Heaven and the Glorious Mysteries
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The Resurrection
All the Glorious Mysteries of the Rosary give us an insight into some facet of what awaits us in Heaven. That insight begins with realizing that Heaven will be a place for our bodies. We often forget how radical this is, how none of the pagans imagined an afterlife for the body. Pagans thought that if the soul survived death at all, it was only to live forever as some kind of ghostly spirit, something that thought and remembered. But in this first glorious mystery, we see Jesus’ resurrection, and we recognize a full bodily life.
He sits by the fire; he walks with his friends; he repeatedly asks for food and eats it. His resurrection is a promise of our future resurrection. We will walk again; we will laugh with our lungs and smile with our mouths and embrace one another with our arms.
Our bodies will be restored. Not sick, not weak, not old, not doomed to die. But alive and well forever.
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The Ascension – The elevation of the glorified body
The ascension of Our Lord reminds us that not only will we receive our bodies back, but they will be transformed bodies, with stunning new capabilities. It was Jesus’ body that walked out of the tomb, that’s why the tomb was empty. But it was Jesus’ body transformed. Recall how Mary Magdalene and the disciples on the road to Emmaus had such a hard time recognizing Him.
Jesus’ body after the resurrection seems to be more versatile than it was before; it’s a real body, but seems somehow lighter. Before the resurrection, He walked on water. Now even the cloud will support His weight.
He walks through walls, He appears and disappears suddenly. St. Paul tells us that our fleshy body will die, and will sow the seed of a spiritual body (I Cor 15:44). In other words, our bodies, when risen, will be newly made. They will be exalted, glorified, and the joy of the resurrection will be something we can’t even imagine now.
We live in an age where superhero culture about people with unbelievable physical abilities is all the rage. It may be we love those stories because we have some innate desire for an enhanced human bodily life and it’s precisely that desire that the second Glorious mystery promises will be fulfilled in the life to come.
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The Descent of the Holy Spirit = participation in divine life
It’s crucial to note that the most important part of Heaven is the part we already have access to now — Intimacy with God; divine life; the Trinity dwelling in us and us participating in their Love.
All that is the work of the Holy Spirit. All that has been part of the life of the Church since the Descent of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.
This is the most important part of Heaven and it begins now. Because for the Baptized the Holy Spirit has already entered into us and with Him comes access to the Father through the Son, a life of charity, courage, holiness. This life of God is the source of all happiness; the source of all peace.
Pope Leo XIII once wrote that what we have here and what the saints have in Heaven differs only in degree; not in kind. (Divinum Illud Munus, #9)
In other words, we have access to the same heavenly joy as the saints. So the question is: if Heaven has already begun, why are we not peaceful? Why are we not happy? Because the Life of God, the Spirit of God, is not something visible; it’s not something you can see
Unless you are willing to invest time every day in silence and prayer, you’ll be distracted by the concerns of what’s outside you instead of the Heaven that dwells inside you.
The descent of the Holy Spirit reminds us about what the most important part of Heaven is and that it should begin now. So pray in silence every day, and ask the Spirit within you to cultivate your peace, happiness and love.
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The Assumption – Reunion with those We’ve Loved
The Assumption calls to mind the fact that in Heaven we will be united with God, but also with all those we’ve loved in this life. The reunion of Jesus and Mary in Heaven is the supreme sign of all the delight we’ll have at reuniting face-to-face with all the blessed.
Think of the people we’ll meet in Heaven! We’ll see the friends we’ve lost and our relatives who have died before us. Think of how many families in this life can’t come together without awkwardness, because of all kinds of complicated histories. In Heaven, your whole family will get together, and everyone will be genuinely glad to see everyone else, and everyone will be completely at ease. Imagine that!
The great saints will be there, Think of walking into a room, and sitting there are Joan of Ark, and Moses, and John Paul II, and they all turn as you walk in, and they all welcome you by name!
No earthly family, no earthly corporation or society or community, can compare with the happiness we will each have when we are admitted into the company of Heaven.
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The Coronation of Mary – the Glory of Heaven
The last aspect of Heaven revealed by the glorious mysteries is the glory we will each receive. It is one of the deepest human urges to receive praise from others – to get positive feedback, validation. This urge is one of the most dangerous urges, because it so often pushes us into vanity, it subjects us to peer pressure, it makes us act on other peoples’ opinions instead of what we know to be right.
Of course, we know that the only opinion that really matters is God’s, but God doesn’t tell us what He thinks of us in this life. Just as Our Lady was crowned in glory, so too will we be given the ultimate honor in Heaven. In Heaven, we will be praised; and it will be God Himself who praises.
And there can be no greater validation than that – than to hear God say, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”