If you dig in a dry and barren spot, and happen to strike a vein of living water, it bubbles up, overflows, and moistens the surrounding earth, clothing it with beautiful verdure and smiling flowers. So it is in the resurrection. The life which had been concentrated in the soul alone, overflows to the body, giving to it life, beauty, and glory, and causing it to thrill with inexpressible pleasure. The Beatific Vision, which was the essential happiness of the soul before the resurrection, is now the essential happiness of man.
In our meditations on the life of Christ, we make ourselves present to the mysteries we are contemplating. We do not look upon them as past, but as actually taking place under our eyes. Thus we see Jesus lying in a manger; we see Him flying into Egypt, disputing with the doctors in the temple; we see Him laboring, preaching, and dying upon the cross. We shall endeavor to do the same in our meditations on the life of the blessed.
Let us, then, transport ourselves in spirit to that great day, which St. John saw, when a mighty angel, coming down from heaven, stood upon the land and sea, and, lifting up his hand on high, swore by Him who liveth forever and ever, that "time should be no more." Then, says St. John, "I saw the dead, great and small, standing in the presence of the throne, and the books were opened, and the dead were judged by those things which were written in the books.... And I heard a great voice from the throne, saying: Behold the tabernacle of G.o.d with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people; and G.o.d himself shall be their G.o.d. And He that sat upon the throne said: Behold I make all things new."*
* Apoc. xx.
Here is a new order of things, in a new world--a world of beauty and perfection inconceivably greater than the one wherein we now live.
This is the world in which we are to live the life of the blessed. In this chapter, we shall examine five of its most prominent attributes.
1. First, it is a life of peace. When Jesus was born, the angels sang: "Glory to G.o.d in the highest, and on earth, peace to men of good will." And when He arose from the dead, his first words to the Apostles were: "Peace be to you." But, though the peace He wished and gave was great; it was not, and, in the existing order of things, could not be perfect. For they still had to battle against the world, the devil, and the flesh. But in heaven that peace is perfect, because it flows immediately from the bosom of G.o.d himself. Besides, none of those things which in this world disturb our peace, can ever enter the kingdom of peace.
We now have perfect peace with G.o.d, of whose love for us we no longer doubt, as we may have often done when on earth. We also have peace with ourselves; for those unruly pa.s.sions which formerly disturbed our peace, no longer exist in our glorified bodies. We enjoy perfect peace with our neighbor; for conflicting interests, envies, and jealousies, which gave rise to dissensions and enmities, have not found and never will find their way into heaven. We also have peace from the devil, who no longer "goeth about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour." He has found no admittance into the kingdom of peace. We also have peace from our past life; for the sins which so often made us tremble, are washed away in the blood of Jesus, and are, therefore, no longer a source of trouble. The remembrance of them rather intensifies our love for the G.o.d of mercy and therefore increases our happiness. We now, also, have peace from our future. That awful future was formerly shrouded in impenetrable darkness, and often filled us with gloomy forebodings. But now the judgment is over; we have heard the consoling sentence: "Come ye, blessed of my Father, possess the kingdom prepared for you, from the foundation of the world." We now gaze undismayed into that bright outspread eternity, wherein we see nothing that can ever disturb our peace. The wish and prayer of St. Paul, expressed to the first Christians, is now completely fulfilled in us: "And the peace of G.o.d which surpa.s.seth all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus."*
* Phil. iv. 7.
This, then, is the first feature of heavenly life, and, as is evident, this peace is absolutely necessary to enjoy the life itself, and whatever else of happiness is in store for the children of G.o.d.
2. The life of heaven is one of rest. St. John says: "And I heard a voice from heaven, saying to me, Write: Blessed are they that die in the Lord. From henceforth now, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labors."* This is one of the most captivating features of heavenly life for the poor, and for all others who labored much in this world. It also gives the most exquisite consolation to those who, on account of peculiar difficulties in the practice of virtue, have been fatigued and wearied almost unto death. Their whole spiritual life was one of continual labor and struggle, which at times so disheartened them, that they felt strongly tempted to give up all further attempt at Christian perfection, and to seek consolation and rest in the pleasures of this world. Oh, how happy they now are! How grateful to G.o.d, who gave them the grace of final perseverance! They now enter into their rest, which shall never more be disturbed by toil or struggle. They now live a life of everlasting rest, though not one of inactivity. For, as we have already seen, the life of heaven is not one of inactivity, but one in which every energy of mind and body has its full and free action. As our life in heaven is a partic.i.p.ation of the life of G.o.d himself, it must resemble that Divine Life, which, while it is ineffable rest, is ever active and operative in the creation, conservation, and government, not only of our own world, but of those millions of other worlds that shine above our heads. Nevertheless, this continual exercise of our manifold faculties in heaven, does not, as in this world, generate fatigue, weariness, or disgust; but is the never-failing source of the highest and most rational pleasure.
* Apoc. xiv.
What a consoling thought this is for the poor! They labor much, and for scanty wages, which, in many instances, scarcely suffice to keep themselves and families from starvation. What a consolation also for persons who have devoted themselves to G.o.d in religious communities!
By their vows they became poor for Christ"s sake, and, like Him, they labored much. The wear and tear of the religious life deprived many of their health and strength; and yet they continue to labor as if they were in full vigor. Their day of rest has come at last. Their beloved Spouse has called them to himself, that they might rest from their labors. The last words of the Church over them is a solemn prayer for that heavenly rest: "Eternal rest give unto them, O Lord.
And let everlasting light shine upon them. May they rest in peace."
Here is the end of all labor, struggle, and fatigue. Here is the beginning of a life of eternal, undisturbed repose.
3. The life of heaven is also one of intellectual pleasure. We saw, in a former chapter, that man"s intellect is filled to overflowing with all knowledge in the vision of G.o.d. We must now say a few words on the exquisite and pure pleasures which this knowledge produces.
Intellectual pleasures are, perhaps, the hast generally known of all those which our nature can enjoy. For the great majority of the human race is made up of the poor, who are compelled to spend their lives in toiling for food and raiment. They are, in consequence, unable to develop their mental faculties and to enjoy high intellectual pleasures. And yet these pleasures are the highest, the most rational and satisfying which man can enjoy; because they are produced by the exercise of the intellect, which is the n.o.blest faculty of the soul.
Men of highly cultivated minds, such as theologians, philosophers, astronomers, mathematicians, and literary men, separate themselves from the world and its pleasures; they spend the day, and a great part of the night, in study, in the contemplation of the truth; they even forget to eat and drink, and must be compelled by their friends to attend to the necessities of nature. Many of them have completely ruined their health by study; and some of them, as Democritus the philosopher, are reported to have even plucked out their eyes, that they might have less distraction, and thereby be enabled to meditate more profoundly upon the truths of their respective sciences. Now, I ask, is it in our nature to go through such terrible self-denials without compensation? Surely it is not. Therefore, the natural inference is that knowledge is a source of the most exquisite pleasures.
If it is so, in this world, where the curse of sin has darkened the mind, and where knowledge is so limited, and so mingled with error and doubt, what shall we say of those pleasures in heaven? There the intellect of man receives a supernatural light; it is elevated far above itself by the light of glory; it is purified, strengthened, enlarged, and enabled to see G.o.d as He is in His very essence. It is enabled to contemplate, face to face, Him who is the first essential Truth. It gazes undazzled upon the first infinite beauty, wisdom, and goodness, from whom flow all limited wisdom, beauty, and goodness found in creatures. Who can fathom the exquisite pleasures of the human intellect when it thus sees all truth as it is in itself? This is one of heaven"s secrets which we shall never fully understand, except when united to G.o.d in the Beatific Vision. Nevertheless, if ever we have enjoyed the pleasures produced by the perusal of a highly intellectual work, or felt the irresistible fascinations of some favorite science, we can, it seems, form some distant conception of intellectual pleasures in heaven.
4. The life of heaven is also one of love. As we have seen before, man cannot rest satisfied with the mere contemplation of truth and beauty, however pleasurable and satisfying such a contemplation may be. His will immediately seizes upon the truth and beauty presented by the intellect, and loves with an intensity proportioned to the perfection of the object presented. Now, as G.o.d himself, in This unveiled majesty, is the object presented to the will, and as He is the most perfect of all beings, it follows that the will loves, in heaven, with an ardor, an intensity whereof we can form but a faint conception in our present state of trial.
There, at last, do the blessed fulfil to perfection the law which commands us to love G.o.d with our whole heart, with our whole soul, with all our strength, with all our mind--and our neighbor as ourselves. Not only does each one of the blessed love, but he sees himself loved in return both by the Almighty and by every one of the saints. This makes heaven a life of love, and consequently one of perfect happiness.
Think of this, ye mortals, who crave after human love. You desire to love and to be loved. Love is the sunshine of your lives. But, do what you will, it can never give you perfect happiness here below; for when you have, at last, succeeded in possessing the object after which you so ardently sighed, you discover in it imperfections which you had not suspected before; and these lessen your happiness. But suppose, even, that you are of the few who are as happy as they expected to be, how long will your blessedness last? A few years, at most. Then, death, with a merciless hand, tears away from you the objects of your love. Is not this the end of all earthly happiness?
Look up to heaven, and there see the blessed in the presence of G.o.d.
They are as happy to-day in their love as they were hundreds of years ago; and when millions of ages have rolled by, they shall still possess the object of their love, which is the Eternal G.o.d. Thus the blessed live a life of love, and, consequently, one of perfect happiness.
5. The life of heaven is, moreover, one of perfect enjoyment. In this world, there can be no perfect and lasting enjoyment; and this not only because creatures have not the power of giving perfect happiness, but also because our powers of enjoyment are imperfect in themselves, and because also our bosom swarms with ungoverned pa.s.sions, which spread the gall of bitterness over our joys. How many thousands are there not, for whom fortune smiles in vain! How many are there not, who, though surrounded with untold wealth, are nevertheless more wretched than the tattered beggar! One, for instance, is always suffering from bad health, and hence he cannot enjoy the pleasures which fortune has placed within his reach.
Another is not only wealthy, but is, moreover, elevated to some honorable position, and one would think he must enjoy the honors with which he is surrounded; but there is in his bosom an ungoverned pa.s.sion, which, like a canker-worm, eats away his joys one by one.
Holy Scripture gives us a striking instance of this in the person of Haman. He had been highly exalted by King a.s.suerus; and the servants of the king bent the knee before him, and worshipped him, "only Mardochai did not bend the knee nor worship him." This apparent slight so wounded the pride of Haman, that he could enjoy neither peace nor happiness so long as Mardochai, the Jew, sat at the king"s gate. Listen to his own confession: "He called together his friends and Zares his wife, and he declared to them the greatness of his riches, and the mult.i.tude of his children, and with how great glory the king had advanced him above all his princes and servants. And after this he said: Queen Esther also hath invited no other to the banquet with the king, but me: and with her I am also to dine to-morrow with the king. And whereas I have all these things, I think I have nothing, so long as I see Mardochai, the Jew, sitting at the king"s gate."* What a revelation this is! How little it takes to destroy our powers of enjoyment! It is only a small worm that eats away the very core of the most delicious fruit, leaving it tasteless and rotten.
* Esther v.
In heaven only shall we live a life of perfect enjoyment; not merely because all the objects of happiness exist there in their highest perfection, but because we shall also be made perfect by our union with G.o.d. "We shall be like Him, because we shall see him as He is."
Wherefore, no inordinate pa.s.sion will ever lurk in our bosom, and spread bitterness over our joys. No torturing disease ever will enervate or prostrate the energies of our glorified bodies, and render them incapable of enjoyment. All the powers of enjoyment which belong to the glorified state will ever remain fresh and unimpaired.
It follows from this, that our life in heaven will be one of continued, undisturbed enjoyment of G.o.d himself, of the society of the saints, and of all other creatures that He has prepared to perfect and complete the beat.i.tude of man.
CHAPTER X.
PLEASURES OF THE GLORIFIED SENSES.
The life of heaven is also one of pleasure through the glorified senses. These pleasures, as well as those of the Beatific Vision, are certainly beyond our comprehension. Still, we may form some idea of them by reflecting on the exquisite delights which reach our soul through our senses, in our present state of imperfection. They are so fascinating that the world runs wild with their intoxication. What, then, must they be in heaven, where everything is perfect? For, in that world of G.o.d"s magnificence, both the senses and their respective objects exist in their highest perfection, which is far from being the case here below.
Now, give free scope to your imagination. Let it roam among the blessed, and flutter from creature to creature. Build up all you can of pure pleasure, and you will never reach any more than the dimmest and faintest shadow of the reality. Gaze upon the glorious body of Jesus Christ, the most perfect and lovely that ever came from the hand of G.o.d. It is the very sun that gives beauty to the whole of heaven. Then contemplate the transcendent beauty of the Immaculate Mother, who, next to Jesus, is clothed with the greatest glory. Feed your eyes upon that countless mult.i.tude of saints. They are all beautiful, because they have all risen with a body glorified after the likeness of Christ"s glorious body. Each one has a beauty and perfection of his own, according to his merits; and the very lowest is clothed with a loveliness far superior to anything ever seen in this world.
If there is a rush to see beautiful objects, grand and sublime sights, magnificent scenery, and the works of art, on account of the intense pleasure enjoyed through the sense of sight, what shall we say of the exquisite pleasures in store for that sense in heaven!
Then again reflect how very captivating, soothing, and enlivening music is. The ear revels in it, and pours into the soul torrents of harmony, which make her, for the time, altogether forget the outer world. So captivating is it, that hours pa.s.s by unheeded, and she would almost fancy it is the echoes of angels" voices she hears.
What, then, must heavenly harmony be, if our imperfect music is so delightful? Think, also, how exquisitely the odors of flowers, incense, and all manner of perfumery produce a soothing effect upon man, banishing cares, and infusing a new life into him. What must those pleasures be in heaven?
We have already seen that, in heaven, there is to be neither eating nor drinking, as we now understand these two actions. But this does not mean that the sense of taste is not to be gratified. It most certainly will be, though not by corruptible objects, as in this world. The same must be said of the sense of touch or feeling, which is diffused over the whole body.
The five senses of the human body are not mere accidental ornaments, which may or may not exist; they are essential to the integrity of its nature. Thus a blind or a deaf and dumb man is not a perfect man, because he lacks something which is essential to the integrity of his nature. Now, as glory does not destroy the nature of the body, but perfects it, it follows that all the blessed must rise with their five senses in their full perfection. And as their perfection consists in their activity and power of receiving impressions from external objects, and conveying them to the soul, it is evident that the senses must remain active in heaven, and have suitable objects to act upon. This is precisely what we learn from the angelic doctor, who maintains that the glory of the body does not destroy its nature, but perfects it, and even preserves the very color that is natural to it.* He maintains, moreover, that every power or faculty is more perfect when acting upon its proper object, than it is when inactive; and, as human nature will reach its highest degree of perfection in heaven, it follows that every sense will there act according to its nature.+
* Corporis gloria naturam non tollet, sed perficiet: unde color qui debetur corpori ex natura suarum partium, remanebit in eo, sed superaddetur gloria animae.--S. Thom., Suppl., q. 85, art. 1.
+ Potentia conjuncta actui suo perfectior est quam non conjuncta: sed humana natura erit in beatis in maxima perfectione: ergo erunt ibi omnes sensus in suo actu. Praeterea, vicinius se habent ad animam potentiae sensitivae, quam corpus: sed corpus praemiabitur vel punietur propter merita vel demerita animae: ergo et omnes sensus praemiabuntur in beatis, et punientur in malis, secundum delectationem et dolorem vel trist.i.tiam, quae in operatione sensus consistunt.--S. Thom., Suppl., q. 82, art. 4.
According to this doctrine, not one sense of the human body is either dead, inactive, or excluded from enjoyment, in heaven. And why should any one of them be excluded? Why should the sight, or the hearing, or even the sense of smell, be rewarded, rather than the taste, or the sense of touch? Certainly no valid reason can be given.
Theologians teach that in h.e.l.l every sense of the human body shall have its own peculiar punishment; and that the sense of feeling, especially, shall be tortured; because, in most cases, it is princ.i.p.ally in that sense that the reprobate have most offended G.o.d.
Surely we must not imagine that G.o.d is more severe in punishing the wicked, than He is good and liberal in rewarding the just. Now, is it not precisely in the senses of taste and feeling that the saints have suffered most for G.o.d? Look at that countless mult.i.tude of martyrs.
Many were starved to death; others were scourged until they died under the torture; others were torn by the wild beasts; others were crucified; others were burnt with a slow fire; while others were tortured for days together in every limb and sense, and that, too, with all the ingenuity and appliances that the most refined cruelty could devise.
Then again, look at that countless mult.i.tude of confessors, virgins, and others, who, in the practice of virtue, became their own executioners. They suffered inconceivably by frequent and long fastings, by coa.r.s.eness of diet, by wearing hair-cloths, and by otherwise torturing their flesh. And now, shall these senses go unrewarded in the blessed, while they are so terribly punished in the reprobate? Certainly not. All that we can say is that, at present, we do not know how all this is to be realized; but as the whole man in all his senses has served G.o.d, and suffered for Him, it is but just that he should be rewarded in his whole being, which includes every sense of the body, as well as every faculty of the soul.
Hence, in our meditations on heaven, we must let the pleasures of the glorified senses enter as an integral element of man"s happiness. We must contemplate these pleasures as seriously as we do the pain of sense in the reprobate, only avoiding the introduction of anything gross or carnal, and, therefore, repugnant to a state of incorruption. Hence we must, as already shown, avoid introducing eating, drinking, sleep, or anything else which, by its very nature, belongs to the animal life of man.
We must also banish from our ideas of heaven all the carnal pleasures of this world, as they are now understood. Our blessed Lord himself told the Jews, who believed such pleasures to exist in heaven: "You err, not knowing the Scriptures, nor the power of G.o.d. For, in the resurrection, they shall neither marry nor be married; but shall be as the angels of G.o.d in heaven."* All such pleasures, which were intended only for this world of imperfection, will be replaced by others of a superior order, and suited to our spiritualized bodies.
* Matt. xxii. 29.
So, then, we see that the life of heaven is one of sensible pleasure through the glorified senses, as well as one of exquisite mental and moral enjoyment in the Beatific Vision. These sensible pleasures have, moreover, a peculiar characteristic, which the pleasures of sense have not in our present state of imperfection. In heaven the blessed can enjoy them all without fear; for none of them are forbidden, and, consequently, they can never be followed by bitter remorse or shame. Neither have they, as in this world, a tendency to darken the mind, and turn the heart away from G.o.d. They will rather intensify our love for Him, who is the Author of our exceeding blessedness, whether it comes immediately from himself or partly from the beautiful creatures He has prepared to complete the happiness of His beloved children.
CHAPTER XI.