What Is Heaven
Recently we have been meditating on the Last Things: death, our particular judgment, purgatory, hell, the end of time, the Last Judgment and the Second Coming of Jesus in power and glory and the New heavens and New earth. Today we meditate on heaven. Tonight in the Livestream at 7:30 we will reflect on the four things that will happen before the end of the World in the order they will occur… So let us begin in the Name of…
ONE
What is the goal of your life?
Most Christians say their ultimate goal is to get to heaven, like it is some destination. But the Catechism says Heaven does not mean a place but a way of being. (2794) A way of being like what? Well, like God. Heaven means to be like God.
When we turn to the Catechism, under the heading of Heaven (1023) it says Those who die in God’s grace and friendship and are perfectly purified live forever with Christ. They are like God forever…
So the CCC teaches us that Heaven means primarily to be like God.
As we are told in 1 John 3:2 we shall be like him because we shall see him as he really is.
Heaven means to become like God, to be like God forever. In this decade let your imagination run with that. Is that the goal of your life? To be like God? If not, then your goal is not heaven but something else
TWO
What does it mean to be like God?
To be like God means first to share in the life of God as His adopted son or daughter.
To become an adopted child of God, His divine nature must be infused into our human nature.
We are not children of God by birth, we are children our human biological parents.
The usual way that Jesus set up for us to receive a share in God’s divine nature is through baptism. That is the day we became a son or daughter of God. From that point forward we can dare to call God Father in the Our Father, because now He really is and we really are His children, and we can hope, that is we can have a confident expectation of living with our Father in Heaven forever.
The purpose of your life is to become a son or daughter of God and then live the fullest most perfect expression of being a child of God.
Is that the goal of your life?
THREE
Heaven is to be like God and God is love. Therefore, if our goal is Heaven then our goal is to become love.
Love does not mean to have nice feelings about everyone and everything.
Love is to do what is good to God, to oneself and to others.
Something is good for me if it helps me achieve the purpose for which I was created.
If we love ourselves and others, then we will work to achieve the purpose for which we were created and we will help others to the same.
Love then is to do good – to help everyone achieve their purpose – to share in the life of God and be like God forever.
The 1 letter of John tells us the 1st Condition to become love is to break with sin:
My children, do not let anyone lead you astray: to live a holy life is to be holy just as he is holy; to lead a sinful life is to belong to the devil, since the devil was a sinner from the beginning. It was to undo all that the devil has done that the Son of God appeared. 1 John 3:7
Holy Spirit, in this decade convict me of the sin you want me to break with.
FOUR
The Second Condition, according to Scripture, to be like God is to – keep the commandments, again especially the law of love
1 John 3:10 In this way we distinguish the children of God from the children of the devil: anybody not living a holy life and not loving his brother is no child of God's. This is the message as you heard it from the beginning: that we are to love one another; not to be like Cain, who belonged to the Evil One and cut his brother's throat; cut his brother's throat simply for this reason, that his own life was evil and his brother lived a good life. You must not be surprised, brothers, when the world hates you; we have passed out of death and into life, and of this we can be sure because we love our brothers. If you refuse to love, you must remain dead; to hate your brother is to be a murderer, and murderers, as you know, do not have eternal life in them. This has taught us love - that he gave up his life for us; and we, too, ought to give up our lives for our brothers. If a man who was rich enough in this world's goods saw that one of his brothers was in need, but closed his heart to him, how could the love of God be living in him? My children, our love is not to be just words or mere talk, but something real and active;
FIVE
If Heaven is to be like God, then we can’t reach heaven until we become like God. Ok so what do we need to do to become like God?
Be baptized. If you know someone who is not baptized, then do all you can in friendship to help them to Baptism.
Spend time in prayer. Prayer is friendship with God – talking, listening and just being with God. Catholic meditation is listening to God. If you don’t spend substantial time listening to God then you cannot have a real friendship with him, you can’t know him and you cant know yourself.
Spend time every day reading the life of Jesus in the Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John so that you can get to know Jesus and learn from Him how to live like a child of God.
Get rid of your sin. Sin makes us dissimilar to God. Sin distorts the likeness of God in us.
We get rid of our sin by
· A daily examination of conscience
· Frequent Sacrament of Reconciliation – at least monthly
· A daily resolution flowing out of our meditation and reading the life of Jesus – because by this two-fold effort of looking honestly at our own life and then the life of Jesus we begin to see how we should live differently and we can make concrete resolutions.
Fulfill your vows, duties and responsibilities
Finally, take up the Cross when it comes to you, meaning accept what you cannot change as something God has allowed into your life to make you more like God – then even our Crosses help us to Heaven!
If your goal is Heaven, that is, to be like God, then you will do these things. If you wont do these things…well, then, what is your goal?