HEAVEN
I. How is the happiness of Heaven to be conceived?
(1) Sacred Scripture;
(2) Teaching of the Church;
(3) Theology.
II. The essential glory of the elect:
(1) The vision of the divine nature;
(2) The vision of creatures in God;
(3) Inequalities in the essential glory:
(a) Dogma,
(b) Explanations,
(c) What natural human reason can know.
III. The accidental glory of the blessed:
(1) Special to some;
(2) Common to all:
(a) Accidental glory and the intelligence,
(b) The will,
(c) The company of the elect,
(d) The risen body.
IV. Consummation and increase of glory:
(1) No increase in essential glory;
(2) Possible increase in the disembodied soul;
(3) The risen body and accidental glory;
(4) Increase of accidental glory no formal addition to essential glory;
(5) Conclusion.
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To see God face to face for all eternity; this is Heaven, happiness, glory.
This is the ineffable mystery which, during this mortal life, “the eye of man cannot see”, which his “ear cannot hear”, which it cannot enter into his heart to conceive.
But the certainty of this happiness to be enjoyed by the elect is provided by the sacred Scriptures and guaranteed by the authoritative teaching of the Church, and our feeble human reason, enlightened by faith, can form some faint idea of the happiness of Heaven consisting in a twofold glory, namely:
- the essential glory which can never be increased,
- and the accidental, which is capable of a certain growth until the moment of its consummation.
The glory of the elect is in proportion to their merits, and as it shines forth from all the multitude of the blessed it clothes the mystical body of Christ in Heaven with that harmonious variety of which the psalmist sings (xliv, o):
“Sponsa Regis . . . circumdata varietate.”
I. HOW IS THE HAPPINESS OR HEAVEN TO BE CONCEIVED?
(1) Sacred Scripture
In many places in the Scriptures, eternal life is represented as the reward and the happiness for which we must strive.
This happiness is God’s own infinite and beatifying glory, made manifest in the elect who are lifted up to see the glory given by the Father to the Son.
Such is the teaching of St. John: 17:22, 24; of St. Peter
: 1 Pet. 5:4; of St. Paul: Rom. 5:2; 8:18; 2 Cor. 4:4; Col. 3:4.
(a) St Paul.
The Apostle offers a most noteworthy explanation of this teaching, with regard to the means by which we shall realize the possession of God, and participation in his glory, which is the essence of our future happiness.
He writes in 1 Cor. 13:8-12:
“Charity never falleth away whether prophecies shall be made void, or tongues shall cease, or knowledge shall be destroyed. For we know in part and prophesy in part, but when that which is perfect is come, that which is part shall be done away. . . We see now through a glass in a dark manner, but then face to face. Now I know in part; but then I shall know even as I am known.”
The meaning of these words is clear. St. Paul exalts charity above every other gift of the Holy Ghost, with special emphasis upon its eternal duration, whereas his other gifts will endure only for as long as they are necessary for the building up and bringing to perfection of Christ’s mystical body.
Here below we are guided by faith, not by sight. Knowledge and prophecy are attached to faith as its complements; knowledge fits man to preach the gospel, giving him a grasp of its mysteries and the power of expounding them skilfully to others; while by prophecy man, enlightened by the Holy Ghost, attains to a higher understanding of faith’s mysteries and reveals hidden things to others, and especially to the faithful to edify, persuade and console them. The whole of this knowledge is yet imperfect; it will disappear and give place to perfect knowledge when the perfect state is attained. The Apostle brings home to us by the use of contrasted images the difference between perfect and imperfect knowledge. The present, imperfect, state is the age of childhood; the future life is the age of manhood; seeing“through a glass, darkly” is, of course, a reference to the indirect and indistinct knowledge of divine things that we have in this life.
With this St. Paul contrasts the knowledge which, in the next life, will enable us to see God “face to face,” a Jewish expression meaning the direct or intuitive sight of someone, this meaning, in the present instance being confirmed by the contrast, already noted, between our knowledge in this life and that to be had in the next.
We take also into account what he says elsewhere about this knowledge of God:
- it cannot be put into human speech (2 Cor. 12:2-4);
- it surpasses all that the eye can see, the ear hear, or the heart conceive (1 Cor. 2:9);
- it will enable man to know as he is himself known (1 Cor. 13:12).
There can be no doubt that he means that, in Heaven, we shall gaze directly upon God’s essence and being.
We meet the same teaching again in 2 Cor. 5:6-8:
“While we are in the body, we are absent from the Lord. For we walk by faith and not by sight. But we are confident and have a good will to be absent rather from the body, and to be present with the Lord.”
St. Paul’s thought in this passage is concerned directly with Jesus Christ, whose glory we, who are still clothed in mortal flesh, cannot see, this privilege belonging to those alone who, in the other world, dwell in the Lord’s abode. Nevertheless, to see Christ’s glory implies the direct sight of God, for to enjoy the sight of Christ’s glory means that we shall see the things that he sees, that is that we shall look directly as he does, upon God’s essence.
(b) St. John’s teaching on the beatific vision is set forth in a condensed form in his first epistle, 3:1-2.
He recalls, first of all: “what manner of charity the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called, and should be the sons of God.”
This sonship of God, of which the Scriptures often speak, is not to be thought of as possible except in the fellowship of Jesus, that is to say, by sharing in his sonship and in his right to the divine inheritance. In what this heritage consists to which the adoptive sonship of God entitles us, St. John goes on to explain:
“Dearly beloved, we are now the sons of God; and it hath not yet appeared what we shall be. We know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like to him, because we shall see him as he is.”
It is then in seeing God as He is, that our divine sonship will be manifested and our sharing in the divine nature which is begun here below by grace.
True, it is Jesus Christ that St. John says we shall see, but this only strengthens our argument in favour of the intuitive sight of God, for the opposition established by the Apostle between our knowledge of the God-man in this life and in the next indicates clearly that the excellence of the next life will consist in a condition of glory analogous to that of the glorified Christ; we shall be like to him. And being like Jesus we shall see the inner reality of his divinity.
Is it not St. John who records (17:3) our Lord’s own words that eternal life is to know the true God and Jesus Christ whom God has sent?
And Christ’s promise that he and His Father will love them who love him and that he will manifest himself to them (14:21), for he “who sees the Son sees also the Father” (14:6-9).
(2) The Church’s Teaching
The Church uses her authority to enforce this teaching.
Pope Benedict XII, speaking ex cathedra in the constitution Benedictus Deus sums up the teaching of Scripture and Tradition touching the happiness of the blessed, as follows:
“They see God’s essence directly and face to face, and thus the souls of the departed enjoy the divine nature, and are thereby rendered truly happy in the possession of eternal life and peace.” (Dz. 530)
The Council of Florence, in its decree of union, gives a somewhat greater precision to this doctrine in its declaration that:
“The elect will see God himself clearly, as he is in his unity and trinity.” (Dz. 693)
(3) Catholic Theology
The theologian’s task is to explain how it is that the immediate sight of God makes the soul supremely happy.
To see God is beyond the human soul’s natural powers. But by God’s gift of the light of glory man can be raised to heights impossible to unaided nature.
The light of glory brings to his intellect an increase of energy and power enabling him to enter into intuitive union with the uncreated Light, God. We need not go into the detailed theological explanation of how this is possible and of the parts played by the divine essence and the light of glory.
It will be enough to set down the common teaching of the Church.
By the intuitive vision of God the soul is united with him in the closest possible union in the cognitive order. But God’s proper and essential life and action lie in knowing Himself and as a consequence, divinely loving and delighting in Himself. Hence the human soul, without losing its own individuality or being absorbed in God is yet united with him in knowing and loving Him, in an activity, that is to say, that is a participation of God’s own life.
But God’s self knowledge and love are his infinite beatitude because they are the fullness of his Being expressing and realizing itself in the ineffable Trinity of divine Persons.
What words then can express the happiness of the beatified, deified soul that shares in God’s own life!
“To see God as he is, is to take hold of God himself; to have a full knowledge of God is to possess God himself. Then between God and us there will be the same near, close and intimate union as there is between the luminous and certain idea and the mind that conceives it. But as this union takes place in the mind, the most inward part of the soul, the whole soul is penetrated by the Godhead. This nuptial union of the soul with uncreated Light fills it to overflowing with perfection, ravishes it with love, inebriates it with joy, makes it like to God himself. The soul keeps its own nature as does iron plunged in fire, but just as the iron takes on the properties of the fire in which it glows, so is the soul enraged with divine splendour and love and beatitude. Beatitude, then, is above all, to know, to see, to live in the ecstasy of knowledge and illumination; Haec est vita aeterna, ut cognoscant te solum Deum verum” (Janvier, O.P., Carême 1903, pp. 122-123).
II. THE ESSENTIAL GLORY OF THE BLESSED
The intuitive vision of God is called the glory of the blessed because the glory of God (whom the beatified soul sees in Himself and loves for Himself) is shed forth upon them making manifest their dignity, holiness and merits.
It is called their essential glory to distinguish it from the accidental glory that envelops the saints apart from the beatific vision.
(1) The intuitive vision of God the chief element in the essential glory of the blessed
The principal object of the intuitive vision is God himself.
The glory of the blessed in heaven consists then primarily, and before all, in the vision of God. The greater their knowledge and love of God, the greater will be their happiness in the brighter effulgence of the divine glory.
Now, on the one hand, it is certain that the blessed, seeing the divine nature as it is in itself cannot but see its attributes and its subsistent relations (or Persons), which are really identified with God’s essence. The elect will not contemplate God by halves or gradually; they will see him as a whole with all his essential attributes and in his adorable Trinity of Persons. Hence the precise wording of the decree of Florence quoted above.
But on the other hand, God, as an object of knowledge, is infinite and only his own divine mind can know himself perfectly. No creature, however perfect, not even the human mind of Christ himself, can have as clear and penetrating a knowledge of God as he has of Himself.
There is here an apparent contradiction.
The solution commonly given by theologians is that God is seen by the blessed totus but not totaliter:
- He is seen totus, that is, the whole of God is seen because he is infinitely simple, without parts of any kind, and if he is seen as he is, the whole Godhead must be seen.
- But if we look at the person who sees God and the faculty with which he sees him we must say that God is not seen totaliter, that the human mind does not pierce through to the ultimate depths of God’s infinite being. For the human mind, even raised to its utmost height by the light of glory, is still a created and a finite thing, while God is infinite intelligibility, and the essential disproportion between the two cannot be bridged.
Hence:
“God is said to be incomprehensible, not because there is anything in him that is not seen, but because he is not seen as perfectly as He in himself is visible” (St. Thomas, Sum. Theol. I. q. 12, art. 7, ad. 2).
When, therefore, we say that God is seen whole but not wholly, we mean that the object of the beatific vision is the infinite being of God, but that the mode and the act of seeing him are finite, as proceeding from a finite creature.
In somewhat the same way, to use St. Thomas’s apt illustration, a man may know that a proposition can be proved and yet be unable to prove it; he knows all that the proposition contains, but his way of knowing it is not adequate to the proper handling of it.
So the blessed in Heaven will see the Infinite, God; they will see that he is infinite but will not have an infinite knowledge of him, in something the same way as an object seen in the distance is seen whole, but not seen as clearly as when it comes near.
(2) Creatures seen in God are a subordinate element in the essential glory of the blessed
A subordinate element in the essential glory of the blessed is their knowledge of creatures, seen in God.
For God’s Essence is the mirror in which He shows the blessed certain truths concerning creatures.
God Himself sees all creatures in Himself. Since He is the transcendent Cause of all things He contains in Himself the representation of all things distinct from Himself even of those that are merely possible, according to their ultimate generic, specific, differential and individual elements.
In Heaven, therefore, the order of our knowing will be a happy reversal of what it is on earth.
Here, we rise from creatures to the Creator, his visible works leading us to some knowledge of his invisible perfections.
But:
“When we leave the land of exile and become citizens of Heaven we shall have no more need of this ladder. . . He who dwells in Heaven is within reach and within sight of that by whose means he can look upon the things of God. He sees the Word and in the Word he sees what was made by the Word. He is no longer under the necessity of begging the works to give him some knowledge of the workman. Nay, more: in order to know the works he does not have to come down to their level, for he sees them in a light incomparably more brilliant than that radiated by them” (St. Bernard).
Hence it cannot be doubted that the blessed will see, in the Godhead, all those things that concern them, all that they may rightfully wish to know.
And this is also the teaching of a Council held in Paris in 1528, which declares that “there is open to all the blessed the divine mirror showing them everything that concerns them” (Mansi, XXXII, 1174).
Being called to the life of grace, the blessed will, of course, know the mysteries of faith, which in this life they have believed, for sight cannot be inferior to faith.
Hence in seeing God they will see whatever concerns the Church as a supernatural society, the nature and efficacy of the Sacraments, the real presence of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist, and the wonderful ways of Providence in the ordering of their own salvation and that of those dear to them. Inasmuch as they form part of the created world they will have such a knowledge of the wonders of creation as will help to increase their love of and gratitude to the Creator.
Though we cannot say how far this knowledge will extend, we may agree with St. Thomas that it will satisfy every natural desire of the soul (Sum. Theol. I. q. 12, art. 8, ad. 4).
As individuals the blessed will know, either in the intuitive vision of God, or through special revelation, whatever concerns themselves, or their affections or their labours. This should bring consolation to those who weep for the loss of their dear ones.
Father Terrien writes:
“Dying in the peace of the Lord they leave us for a time; but thanks to their eternal ecstasy in the ever present sight of God, we are not absent from their thoughts, since according to the measure of our needs, and the full satisfaction of their desires, they see us in the infinitely brilliant mirror of the divine light” (La Grâce et la Gloire, bk. IX, ch. IV, pp. 178-179).
St. Thomas, relying upon the principle that nothing is hidden from the blessed that is of personal concern to them, teaches that the saints have an immediate knowledge of our prayers to them and of the honour we pay to them.
And theologians likewise deduce from the same principle that they have a special knowledge of those works in which they were interested when on earth.
(3) Inequalities in the essential glory of the blessed
(a) The Dogma.
The Council of Florence declares:
“The blessed will see God, and according to the diversity of their merits, some more perfectly than others.” (Dz. 693)
This is a truth clearly propounded in the Sacred Scriptures.
Jesus Christ tells us that in his Father’s house there are “many mansions” (St. John 14:2).
St. Paul says that the elect will differ from one another “as star differs from star” (1 Cor. 15:41).
It is also expressly taught whenever it is said that, at the last day, God will repay each man “according to his good works” (St. Matt. 16:27; 1 Cor. 3:8; 2 Cor. 9:6).
The glory of Heaven is, indeed, to be thought of as “a wage” (St. Matt. 5:12; 10:42; 19:17; 20:8; 2 Tim. 4:8; 2 John. 8; Apoc. 22:12).
The same teaching is implied in many of the parables.
Yet, many heretics, and notably some Protestants, quote the parable of the workmen called at different hours to work in the vineyard, as proving that all the blessed will receive the same reward (Matt. 20:1-16).
We need not go into a detailed exposition of the parable; it will be enough to explain the allegorical meaning of the penny, paid as wages to all the workmen alike. The penny that all receive, even those called at the eleventh hour, represents objective happiness which is the same for all, and not subjective and relative happiness in which alone inequalities are to be found. Besides, in a parable it is not necessary to find a special application for every detail; it is enough if the general teaching is clear. Now in this parable Christ does not intend to teach that the reward is proportioned to each man’s merits, but rather to show that the glory of Heaven is not measured bythe length of time that a man has laboured, but by his faithful response to his calling and the zeal he has displayed in his work. The workman’s murmurs and the employer’s answer that it is his good pleasure to pay all alike do not contradict this general interpretation of the penny; the murmurings serve simply to lead up to the master’s answer. They do not indicate any discontent or envy on the part of the blessed; and lastly, it must be remembered that the lesson and the threat are addressed directly to the Jews, to those who had been called at the first hour.
(b) Theological explanation.
If different degrees of glory are the reward of varying degrees of merit, it is clear that glory corresponds with the ardour of love that inflames the beatified soul, and that the light of glory, which is the immediate principle of the beatific vision, is measured by the exigencies of this charity.
Father Terrien says:
“If the children of the heavenly Father are not all equal in beatitude, there must be differences of degree in the vision they have of his infinite beauty. But since one and the same divine nature is united to their minds as the activating principle of the beatific vision, since one and the same indivisible truth is the object of their direct perception, whence can these differences arise? Assuredly, not from the human intelligence itself. The Queen of Heaven, if we consider her natural faculties, however highly our love may exalt her, cannot be compared with the angelic spirits. Yet who would dare to say or think that any angel, even the highest of the Seraphim, can look upon God with a gaze so steadfast, so piercing, so wide-embracing as that of the glorious Mother of our Saviour? Genius is neither a title to eternal reward nor the measure according to which it is given. The blessed see God in varying degree because they share unequally in the infinite perfection of the divine intelligence, or in other words, because the light of glory, the immediate principle of the beatific vision, is not given to all in the same degree.”
But, adds St. Thomas, the measure of this light is not any natural endowment, but charity:
“for the greater the charity, the more ardent is the desire, and it is from the ardour of desire that arises the capacity of receiving what is desired” (I, q. 12, art. 4).
(c) Utility and result of study during life.
It may be asked whether the study of the sacred sciences during life will be of any profit in the next world.
There can be no doubt that the beatific vision will bring an understanding of the mysteries of faith to all the blessed without exception. But at the same time it is evident that those who, during life, have the more closely studied these mysteries will be rewarded in the next by a more perfect perception of the truths on which they have lovingly meditated.
As theologians put it, the Divine Essence is a mirror reflecting at God’s good pleasure and showing to the created mind that looks upon it whatever truths he wishes it to reflect. God produces these differences in the knowledge of the blessed according to the exigences of the light of glory proper to each, that is to say, as we have explained, according to each one’s charity in the first place, but also and consequently, according to the various ways in which the blessed have manifested their charity and laid up merit in heaven. Theologians will be rewarded as theologians; which is not to say that their reward will be greater than that of others whose sanctity is equal to their. Diversity is not necessarily inequality. And so we come back to the teaching propounded above; in God the saints will find the full satisfaction of all their desires.
III. THE ACCIDENTAL GLORY OF THE BLESSED
In order to distinguish the essential glory of the blessed from their accidental glory we must consider the medium of cognition rather than the object.
Suarez, who takes this view, in which he differs from many of his predecessors, well defines the accidental glory of the blessed, as every perfection belonging to them apart from the primary and essential of beatitude which is God clearly seen in the beatific vision.
(1) Accidental glory special to some of the blessed
Under this heading comes the aureola of virgins, martyrs and doctors.
Although this question does not concern the faith, directly or indirectly, we may well look upon this special glory, called the aureola, as a reward accorded, in addition to the beatific vision, to those saints who, by the exercise of heroic virtue, have earned a special recompense.
Just as all the fights that man is called upon to wage in this life may be reduced to three classes, so likewise may all the heroic victories that he wins. He must fight against himself, that is against the flesh, against the world and against the devil.
By the practice of perpetual virginity he gains a complete victory over the flesh.
His victory over the world is complete when, in testimony of his faith, he gives his life for God, since death is the greatest evil the world can inflict upon him.
While he completely overthrows the devil when, by the written and the spoken word, he forces Satan, the prince of darkness, to fly before the shining light of truth.
That this classification is somewhat conventional we do not dispute, but the idea of the special aureola of virgins, martyrs and doctors is so well established in the Church that we could not well overlook it.
It may also be supposed that the sacramental character, indelibly impressed upon the soul, will enhance its accidental glory, in so far as it will bear eternal witness to its fidelity.
(2) Accidental glory common to all
In dealing with this point we have no other guide than theological opinion.
It seems altogether probable that the accidental glory of the blessed increases the perfection and the happiness of both soul and body and that the loving society of the elect will crown and complete both.
(a) Accidental glory and the intelligence.
We have already suggested that, in order to satisfy the legitimate curiosity of the blessed, infused knowledge and special revelations may supply what is lacking in theintuitive vision.
For since the beatific vision does not imply omniscience, and since it is in proportion, both as to depth and breadth, to each one’s grace and merits, we may suppose that, where the case requires it, God would give some new revelation to make up for the deficiency of knowledge arising from the beatific vision itself.
This new revelation would form part of the recipient’s accidental glory. So thinks Suarez. It would even seem that a certain number of things, events or actions can be known by the saints only by a cognitive process distinct from the intuitive vision, and belonging, therefore, to their accidental glory.
For the intuitive vision brings with it a knowledge of its object, whether primary or secondary, that is always actual, and that, in consequence, is eternal and immutable. But it is hardly probable that such things as prayers, vows, feasts, worship and so forth should be known to the saints whom they concern in the same way as the Godhead itself. Compared with the saints’ essential glory these things are of small importance, especially when they are past. Moreover it does not seem fitting that their attention should always be fixed upon the homage and honours received by them. Likewise, among the things known otherwise than in the immediate vision of God must be included the prosperity of works in which they were interested on earth, as founders, and similar material preoccupations.
Apart from the knowledge thus freshly gained by special revelation, the separated soul will retain the knowledge acquired on earth; the memory of events and persons, of their loves and their struggles, will abide with the souls of the blessed, and if they have been the means of increased merit, will bring them an accession of glory.
Finally it seems necessary that those minds that on earth were unable to grow to full natural perfection shall be endowed by God, from their entry into beatitude with what is wanting to them. Were it not so, where would be the happiness of infants who die before coming to the age of reason, and of those adults who intellectually must be counted as infants?
(b) Accidental glory and the will.
In the accidental glory of the blessed, just as in the essential, the perfections of the will accompany those of the mind.
It will be enough, then, to mention in a general way, that knowledge will be completed by love and delight.
St. Augustine well sums up this matter in five words: Omnes beati habent quod volunt.
In Heaven there will be no struggle within the will, no sorrow will be possible; the will power will delight in the possession of all it desires.
Before the resurrection its separation from the body will cause it no pain.
Having all it can desire it is satisfied, even though it does not enjoy the possession of all that it would be possible to have; the resurrection will enable the body to share its happiness, but it does not suffer from the delay because it has all that is possible in its present state. Besides, to speak of delay in such a connection is inaccurate. The soul’s glory is eternal, and hence wholly in actuation. Time no longer exists for it, and to think of it as waiting for the resurrection is to be deceived by the imagination.
The blessed will not suffer from seeing others higher in glory than themselves; the absence of dear ones condemned to Hell for their sins will cause them no grief. In the beatific vision they see the supreme Truth and Goodness, and hence everything else that is known to them, either by infused knowledge or special revelation, will necessarily fit in with the requirements of divine Truth and Goodness.
The elect will apprehend, judge and appreciate all things from the point of view of God’s justice, mercy, goodness and other perfections. There will, therefore, be no room for jealousy or sadness, because there are many mansions in the Father’s house, no room for sorrow or regret because some have been deaf to God’s call and will have to suffer and expiate their fall.
Father Monsabré says:
“Nothing will trouble this sweet and peaceful companionship, neither regret for those for ever absent nor loving compassion, for they have proved themselves unworthy of this by wilfully outraging and denying God, to whose wisdom and justice our minds and wills lovingly submit themselves” (100th conference).
(c) Accidental glory and the companionship of the blessed.
On the other hand what joy it will be to the blessed to meet and recognize each other, not only in the intuitive vision of God, but also by direct mutual intercourse!
To deny that they can communicate directly with one another would be to deny them the legitimate exercise of their faculties and to contradict the very concept of glory, which is the possession of every perfection and the satisfaction of every wish.
The blessed will love each other:
“As a consequence of the virtue of infused charity which will be theirs in its highest perfection, and of the most tender and ardent love which will be constantly nourished and increased by an ever growing knowledge of their natural and supernatural perfections, far excelling anything to be found on earth and unmixed with any displeasing element of positive imperfection” (De Smet, Notre vie surnaturelle, Vol. II, p. 303).
(d) Accidental glory and the risen body.
After the resurrection, the glory of the soul will irradiate the body; of this something will be said in the next chapter.
Here let it merely be observed that by the reunion of soul and body the organic faculties, which exist only in a virtual state in the disembodied soul, will be reconstituted.
Will the exercise of these faculties form a new element in the soul’s accidental glory?
On this point Père de Smet, summing up the teaching of St. Thomas and Lessius, shows that while the delights proper to the more material senses of taste, smell and touch would have to undergo some process of spiritualization in order to contribute to the accidental glory of the blessed, there is not the same difficulty as regards sight and hearing. After the resurrection the ears of the saints will be ravished by music that will be not only spiritual but vocal also, while their eyes will glory in the sight of the glorious body of Jesus Christ.
IV. CONSUMMATED GLORY AND INCREASE OF GLORY
Consummated glory or beatitude consists in the full development of glory in completely restored human nature, and cannot therefore exist until after the resurrection.
Some of the Fathers and early writers, especially in the first five centuries, holding the opinion that the soul could not be glorified until its re-union with the body, put off the possession of the beatific vision itself until after the resurrection. This erroneous opinion was taught by certain theologians right down to the thirteenth century and defended by Pope John XXII, speaking, not as Pope, but as a simple theologian. Benedict XII, John’s successor, solemnly condemned the error in his bull Benedictus Dens, wherein he repeats and officially propounds the formula of faith in which John had retracted his errors before his death.
Thus it is now a dogma of faith that:
“The souls of the just, immediately after death or after having expiated those sins that still burdened them, even before the resurrection of their bodies, are admitted into Heaven and the society of the angels; and, since the passion and death of Jesus Christ and his Ascension, they have seen, see and will see, the divine nature by direct vision and face to face.”
Nevertheless it must be admitted that the consummation of glory adds something to the essential glory resulting from the beatific vision itself, and, therefore, even in this brief consideration of the question of Heaven something needs to be said upon this somewhat delicate subject.
(1) No increase possible in essential glory
The intuitive vision of God is, in St. Thomas’s words, “one action and eternal.”
Inasmuch as it is a participation of God’s life, which is eternity, its own duration is measured by participated eternity. Hence it is well named “eternal life.” From whatever side we look at it, whether we consider it in itself or examine its originating principle or its object, we can discover nothing that implies succession, nothing involving the possibility of change.
St. Augustine in his treatise on the Trinity (Bk. XV, ch. 16), describes admirably:
“This unchanging happiness, when our minds will no more be dizzied by jumping from one thing to another and then back to what they have just left; one single glance will embrace the whole of our knowledge.”
But if the act of vision is, as St. Thomas puts it (Cont. Gentes III, ch. 62), “an instant which neither passes nor fades,” it remains always self-identical and excludes all progress and all growth in the knowledge of God’s perfections, and consequently in glory. It is as well to insist upon this truth because we sometimes meet with descriptions of eternal happiness that owe more to imagination than to sound theology.
Again Father Terrien says:
“If we are to believe some writers, God will reveal himself to the blessed continuously and progressively. Looking upon his adorable face they will forever be finding therein new perfections, and, growing knowledge bringing greater love, they will for all eternity go on from happiness to greater happiness. These writers bring forward two arguments to prove their assertion, one based on the nature of God, the other on that of created intelligence.
God, they say, would not be supreme Goodness if he were not forever self-communicative . . . and on the other hand, a happiness that remains ever at the same level cannot satisfy the human mind. Life is movement, and therefore a static and unprogressive life cannot be perfect life.”
But the arguments are by no means conclusive. “In Heaven the state of man is perfect... From the first instant that man sees God face to face he exercises to the full the whole capacity and power of vision given to him at God’s judgment-seat. In order to see more he would need more grace and an increase in the light of glory, for action cannot surpass the principle whence it springs. He penetrates the ocean of divine light as deeply as the energy of his love can urge him, but as Heaven is the goal and terminus of man’s existence, the love that accompanies his entrance therein can grow no more. But God’s prodigal generosity, far from coming to an end, still runs full stream; it is he who keeps in being the splendour of glory, he who is the inexhaustible source of the supreme perfection of knowledge enjoyed by the blessed. Vain is the objection that life without movement is no real life. Let it be granted that there is no life without movement, but, on the other hand, it must be allowed that the movement that constitutes perfect life admits of neither change, nor succession, nor progress, for where these are there is transition from the potential to the actual, and the life subject to them is, necessarily, imperfect. There is one life which is supremely full and supremely perfect, and that is God’s life which is God himself. His life is infinitely perfect movement, for it is infinite actuality; infinitely unchangeable movement, for he is the supremely eternal and changeless. The immobility of a corpse is the total negation of life, while to contemplate unchangeably supreme beauty is to possess the fullness of life. To conclude, then, the life of the blessed will be the more perfect accordingly as it is less mobile, less changeful, less progressive,” (La grâce et la gloire, vol. I pp. 188-192).
There can, then, be no growth in essential glory; such growth could only come from an increase in the light of glory, but as the soul has reached its goal, it can no longer merit any increase of grace or, consequently, any higher degree of the light of glory.
(2) Possible increase of accidental glory in the soul while separated from the body
St. Thomas in his Commentary on the Sentences (IV, dist. 12, q. 1, art. 2., sol. 2) uses the collect of the Mass of Pope Leo: Annue, nobis, Domine, ut animae famuli tui Leonis haec prosit oblatis . . . as a text on which to base his explanation of how our prayers, homage and sacrifices contribute to the glory of the saints.
He says:
“The saints’ reward is glory, and it is twofold. There is firstly the essential joy which they receive from God himself and secondly, an accidental joy that comes to them from creatures. As to their essential joy it is the more probable opinion (now we should have to say, the commonly received opinion) that it admits of no increase; but their accidental glory may grow at least until the judgment-day. Otherwise the reunion with the body would bring no increase of joy. Also their glory is increased whenever they procure benefits for us on earth, since the angels in Heaven rejoice over every sinner that does penance (Luke 15:10). The saints rejoice likewise over all things that are done to the honour of God, and especially over all that we do to thank God for their glory.”
Theological reasoning proves that such an increase of glory is possible. The formal principle of glory is knowledge.
But in the separated soul the intellect can still exercise the activity proper to it, and there are a multitude of objects, apart from God, upon which the intellect can gaze, and many of which, as we have seen, will be made known to it by successive revelations.
So as these revelations are made, the soul’s accidental glory will increase. And a special increase will accrue to it from the companionship of the saints. Nor does this contradict what has been said about eternity, for participated eternity does not exclude a multiplicity and succession of those natural operations which make up the saints’ accidental glory.
(3) Increase of accidental glory no real addition to essential glory
All created things which can increase the saints’ accidental glory are contained, super-eminently, as theologians say, in God the first cause of all.
Their value in the eyes of the saints is measured by their value in God, and, just as God adds nothing to his own glory and happiness by creating creatures to glorify him, so the essential glory of the blessed receives no real addition from the increase of their accidental glory; nothing is added to their beatifying knowledge and love.
Saint Thomas says:
“Since beatitude is nothing but the possession of the sovereign Good, everything that may be possessed over and above the vision and the enjoyment of God will not make the soul happier; otherwise God would add to his own happiness in giving existence to creatures” (De Malo q. 5. art. 1, ad. 4).
And elsewhere he shows that the saints, while rejoicing in our joys, do not thereby receive any real addition to their own happiness; their joy will not be greater, it will be more widely spread. This is what theologians mean by saying that, relatively to essential glory, the increase of accidental glory is purely material.
(4) The resurrection will bring an access of accidental glory only.
Though some theologians have thought otherwise in the past, it is now generally agreed that the essential glory of the blessed is not increased after the resurrection of the body.
Undoubtedly, before the resurrection, it is the soul’s desire that the fullness of glory in which it delights shall, when the time comes, illumine the body also.
But this desire does not cause the soul to feel any sense of privation. The soul in the possession of God experiences all the happiness of which it is capable. When the resurrection takes place the soul’s glory will glorify the body, but there will be no increase in the brightness of glory, no growth in the soul’s essential glory.
(5) Conclusion
We reach, therefore, the conclusion that consummated glory is substantially identical with essential glory. Although the accidental glory of the risen body is a very real thing, it only means a purely material addition to the soul’s essential glory, it only means that there is one more object that is now irradiated by the splendour diffused by the beatific vision.
The intuitive vision of God, being measured by eternity, confirms the soul in the fixed and unchangeable choice of its last end that it has freely made. Cleaving indefectibly to the Supreme Good, the Soul cannot possibly fall again into sin, nor can it ever lose the glory it has won. The knowledge of its eternal security crowns its beatitude.
Heaven, therefore, filled with the light of the beatific vision, the kingdom of those who can fall no more, nor in any way fail in their loyalty to God, will be in truth the perfect realization of peace, order with tranquillity: Caelestis Urbs Jerusalem, beata pacis visio.
