Jesus Did Bring Heaven

Danny in my RCIA class was telling me about a book he was reading about Jesus and His mission.  He said that Jesus came down from heaven and wanted to bring heaven to us.  That's what He was trying to do.

I'm sure Dan was telling me this so that I would give him an argument.  I kind of knocked the wind out of his sails when I said, "Jesus did!"  Jesus did this when He gave us the Eucharist.  We see heaven in every Mass. Isn't our liturgy with its candles, altar, singing and incense what the angels are doing?  Aren't we kneeling before Jesus.

In the Mass we look up; we ask to be brought up.  Our hearts are taken up to the altar in heaven.  We sing praises to God.

God is so good to us.  Praise Him.  He does bring heaven to us.

My Picture of Heaven

The resurrection of the body means that what we have lived in the body will not go to waste but will be lifted in our eternal life with God.  As Christ bears the marks of his suffering in his risen body, our bodies in the resurrection will bear the marks of our suffering.  Our wounds will become signs of glory in the resurrection.   

   

  

I hope Nouwen isn't correct in his view of heaven.  I don't want my fat body with its too long legs and nose.  Glorified fat isn't my idea of heaven.  Fatness is a wound and I don't think it want it to be a sign of my glory.

I picture heaven is where everybody is equally beautiful.  I've heard it said that we will have our bodies as they were at age 33.  What if you didn't live that long?  What if you were grotesquely fat at age 33.  I don't want this body at all.  I want a new one.

If happiness is heaven, then what will our glorified bodies look like?  All these people who have had near death experiences always recognize their loved ones.  How come their bodies aren't glorified?  They must still be ugly, if they're recognized.

Who knows?

Description of Heaven

Sister Isabel, my freshman history teacher, use to say that heaven was a library.  That was her wish.  I pray

that she is immersed in a good novel, now.  She died a few years ago.  Many have speculated what heaven will be like.  Paul Claudel, the poet said:

Nothing that we possess here below will be destroyed, with the exception of our defects, but all will be restored and exalted to the highest degree, not only restored but illuminated, as it were, transported from the realm of empirical proof to the realm of intuitive understanding.

I've heard it said that we will be 33 years old and have perfect bodies.  I hope so, because I certainly don't want to be stuck an eternity in the body I'm in, presently.  Does it really matter?  We know that heaven is a good place and we trust God.  Sunday's First Reading, 2 Mc 7: 1-2, 9-14 has the cruel death of seven brothers.  And the very last of the seven brothers, after seeing what happened to the six brothers who were tortured before him, still proclaimed, "It is my choice to die at the hands of men with the God-given hope of being restored to life by Him;..."

Whatever heaven is, it is better than here.  God promised.