Is heaven just looking at God?
Addressing the faithful gathered in St Peter’s Square on Sunday, Pope Leo XIV reflected on the meaning of the first few days of November, when the Church marks the Solemnity of All Saints and the Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed. The Pope said that in these days, “the resurrection of the crucified Jesus from the dead sheds light on the destiny of each one of us.”
He quoted the Gospel of St. John, recalling Christ's promise: "It is the will of Him who sent me that I should lose nothing of what He gave me, but that I should raise it up on the last day."
Reflecting on these words, the Pope emphasized that “the focus of God’s concerns is clear,” and that is, “that no one should perish forever and that everyone should have their own place and radiate their unique beauty.”
Recalling the previous day's celebration of All Saints, Pope Leo described it as “a communion of differences that, so to speak, extends God’s life to all his daughters and sons who wish to share in it.” Every human being, he said, carries a desire “for recognition, attention and joy.”
He added that the expression “eternal life” gives a name to this longing. “It is not a succession of time without end", he added, "but being so immersed in an ocean of infinite love that time, before, and after no longer exist.”
Pope Leo then went on to remind the faithful gathered that Christians have always remembered the deceased in the Eucharist, “asking that those dear to them be remembered in the Eucharistic Prayer.” From this arises the hope that no one will perish.”
Finally, Leo XIV exhorted Christians to live these days with active hope: “Let us commemorate, therefore, the future,” Pope Leo concluded, “for we are not enclosed in the past or in sentimental tears of nostalgia. Neither are we sealed within the present, as in a tomb.”
Thus, we shall not be merely ‘onlookers’ in heaven, contemplating the glory, the beauty, the power, and goodness of God from outside. Rather, we hope to share with Him in these qualities, a kind of “divinization,” a real transformation of man.
“Then we will come to know our Lord better, and at the same time, we will realize more fully the great favor that has been granted us when we became Christians. We will see all the greatness and truth of the divinization, which is a sharing in God's own life." St. Josemaría
This fullness of life and joy in Christ is what we hope for and await with all our being.
Memory is precious and yet so fragile. Without the memory of Jesus - of his life, death, and resurrection - the immense treasure of our ordinary daily life risks being forgotten. Yet in Christ, even those whom no one remembers, or whom history seems to have erased, always remain in their infinite dignity.
Nov 14 Fri