified resurrected bodies will experience four properties as an outflow of the beatified soul enjoying the vision of God’s essence:
  1. Impassibility – the glorified body will no longer suffer physical sickness or death, as Saint Paul teaches regarding the glorified body in 1 Corinthians 15:42, “It is sown in corruption, it shall rise in incorruption.”
  2. Subtlety meaning that we will have a spiritualized nature in the sense of a spiritual body as did our Lord as we learn at 1 Corinthians 15:44: “It is sown a corruptible body, it shall rise a spiritual,” i.e. a spirit-like, “body.” We see that Christ’s glorified body was able to pass through closed doors.
  3. Agility – the glorified body will obey the soul with the greatest ease and speed of movement as we read in 1 Corinthians 15:43: “It is sown in weakness, it shall rise in power,” that is, according to a gloss, “mobile and living.” Saint Thomas Aquinas says, “But mobility can only signify agility in movement. Therefore the glorified bodies will be agile.” We discern agility our Resurrected Lord’s ability to bilocate and travel great distances in an instant.
  4. Clarity – the glorified body will be free from any deformity and will be filled with beauty and radiance as we read at Matthew 13:43: “The just shall shine as the sun in the kingdom of their Father,” and Wisdom 3:7: “The just shall shine, and shall run to and fro like sparks among the reeds.” Here clarity refers not being “clear” but to being “bright.”
St. Thomas Aquinas at Summa Contra Gentiles, IV, 86 summarized: “thus also will his body be raised to the characteristics of heavenly bodies — it will be lightsome (clarity), incapable of suffering (impassible), without difficulty and labor in movement (agility), and most perfectly perfected by its form (subtlety). For this reason, the Apostle speaks of the bodies of the risen as heavenly, referring not to their nature, but to their glory.”

taylormarshall.com/2012/10/do-you-know-four-properties-of.html
 
I just think it’s amazing to think of the possibilities. Will the person look like their younger self? So you Grandma would look like her in her 20s? Very interesting.
 
laylow said:
I just think it’s amazing to think of the possibilities. Will the person look like their younger self? So you Grandma would look like her in her 20s? Very interesting.
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I have read from private revelation that people in heaven are the same age as Jesus when he died at age 33.
 
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