Heavenly Gold

Jesu cum Maria sit nobis in via!

Fundamental to understanding Christian doctrine is knowing the four last things: death, judgment, Heaven, and hell. These help define and guide the entire Church toward her Spouse. Without them, Christianity is crippled in being meaningful at all. It becomes a pleasure as fleeting as atheism which dies whenever we do. Unless we know what is eternally true and valuable, we could never learn to value what’s actually important in this world. We learn to choose the good and avoid the wide chasm of hell by understanding the end to which we aspire, Heaven.

When we begin contemplating Heaven as children, we imagine unlimited skittles, mansions, or x-boxes and other non-sense. We associate Heaven with unlimited physical pleasures while we begin knowing hell as a place of eternal pools of fire, unlimited physical suffering. As we grow older, our picture of Heaven should become more complicated. We imagine choirs of angels and a city of gold with walls made of jasper. Precious stones decorate its foundations. We hear a fanfare of blazing trumpets as Christ descends from above. On the other hand, hell’s pain intensifies as we encounter real suffering beyond scraped knees and stubbed toes. Heaven is clearly more desirably than hell.

Yet, Christians seem to think there’s a choice involved. So, why do people choose hell? If, when we died, St. Peter showed us the gates of Heaven and hell, we would need to be irrational to go to hell! Yet, seemingly rational people certainly will and do choose hell. Contrary to what some think the devil is rather deceptive. Surely both we and many others who presumptuously believe we’ll choose Heaven could be easily fooled into hell.

Sacred Scripture loves painting spiritual truths in terms our physically orientated brains can understand. Considering our human nature, this shouldn’t be surprising. It’s impossible to describe anything not physical. Poets have tried to describe love; the end result has been confusing the general populace. In my thought, such things as a “quickening heart beat,” a “tremble in the voice,” or a “fluttering stomach” are typically accidently related to love and are more likely caused by an unchecked concupiscence. Real love is measured in sacrifice. As human beings, we reason that we love our spouses or other people by realizing what we’re willing to give. Do you forgive the whining? Do you call her even if you don’t want to? Would you drop your desires at a moment for the sake of the other? No matter why we think we’re in love, it’s not because we actually perceive love. We only know love because of the physical effects, whether in the body or by our actions, because love is an abstract reality.

In describing Heaven and hell, Scripture’s authors explain such invisible, eternal realities. For, how can we articulate the glory of God? He is by definition a spiritual being. There is no way we could see Him with our eyes; however, to encourage us in persistence, our Lord willed to reveal these mysteries to us. Thus, He described Heaven in terms of physical things. This doesn’t mean we should stop describing Heaven in terms of gold and silver or even something as tasty as skittles. These do help us understand. The problem is stopping there. For, the Father has revealed His splendor in more than just physical objects by giving the beautiful actions of Christ’s birth, death, and the institution of the Holy Eucharist.

By entering into time as a mere human being rather than an angel or any other heavenly creature, the Divine declared the goodness of His creation and His own humility. A lowly human, bodily form was good enough for God. Can you imagine what Christianity is claiming? A perfect, infinite being, who could have incarnated as anything, assumed the physical appearance of the men who wallow in sin against Him. Even more, Jesus could have appeared as an adult man, but He went further than that. He began life at conception, the most vulnerable moment in mankind’s life, in the womb of the Most Blessed Ever-Virgin, Mary. He then consecrated the entire life of humanity by unjustly suffering, dying on the Cross, and descending into hell.

That is humility. A total sacrifice of one’s self, a Divine sacrifice. Even going to hell to find His lost sheep? That is love. Of course, Christ still wasn’t done. He continues His unwavering promise to be “with [us] always, until the end of the age” (Mt 28:20). In a mystery that defies the wise, we enjoin our High Priest in offering the eternal sacrifice of His Body and Blood in Heaven (cf. Heb 9:12). Christ humbles Himself further to a status lower than even man by assuming the form of simple bread and wine, which we then offer back to the Father in the Eucharistic sacrifice.

What does all this have to do with the New Jerusalem and walls of jasper? Humility, love, and sacrifice are the gold and the silver. God has revealed that these are beautiful; these are true strength and power. This is what He wants. To think that Heaven’s greatest glory will be singing angels or mansions, is to make the same mistake of the Jews who believed that their King would give them simply political salvation. No, Heaven will be much more akin to an eternal Holy Mass where we join Christ in making our lives into a burning sacrifice, giving every penny into the coffers of God, not just 10%.

There’s something about this that’s quite horrifying because the end of our happiness is usually found in things. On Earth, we seek what we want; in Heaven, we’ll only want God. Here and now, we cling to our will. In Heaven, we’ll surrender our entire self, our entire will, a total sacrifice to be enjoined perfectly to God. Is it a surprise that many will choose hell? Who wants this Heaven where you give all your glory away?

Christus Vincit, Christus Regnat, Christus Imperat.