So, thinking about Heaven, as I do a lot as I get older, I wonder about the perfect happiness which reigns there, and have questions.
If the people whom we (presumption of going to Heaven) loved and left behind on earth are going through appalling suffering, or are destined by their behaviour for Hell, do we
- not care, because heaven is a great party where nothing interrupts the general bliss, and earth, the material world, Hell, and Purgatory will have been brought to an end by the time that we get to Heaven, so there will be no discordant grief or suffering?
- pray for them, and rejoice that (a) we have done all we can, and that (b) Divine Justice, in all its perfection, will be done, and therefore rejoice in their well-deserved damnation?
- not care overmuch, because everyone will end up in Heaven, and in the context of eternal happiness, cancer, torture, abject misery, and purgatory are no worse that an unpleasant visit to the dentist?
- suffer constant anxiety and grief over those we love as we do on Earth?
5 comments:
Julian of Norwich pondered similar questions, I seem to recall? Perhaps you might gleam some understanding( and hope) from reading some of her 'showings' as I think they are called.
I know she ends by saying 'All shall be well and all manner of things shall be very well"
I might give them another peruse myself, I get the same fears about souls (including mine!).
God bless. Peace.
I think the problem comes from Heaven as though it were earth plus, instead of a separrate dimension. We're stuck with our earthbound minds because of Adam and Eve, and their sin stops us from even beginning to perceive just how completely we will be absorbed into God's love: then we shall know as we are known.
shadowlands2 - thank you for the reminder of Julian of Norwich and her comforting words, which make sense, at least to me. Interesting that none of her contemporaries (I think) ever accused her of heresy.
I would love to believe in the ultimate Salvation of all, but the Gospels don't appear to support it.
Ttony - thank you for your wise comment. This is in God's Hands, and not a matter for us to worry about, but in the still watches of the night, I think and worry. I am one of those who think they need to understand even those things which are beyond human understanding.
Chris, I have precisely the same worries, especially as far as my children are concerned - I find a large JD and a rosary usually get me sorted out.
Richard - thanks for the very sound advice. Am out of the JD but have some very nice nalewka, half spiritus (98%) and half cherry juice and honey.
As to the Rosary - no problem!
Na twóje zdrowie!
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