Eye Has Not Seen...

"Eye has not seen, ear has not heard, nor has it so much as dawned on man what God has prepared for those who love Him." (1 Corinthians 2:9)

It is Easter, and thoughts have turned toward heavenly things. Dark has been overcome by Light. Life has conquered death. Truth has shattered lies.

Looking around the world in which we live, however, we might be starting to wonder. We see so much darkness. Death appears to win more battles than we care to think about. Shoving truth aside, lies strut around proud and haughty and apparently triumphant. Just imagine there's no heaven, we were told in song forty years ago; imagine no hell. And that, it seems, is precisely what the world has been doing - imagining that this life is all there is.

I would like to spend the next few weeks looking through the grillwork, considering how various ideas do or do not line up with what is "on our grille."  I find the world's current view of eternity (for instance) quite obvious. It's hard to miss that view if we have read a newspaper lately, or turned on a TV.  The world, as a whole, appears to be imagining that there are no consequences whatsoever for the choices we make.

But what do Scripture and Church teaching have to say on the matter?

It is only through reading the Bible and authentic teachings of the Church that we shall ever find the "view through the grille."

"Our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him to subject all things to himself." (Philippians 3:20-21)

"Blest are you when they insult you and persecute you and utter every kind of slander against you because of Me. Be glad and rejoice, for your reward is great in heaven." (Matthew 5:10-11)

"Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father Who is in heaven." Matthew 7:21

"Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell."  Matthew 10:28

"By virtue of our apostolic authority, we define the following: According to the general disposition of God the souls of all the saints... and other faithful who died after receiving Christ's holy Baptism... already before they take up their bodies again and before the general judgement... have been, are and will be in heaven, in the heavenly Kingdom and celestial paradise with Christ, joined to the company of the holy angels." (Catechism of the Catholic Church 1023)

"Let us never forget the sublime end of man, which is to be happy forever in a blessed eternity." (St. John Bosco)


Text not in quotes© 2015 Nancy Shuman. 
thecloisteredheart.org     

Painting: Louis Janmot, Poème de l'âme, in US public domain due to age {PD-US}