Marriage in Heaven?

[grandfather]

Yes but not that in marriage both souls create one soul. What you say concerning marriage does not support this false idea that is based on nothing but sentimentalism.

I did not say that two souls become one. I don’t like the term soulmates. It is used by people who go from one broken relationship to another, not marriage. We believe in the communion of saints and the resurrection of the body. There is some relationships that are formed here in this life that continue in the next. We encounter one another in different ways. The smallest act of charity between strangers can have eternal implications. There is always some mystery in spiritual truths and Jesus’s words. We never get the entire meaning. I don’t fully know what it means that two become one. We are to one another who we are to one another, forever. The way we relate to one another changes. Mary is Jesus’s mother forever. Joseph is her spouse.

 

[Victorious]

Not exactly. In Holy Orders the priest receives a mark on his soul and it remains forever. He may not offer Mass as a priest, but he will be a priest in heaven or hell. Love requires an object of love. There is the lover, the beloved and the love, a trinity. You love a person in some relationship to you, a neighbor, your mother, father, some family member, friend or even a stranger. You love a person you know in some manner. In heaven the person you spent your adult life with, had four children and grandchildren still is that person the mother or father of your children. There is no more begetting of children so that aspect of marriage ends.

I don’t see why you say “not exactly” to my post. In heaven, everybody loves everybody, and so we still love those we loved on earth. And our love does increase in heaven.

 

[grandfather]

I don’t see why you say “not exactly” to my post. In heaven, everybody loves everybody, and so we still love those we loved on earth. And our love does increase in heaven.

Yes love is more powerful than death. The vows we take in marriage are more than fidelity. We are free to remarry if a spouse dies, but we continue to love and respect and honor our deceased spouses and care for them. This care goes both ways. We pray for them and they pray for us. The physical communion, the procreative aspect of marriage ends at death. But the two are still one in a unique way in a shared communion that was created here. A spouse in heaven prays for the one left behind and others as well, but not in the same relationship.

Here is a story a Catholic friend told me, I believe to be true and it may illustrate how this communion created here continues, but is changed. My friend had six siblings, all grown and married. Their mother died. After a couple of years the father was very lonely. He wanted to find a Catholic widow to get to know and possibly marry. He lived in a very small town and small parish where there were none. He put an ad in a lonely hearts section of some publication even though it seemed an odd thing to do. Cathollic wodower seeking Catholic widow for companionship. A lonely widow saw it and thought about calling, but it seemed too weird a way to meet someone. She left the paper with the ad on her kitchen table for several days thinking about it and then moved it to the trash in the garage area.

All seven siblings on the same night had the same dream of their mother, who came to them and told them the same thing. She said that their father was very lonely and if he did not remarry soon he would be dead in a year. She had arranged things for him to meet a nice widow and she instructed each one to not interfere. She knew some of them would object to another woman coming into the family and trying to replace her, but she sternly told them to mind their own business. They all spoke to one another in amazement about the unique and common dream they each had.

The widow went to bed and when she got up in the morning she found the paper she clearly knew she disposed of, back on the kitchen table. She took this as a sign to respond to the ad. She called and they eventually married and have been married for almost twenty years.

 

[Victorious]

Yes love is more powerful than death. The vows we take in marriage are more than fidelity. We are free to remarry if a spouse dies, but we continue to love and respect and honor our deceased spouses and care for them. This care goes both ways. We pray for them and they pray for us. The physical communion, the procreative aspect of marriage ends at death. But the two are still one in a unique way in a shared communion that was created here. A spouse in heaven prays for the one left behind and others as well, but not in the same relationship.

Well, we don’t really disagree on anything. I was trying to answer the original question, which was whether married people are still married after death. The answer is no – otherwise, surviving spouses would not be free to remarry. And then I tried to address the original poster’s concerns about what happens to the relationship between spouses in heaven. The answer is that they still love each other in heaven, and their relationship is not obliterated in heaven. In fact, their love is even greater in heaven than it could ever be on earth. But there is no marriage bond in heaven. As a couple of people have already pointed out, there isn’t the need of a marriage bond in heaven.

(Besides, if there were, wouldn’t there be a lot of awkwardness in heaven among the first spouse, his widow, and her second spouse? And if there was awkwardness in heaven, would it be heaven?)

 

[grandfather]

I was trying to answer the original question, which was whether married people are still married after death.

Father Cantalamessa on Marriage in Heaven
Pontifical Household Preacher on Sunday’s Gospel

ROME, 10 NOV. 2006

Here is a translation of a commentary by the Pontifical Household preacher, Capuchin Father Raniero Cantalamessa, on the readings from this Sunday’s liturgy.

---

There came a poor widow
32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time (b)
1 Kings 7:10-16; Hebrews 9:24-28; Mark 12:38-44

One day, Jesus was standing before the temple treasury, watching people deposit their offerings. He saw a poor widow come and put in all she had, two copper coins, which make a penny. He turned to his disciples and said, “Truly I say to you, this poor widow has put in more than the others. All have given from their excess, but she, in her poverty, put in all she had, all she had to live on.”

We might call this Sunday the “Sunday of the widows.” The story of a widow was also told in the first reading, the widow of Zarephath who gave up all she had left to eat (a handful of flour and a drop of oil) to prepare a meal for the prophet Elijah.

This is a good occasion in which to turn our attention toward both the widows and the widowers of today. If the Bible speaks so often of widows and never of widowers it is because in ancient society the woman who was left alone was at a greater disadvantage than the man who was left alone. Today there is no longer this difference. Actually, in general it now seems that women who are alone manage much better than men.

On this occasion I would like to treat a theme that is of definite interest not only to widows and widowers but also to all those who are married, especially during this month in which we remember the dead. Does the death of a husband or wife, which brings about the legal end of a marriage, also bring with it the total end of communion between the two persons? Does something of that bond which so strongly united two persons on earth remain in heaven, or will all be forgotten once we have crossed the threshold into eternal life?

One day, some Sadducees presented Jesus with the unlikely case of a woman who was successively the wife of seven brothers, asking him whose wife she would be after the resurrection. Jesus answered: “When they rise from the dead they will neither marry nor be given in marriage but will be like angels in heaven” (Mark 12:25).

Interpreting this saying of Jesus wrongly, some have claimed that marriage will have no follow-up in heaven. But with his reply Jesus is rejecting the caricature the Sadducees presented of heaven, as if it were going to be a simple continuation of the earthly relationship of the spouses. Jesus does not exclude the possibility that they might rediscover in God the bond that united them on earth.

According to this vision, marriage does not come to a complete end at death but is transfigured, spiritualized, freed from the limits that mark life on earth, as also the ties between parents and children or between friends will not be forgotten. In a preface for the dead the liturgy proclaims: “Life is transformed, not taken away.” Even marriage, which is part of life, will be transfigured, not nullified.

But what about those who have had a negative experience of earthly marriage, an experience of misunderstanding and suffering? Should not this idea that the marital bond will not break at death be for them, rather than a consolation, a reason for fear? No, for in the passage from time to eternity the good remains and evil falls away. The love that united them, perhaps for only a brief time, remains; defects, misunderstandings, suffering that they inflicted on each other, will fall away.

Indeed, this very suffering, accepted with faith, will be transformed into glory. Many spouses will experience true love for each other only when they will be reunited “in God,” and with this love there will be the joy and fullness of the union that they did not know on earth. In God all will be understood, all will be excused, all will be forgiven.

Some will ask of course about those who have been legitimately married to different people, widowers and widows who have remarried. (This was the case presented to Jesus of the seven brothers who successively had the same woman as their wife.) Even for them we must repeat the same thing: That which was truly love and self-surrender between each of the husbands or wives, being objectively a good coming from God, will not be dissolved. In heaven there will not be rivalry in love or jealousy. These things do not belong to true love but to the intrinsic limits of the creature. ZE06111001

 

[joanofarc143130]

Marriage is meant to be a foreshadowing, a small picture of what heaven will be like. Imagine all the earthly joy and happiness and love you experience in your marriage here and now. All of that will be magnified exponentially in heaven, only your joy will come from union with God. Jesus speaks of marriage being raised to the status of sacrament because it is an image of Christ and the Church. God is the Bridegroom, the Church is the Bride. We will, in a sense, be married to God. To understand this better, maybe I should explain the Trinity image that a priest told me about awhile ago.

God is Love. Within the Trinity, the Father is the Lover, the Son is the Beloved, and the holy Spirit is the Love that exists between them, flowing in an endless unbroken circle. I believe heaven is more of a state of being than a place – the state of complete union with God, in which we will be immersed in that all-encompassing Love. We will be in perfect harmony with Him and with each other. It is a full participation in the divine life.

Think of any other sacrament. Reconciliation, for example. We will not need reconciliation in heaven because we will be fully and permanently reconciled to God. We will not need to experience forgiveness because there will be no more sin to forgive. Think about the Blessed Eucharist. There will be no Eucharist in heaven because Jesus will be present, Body, Blood, soul and divinity without having to take on the form of bread and wine. To look at the larger picture, the whole idea of sacramentalism is based on the fact that there is a veil between earthly life and heavenly life – between God and us. A sacrament is something that transcends that veil, a channel through which God’s grace flows. A connection point. The sacraments dissolve into the actual, higher grace they have signified on earth when we reach heaven.

We can’t understand everything about heaven right now because our mental capacity is limited. We just have to trust that Jesus knows how to build a kingdom in heaven for us that is greater than anything we have ever experienced or imagined, and cling to that thought!

 

[nancy_dalrymple]

We will not be married in heaven although we will be in communion. My image of heaven is a heavenly feast with unending conversation, music, dancing etc. I believe we will be married at the Resurrection although this contradicts the Gospel. I believe the Resurrection will be a second Genesis and we will build a new world order and have children at the resurrection. We can’t make love in heaven as we will not have a body.

Sorry we will not be married in heaven for marraige is neither given or taken so do it now while you have the chance cause you will not do it in the future. If I thought there was marraige and we were to have children ETC in heaven or after the resuration I would be very disapointed cause I want to be like Christ. There is no flesh or bones in heaven we will be like Jesus,with heavenly body’s.And the feast and conversation sounds right. Love of Christ Nancy

 

[nancy_dalrymple]

Marriage is meant to be a foreshadowing, a small picture of what heaven will be like. Imagine all the earthly joy and happiness and love you experience in your marriage here and now. All of that will be magnified exponentially in heaven, only your joy will come from union with God. Jesus speaks of marriage being raised to the status of sacrament because it is an image of Christ and the Church. God is the Bridegroom, the Church is the Bride. We will, in a sense, be married to God. To understand this better, maybe I should explain the Trinity image that a priest told me about awhile ago.

God is Love. Within the Trinity, the Father is the Lover, the Son is the Beloved, and the holy Spirit is the Love that exists between them, flowing in an endless unbroken circle. I believe heaven is more of a state of being than a place – the state of complete union with God, in which we will be immersed in that all-encompassing Love. We will be in perfect harmony with Him and with each other. It is a full participation in the divine life.

Think of any other sacrament. Reconciliation, for example. We will not need reconciliation in heaven because we will be fully and permanently reconciled to God. We will not need to experience forgiveness because there will be no more sin to forgive. Think about the Blessed Eucharist. There will be no Eucharist in heaven because Jesus will be present, Body, Blood, soul and divinity without having to take on the form of bread and wine. To look at the larger picture, the whole idea of sacramentalism is based on the fact that there is a veil between earthly life and heavenly life – between God and us. A sacrament is something that transcends that veil, a channel through which God’s grace flows. A connection point. The sacraments dissolve into the actual, higher grace they have signified on earth when we reach heaven.

We can’t understand everything about heaven right now because our mental capacity is limited. We just have to trust that Jesus knows how to build a kingdom in heaven for us that is greater than anything we have ever experienced or imagined, and cling to that thought!

May be for all those who are like you say but what about the ones who never got married or were misrable in their marraige? I sure dont want to ever be married to antone in heaven. I want to be with the Lord. LOL Nancy

 

[nancy_dalrymple]

Father Cantalamessa on Marriage in Heaven
Pontifical Household Preacher on Sunday’s Gospel

ROME, 10 NOV. 2006

Here is a translation of a commentary by the Pontifical Household preacher, Capuchin Father Raniero Cantalamessa, on the readings from this Sunday’s liturgy.

---

There came a poor widow
32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time (b)
1 Kings 7:10-16; Hebrews 9:24-28; Mark 12:38-44

One day, Jesus was standing before the temple treasury, watching people deposit their offerings. He saw a poor widow come and put in all she had, two copper coins, which make a penny. He turned to his disciples and said, “Truly I say to you, this poor widow has put in more than the others. All have given from their excess, but she, in her poverty, put in all she had, all she had to live on.”

We might call this Sunday the “Sunday of the widows.” The story of a widow was also told in the first reading, the widow of Zarephath who gave up all she had left to eat (a handful of flour and a drop of oil) to prepare a meal for the prophet Elijah.

This is a good occasion in which to turn our attention toward both the widows and the widowers of today. If the Bible speaks so often of widows and never of widowers it is because in ancient society the woman who was left alone was at a greater disadvantage than the man who was left alone. Today there is no longer this difference. Actually, in general it now seems that women who are alone manage much better than men.

On this occasion I would like to treat a theme that is of definite interest not only to widows and widowers but also to all those who are married, especially during this month in which we remember the dead. Does the death of a husband or wife, which brings about the legal end of a marriage, also bring with it the total end of communion between the two persons? Does something of that bond which so strongly united two persons on earth remain in heaven, or will all be forgotten once we have crossed the threshold into eternal life?

One day, some Sadducees presented Jesus with the unlikely case of a woman who was successively the wife of seven brothers, asking him whose wife she would be after the resurrection. Jesus answered: “When they rise from the dead they will neither marry nor be given in marriage but will be like angels in heaven” (Mark 12:25).

Interpreting this saying of Jesus wrongly, some have claimed that marriage will have no follow-up in heaven. But with his reply Jesus is rejecting the caricature the Sadducees presented of heaven, as if it were going to be a simple continuation of the earthly relationship of the spouses. Jesus does not exclude the possibility that they might rediscover in God the bond that united them on earth.

According to this vision, marriage does not come to a complete end at death but is transfigured, spiritualized, freed from the limits that mark life on earth, as also the ties between parents and children or between friends will not be forgotten. In a preface for the dead the liturgy proclaims: “Life is transformed, not taken away.” Even marriage, which is part of life, will be transfigured, not nullified.

But what about those who have had a negative experience of earthly marriage, an experience of misunderstanding and suffering? Should not this idea that the marital bond will not break at death be for them, rather than a consolation, a reason for fear? No, for in the passage from time to eternity the good remains and evil falls away. The love that united them, perhaps for only a brief time, remains; defects, misunderstandings, suffering that they inflicted on each other, will fall away.

Indeed, this very suffering, accepted with faith, will be transformed into glory. Many spouses will experience true love for each other only when they will be reunited “in God,” and with this love there will be the joy and fullness of the union that they did not know on earth. In God all will be understood, all will be excused, all will be forgiven.

Some will ask of course about those who have been legitimately married to different people, widowers and widows who have remarried. (This was the case presented to Jesus of the seven brothers who successively had the same woman as their wife.) Even for them we must repeat the same thing: That which was truly love and self-surrender between each of the husbands or wives, being objectively a good coming from God, will not be dissolved. In heaven there will not be rivalry in love or jealousy. These things do not belong to true love but to the intrinsic limits of the creature. ZE06111001

I hate to be the straw that broke the camels back but YOU are wrong! Marraige is broken on earth when someone dies. And it becomes Void, forever. The 7 brothers who all married the same woman when asked about who will be their wife in heaven Jesus said none. Read it and see! LOL Nancy

 

[nancy_dalrymple]

Well, we don’t really disagree on anything. I was trying to answer the original question, which was whether married people are still married after death. The answer is no – otherwise, surviving spouses would not be free to remarry. And then I tried to address the original poster’s concerns about what happens to the relationship between spouses in heaven. The answer is that they still love each other in heaven, and their relationship is not obliterated in heaven. In fact, their love is even greater in heaven than it could ever be on earth. But there is no marriage bond in heaven. As a couple of people have already pointed out, there isn’t the need of a marriage bond in heaven.

(Besides, if there were, wouldn’t there be a lot of awkwardness in heaven among the first spouse, his widow, and her second spouse? And if there was awkwardness in heaven, would it be heaven?)

Now here is a smart person who reads his bible, Yes I agree! Love of Christ Nancy

 

[Brendan]

I hate to be the straw that broke the camels back but YOU are wrong! Marraige is broken on earth when someone dies. And it becomes Void, forever. The 7 brothers who all married the same woman when asked about who will be their wife in heaven Jesus said none. Read it and see! LOL Nancy

Nancy,

You are incorrect on the marriage being Voided. It be voided means that it never existed in the first place.

Rather, the bond is broken.

This does make perfect sense, in that, Marriage, like all the Sacraments, has as it’s goal the Salvation of the recipient.

When you enter into a Sacramental Marriage, you are entering into a Convenat with the person to assit them, in a special way, towards getting into Heaven. When the spouse dies, you have done all that you may Sacramentally do.

The other purpose, is, of course, the begetting and education of children, there is no procreation in Heaven, simply Creation, so that purpose of marriage is also unnessary in Heaven.

Of course that does not mean that we will not know and love our former spouse, we will do so more deeply that we do on Earth.

But we will also love our fellow saints equally too, in other words, we will love as God does .

 

[nancy_dalrymple]

The words are “till death do us part”.

The primary purpose of marriage is the creation and education of children as such it has no purpose in heaven.

Love is much greater in heaven, and God is there the very source of love, all will be purified sinless beings, even greater than your husband is now, and Christ Himself will be there.

Make sure both you and your husband get to heaven and you can spend eternity together but it won’t be like your marriage, it will be much better.

You need to love God more than you love your husband, be careful you do not make an idol out of him.

I agree! AMEN! NO husbands, or wifes in heaven, love and God. YES! LOL Nancy

 

[agapewolf]

Sorry we will not be married in heaven for marraige is neither given or taken so do it now while you have the chance cause you will not do it in the future. If I thought there was marraige and we were to have children ETC in heaven or after the resuration I would be very disapointed cause I want to be like Christ. **There is no flesh or bones in heaven we will be like Jesus,with heavenly body’**s.And the feast and conversation sounds right. Love of Christ Nancy

Bolded is heresy.

Jesus IS in flesh and bones in heaven…He ascended into heaven. There is a resurrection of the Body. Our bodies and souls will be fully integrated and united.

 

[joanofarc143130]

Bolded is heresy.

Jesus IS in flesh and bones in heaven…He ascended into heaven. There is a resurrection of the Body. Our bodies and souls will be fully integrated and united.

I absolutely agree. Flesh is what makes us human beings and separate from other types of beings like angels. When the apostles saw Jesus resurrected, He had His heavenly Body – how He would remain for eternity. He showed them that He had flesh and bones still, proven by St. Thomas putting his hands in Jesus’ wounds and by Jesus eating a fish while with them.

Angels, on the contrary, are pure spirit.

 

[SMHW]

May be for all those who are like you say but what about the ones who never got married or were misrable in their marraige? I sure dont want to ever be married to antone in heaven. I want to be with the Lord. LOL Nancy

What joanofarc143130 said was that, *"Marriage is **meant *to be a foreshadowing, a small picture of what heaven will be like." Of course what marriage was meant to be and what it may turn out to be can be quite different. But that doesn’t change the fact that marriage had a certain design. It should show us something of what it is like to be united with Christ.

Part of the foreshadowing aspect of marriage is as a witness to those outside the marriage. In other words, the marriage of my spouse and myself is supposed to show you what heaven is like and any other couple’s marriage ought to show me something of what heaven is like. After all, the Church is the bride of Christ and we are part of the Church.

Nothing like even more pressure, is there…

 

[nancy_dalrymple]

Nancy,

You are incorrect on the marriage being Voided. It be voided means that it never existed in the first place.

Rather, the bond is broken.

This does make perfect sense, in that, Marriage, like all the Sacraments, has as it’s goal the Salvation of the recipient.

When you enter into a Sacramental Marriage, you are entering into a Convenat with the person to assit them, in a special way, towards getting into Heaven. When the spouse dies, you have done all that you may Sacramentally do.

The other purpose, is, of course, the begetting and education of children, there is no procreation in Heaven, simply Creation, so that purpose of marriage is also unnessary in Heaven.

Of course that does not mean that we will not know and love our former spouse, we will do so more deeply that we do on Earth.

But we will also love our fellow saints equally too, in other words, we will love as God does .

HAH! you people sound just like MORMONs they think they will be married in heaven also. If that is the case I will not remarry in the Catholic church on Easter I will live in sin first!

 

[SMHW]

HAH! you people sound just like MORMONs they think they will be married in heaven also. If that is the case I will not remarry in the Catholic church on Easter I will live in sin first!

But Brendan never said we would be married in heaven. He said there is a difference between a bond being broken and a bond being voided.

A broken bond starts and then stops in time. A void bond never actually existed (even though we may have thought it did at one point.)

 

[nancy_dalrymple]

But Brendan never said we would be married in heaven. He said there is a difference between a bond being broken and a bond being voided.

A broken bond starts and then stops in time. A void bond never actually existed (even though we may have thought it did at one point.)

PLease use lay terms with me as I am new to this and do no understand everdently.How can we be bond to each other and not married? I dont think I care for that i want freedom complete freedom to be myself and to be buond to no one. i wan be with Jesus. i give up my family on earth when i die and will see them in heaven but i do not care to be obligated in any way to anyone from this planet, ever again. It is VOID done caput! Finished! Removed! There is no time in heaven a you will see.It is endlss and love is endless and light and beauty is all around. i will still be me but I will not belong to anyone I choose not to.

 

[drforjc]

Father Cantalamessa on Marriage in Heaven
Pontifical Household Preacher on Sunday’s Gospel

ROME, 10 NOV. 2006

Here is a translation of a commentary by the Pontifical Household preacher, Capuchin Father Raniero Cantalamessa, on the readings from this Sunday’s liturgy.

---

There came a poor widow
32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time (b)
1 Kings 7:10-16; Hebrews 9:24-28; Mark 12:38-44

One day, Jesus was standing before the temple treasury, watching people deposit their offerings. He saw a poor widow come and put in all she had, two copper coins, which make a penny. He turned to his disciples and said, “Truly I say to you, this poor widow has put in more than the others. All have given from their excess, but she, in her poverty, put in all she had, all she had to live on.”

We might call this Sunday the “Sunday of the widows.” The story of a widow was also told in the first reading, the widow of Zarephath who gave up all she had left to eat (a handful of flour and a drop of oil) to prepare a meal for the prophet Elijah.

This is a good occasion in which to turn our attention toward both the widows and the widowers of today. If the Bible speaks so often of widows and never of widowers it is because in ancient society the woman who was left alone was at a greater disadvantage than the man who was left alone. Today there is no longer this difference. Actually, in general it now seems that women who are alone manage much better than men.

On this occasion I would like to treat a theme that is of definite interest not only to widows and widowers but also to all those who are married, especially during this month in which we remember the dead. Does the death of a husband or wife, which brings about the legal end of a marriage, also bring with it the total end of communion between the two persons? Does something of that bond which so strongly united two persons on earth remain in heaven, or will all be forgotten once we have crossed the threshold into eternal life?

One day, some Sadducees presented Jesus with the unlikely case of a woman who was successively the wife of seven brothers, asking him whose wife she would be after the resurrection. Jesus answered: “When they rise from the dead they will neither marry nor be given in marriage but will be like angels in heaven” (Mark 12:25).

Interpreting this saying of Jesus wrongly, some have claimed that marriage will have no follow-up in heaven. But with his reply Jesus is rejecting the caricature the Sadducees presented of heaven, as if it were going to be a simple continuation of the earthly relationship of the spouses. Jesus does not exclude the possibility that they might rediscover in God the bond that united them on earth.

According to this vision, marriage does not come to a complete end at death but is transfigured, spiritualized, freed from the limits that mark life on earth, as also the ties between parents and children or between friends will not be forgotten. In a preface for the dead the liturgy proclaims: “Life is transformed, not taken away.” Even marriage, which is part of life, will be transfigured, not nullified.

But what about those who have had a negative experience of earthly marriage, an experience of misunderstanding and suffering? Should not this idea that the marital bond will not break at death be for them, rather than a consolation, a reason for fear? No, for in the passage from time to eternity the good remains and evil falls away. The love that united them, perhaps for only a brief time, remains; defects, misunderstandings, suffering that they inflicted on each other, will fall away.

Indeed, this very suffering, accepted with faith, will be transformed into glory. Many spouses will experience true love for each other only when they will be reunited “in God,” and with this love there will be the joy and fullness of the union that they did not know on earth. In God all will be understood, all will be excused, all will be forgiven.

Some will ask of course about those who have been legitimately married to different people, widowers and widows who have remarried. (This was the case presented to Jesus of the seven brothers who successively had the same woman as their wife.) Even for them we must repeat the same thing: That which was truly love and self-surrender between each of the husbands or wives, being objectively a good coming from God, will not be dissolved. In heaven there will not be rivalry in love or jealousy. These things do not belong to true love but to the intrinsic limits of the creature. ZE06111001

Carefully reading Fr. Cantalamessa’s remarks (understanding that he is expressing his personal understanding, as he himself does not constitute the Magisterium of the Church), I get the distinct impression that he is saying that our relationship with our earthly spouse (or even as he admits, potentially spouses) does not end completely, but that the exclusive relationship between husband and wife that we have here on earth will be completely transformed.

I would contend that he also has not really logically rebutted the “objection of the seven brothers”, but simply** reasserted** his original statement.

 

[grandfather]

I hate to be the straw that broke the camels back but YOU are wrong! Marraige is broken on earth when someone dies. And it becomes Void, forever. The 7 brothers who all married the same woman when asked about who will be their wife in heaven Jesus said none. Read it and see! LOL Nancy

Nancy,
You speak with such authority. Do you realize, did you notice who the person is being quoted. It is the papal household preacher, the priest who gives homilies to the pope. He addresses the scripture to which you refer. Try reading his homily again.

We will have bodies in heaven. That is defined dogma going back to the original creed, a version of which you pray at every Mass. Jesus’s body rose from the dead and He took it to heaven. He did not leave it behind. This is a mystery. We do not completely understand it.