Detailed review of "Heaven Sense" 1 of 2

Here is more from the book “Heaven Sense.” I put in quotes the author’s words, and my comments are without quotes. Passages from scripture are cited.

“So, far from a pale and extenuated existence, Heaven is the romance, the never-ending love story of the soul and God.” (Page 6) Fr. Ardenzen cites a line from the Book Song of Songs (8:6-7), a larger portion of which I include here.

Song of Songs 8: 5-8

5 Who is this coming up from the desert, leaning upon her lover?
Under the apple tree I awakened you; it was there that your mother conceived you,
It was there that your parent conceived.
6 Set me as a seal on your heart,
As a seal on your arm;
For stern as death is love,
Relentless as the nether world is devotion;
Its flames are a blazing fire.
7 Deep waters cannot quench love, nor floods sweep it away.
Were one to offer all he owns to purchase love, he would be roundly mocked.

So Fr. Ardenzen suggests that the sublime love expressed in this poem that uses romantic love and marriage as symbolic of the mutual love of the Lord God and his people is also a glimpse of how it “feels” to be in heaven.

He writes, “Holy Scripture certainly makes it perfectly plain that our eternal happiness will consist in seeing God.” (Page 7) He selects five citations from the scriptures, one of which is the scene in Revelation 22: 2-5. When I first read it I thought he had mis-cited because I had Revelation 21:21-27 on my mind because it is the more general and informational description of heaven’s overall demeanor:

I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God almighty and the Lamb. The city had no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gave it light, and its lamp was the Lamb. The nations will walk by its light, and to it the kings of the earth will bring their treasure. During the day its gates will never be shut, and there will be no night there. The treasure and wealth of the nations will be brought there, but nothing unclean will enter it, nor any[one] who does abominable things or tells lies. Only those will enter whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life (Revelation 21:22-27).

Notice that celestial objects (planets, stars, galaxies etc) are not in heaven because they are of the physical world. Notice also that the source of the light is God. Notice that the fashioning of the light into the lamp is the Lamb (Jesus Christ). St. John observed kingly treasure, only of the goodly kinds, in heaven, and that may be a mystery what that could be until one reads the following passage, which is the one that Fr. Ardenzen cites portions of in his text. I include it here in full:

Then the angel showed me the river of life-giving water, sparkling like crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb down the middle of the street. On either side of the river grew the tree of life that produces fruit twelve times a year, once each month; the leaves of the trees serve as medicine for the nations. Nothing accursed will be found there anymore. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him. They will look upon his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. Night will be no more, nor will they need light from lamp or sun, for the Lord God shall give them light, and they shall reign forever and ever (Revelation 22: 1-5).

Fr. Ardenzen cites the above and the other four passages to demonstrate that the scriptures affirm that people will see the actual face of God in heaven. He also points out that this is not an entitlement because “It is not natural to any created being, however good, to see God” (Page 8) and “God is the reality, we the image” (Page 9). He explains that “The Beatific Vision is a free gift of God to man exceeding all natural merit of virtue by an absolute measure, and not only the merit of human virtue, but that of any angels and archangels, cherubim or seraphim; nay, even of Mary the Mother of God. God, infinite though He be, could not, even by exercise of His absolute omnipotence, create a being to whom it should be natural to enjoy the Beatific Vision” (Page 10).

Now, Fr. Ardenzen does not expand his citation of Revelation to speculate what it means, so I will do so here to build on what he is saying. Fr. Ardenzen correctly observes that no one who is created, not even the purest of humans, the Virgin Mary and the angels themselves, can view God without God’s assistance to enable it. Even in heaven (actually, especially in heaven) the infinite intensity of the Beatific Vision of God is such that no one except God can perceive and view Him in his fullness. Therefore God creates a structure in heaven whereby he can be viewed and perceived. This is why scripture states “for the glory of God gave it light” but “its lamp is the Lamb.” It is like in one’s home, you do not have the entire output of your local power station flooding into your room in the form of raw voltage; you have a lamp. In heaven God is God, and the Lamb (Jesus Christ) is the lamp, because he who was of human form can bring a portion of the light of God to those who view God in heaven.

That, by the way, is the clue to the nature of the mark of the faithful in heaven: “They will look upon his face and his name will be on their foreheads.” Like Moses who became radiant from repeated exposure to God’s light, those in heaven have the mark of God’s name on their foreheads because they reflect and bathe in the portion of the light of God. It is not a mark, symbol, or alphabet letters that appears on heavenly foreheads, but the glorified light of God that shines upon them, just as was with Moses. So rapture zanies can stop hoping to receive freckles shaped like a cross on their foreheads on earth, or a Greek Tau (more likely caused by so much frowning LOL). The name of God cannot be artificially written or induced, for it can only come from reception of and reflection of the pure light of the glory of God’s presence. The true faithful to God receive the glorified light of his presence on their foreheads.

Another important insight in the passage from Revelation is that there is “a river of life-giving water,” “a street,” “the tree of life that produces fruit twelve times a year, once each month,” and “the leaves of the trees serve as medicine for the nations.” Now, what can be the meaning of such earthly types of structures in heaven? Rather than explain, St. John writes how “nothing accursed will be found there anymore” and the long passage about the thrones of God and the Lamb and God’s eternal source of light. The explanation is very straightforward. Just as God is the source of all light, God is also the source of all life. God in heaven is the source, just like the well spring that is the origin of a flowing river, of all life, both animal and botanical. When people are in heaven they are able to “see” this well spring, the source of life in God. They are not seeing literal drops of water or eating actual medicinal leaves, but they are in the first garden, the real Eden, the fountain spring of life itself. The source of life in God is given structural flora and fauna form so that it can be seen and perceived, just as God’s light is shaped so that it is bearable and perceivable by the Lamb. When those who are in heaven perceive the cycles of the tree in fruit, they are seeing the origination of life in God that, if God wills it, translates into life forms and being in the physical universe. This is why the Qur’an is also correct in perceiving heaven as a garden.

So, while Fr. Ardenzen is not so bold to explain the literal reality of what St. John observed (I’m writing this with a smile) he does a very worthy job of explaining how: “It remains, therefore, that God should, in some mysterious way, fulfill the role that, in our natural cognitive processes, is played by the ‘idea.’ God will render Himself immediately present and intelligible to our minds” (Page 13) and “We are kept in being by God as the image in the mirror is kept in being by the person continuing to stand in front of it” (Page 15). Fr. Ardenzen recognizes St. Peter’s explanation in 2 Peter 1:4, which I quote here adding 2 Peter 1:3 for fuller context:

3 His divine power has bestowed on us everything that makes for life and devotion, through the knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and power. 4 Through these, he has bestowed on us the precious and very great promises, so that through them you may come to share in the divine nature, after escaping the corruption that is in the world because of evil desire.

Fr. Ardenzen recognizes that St. Peter is not just preaching against sin, and extolling God’s power, but is also explaining that what is ultimately needed to see God is already infused in every person by God. Fr. Ardenzen explains, “But the effect of that participation of divine life is in some sense suspended, because our soul is still in our mortal body. Its mode of knowledge is restricted and restrained by our earthly conditions. Set it free from this mortal body, and grace changes into glory; the soul enters into its supernatural birthright” (Page 16). Notice that this validates the Revelation 21:27 mention that “nothing unclean will enter it” because as St. Peter notes that on death one is “escaping the corruption that is in the world.”

Fr. Ardenzen is therefore succinct and accurate when he writes that “they will cease to accept it on faith, for faith will be replaced by vision” (Page 17). He writes “We shall clasp God to our bosom spiritually, and we shall be united to Him with closer bonds than ever a beloved was joined to a lover. These are not mere expressions of poetic exaggeration or mere emotional piety. They are endorsed by strict philosophy and theology; they are almost technical in their value. To possess God is supreme happiness, for God is infinite beauty and lovableness” (Page 22). He also writes “he should recall the greatest and grandest scene of beauty he has ever gazed upon, the most entrancing melody he has ever heard, and remember that God created nature, and that nature is a feeble reflection of God” (Page 22). This makes another way to recall the Revelation scene of “the river of life-giving water, sparkling like crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb” as the source of nature as the reflection of God. Fr. Ardenzen reminds “A further thought that will aid us is that the love between God and ourselves will be mutual. God is not merely a picture to be looked at, a scene to be contemplated. God is personal, and He returns the gaze we cast upon Him. God is a living God, not a mere effulgence of impersonal glory, however great. Our soul will be joined to God in mutual affection…” (Page 23)

Fr. Ardenzen explains that the blessed in heaven do not forget their own self identities, but that “in loving God, they love all that God loves, including themselves” (Page 25). He also writes “Heaven is no home for mock humility. St. Paul wrote, ‘By the grace of God I am what I am, and the grace of God in me has not been void’” (Page 25).

Fr. Ardenzen has what I consider to be one of the money quotes on the subject of evolution, which he uses to open the section about having desires in heaven. Read what he says:
We Catholics are, as a matter of fact, great believers in evolution, but we do not trouble ourselves so much about the evolution of the past, for, whatever it has been, it has only historical interest; we cannot change it now. What has been, has been. We believe in the only evolution that really matters, the evolution we are actually undergoing, and in which our own free will plays a part. Because on this earth we are evolving beings, evolving according to God’s supernatural plan toward a life in union with Him, our mortal life is essentially imperfect (Page 27).

Wow! While this is a little off the subject, I wanted to point it out as one of the best explanations of the Catholic philosophy of the scientific reality of evolution that I’ve seen. And remember he wrote this in 1928! He demonstrates the serenity that Catholics have in discovers of the scientific means by which God nonetheless is fulfilling his perfect plan toward a life in union with Him. Trust in God means that no one need fear a scientific discovery, for it does not contradict scriptures or God’s plan.

He explains that evolution of life on earth illustrates that “Because we are imperfect, our life here is one of longing, seeking, hoping for the future. All this will one day end. We shall not always be dissatisfied with what we have and are. Our eternal existence will not be one of endless craving and not yet possessing, a waiting for something beyond; the fullness of our being will come at last, and our life will be one of tranquil possession” (Page 28).

“On earth, we can exercise our love for God on different grounds, loving Him now for His justice, now for His mercy, now for His wisdom, now for His tenderness. In Heaven, we shall see that all God’s attributes are identical with His being” (Page 30).

“Since our ultimate happiness consists in this perfect satisfaction of the faculties of our spiritual life, we can well understand why the term most commonly used in the Scriptures for Heaven is life. It occurs in this sense one hundred times in the New Testament, in the majority of cases followed by the adjective everlasting. It is remarkable that it occurs in this sense in every gook and letter of the New Testament, even in the short letter of St. Jude, with the sole exception of the letter to Philemon. It must have been the standing expression on the lips of Christ and His Apostles. In St. Matthew, St. Mark, and St. Luke, the term kingdom of God is more usually employed, whereas St. John almost exclusively uses life and speaks only twice of the kingdom. St. Paul uses life more frequently than kingdom” (Page 31).