The body is an essential element of our person. The soul is not, for example, as clothing is to the body, which can be exchanged for others without altering it. The body is not the clothing of the soul; body and soul form a single whole, a single person.
And if someone – God forbid! – goes to hell, justice demands that they be punished in body and soul, because it is the whole person who sins and, therefore, must be punished. The body is the soul’s instrument for most sins, and it seems reasonable that the instrument be punished as the soul, the author of sin, is punished. Therefore, contrario sensu, it is also fitting that the body be rewarded when a person is saved.
God prepared Empyrean Heaven so that bodies may have their reward there. The soul will reunite with the body at the resurrection of the dead, and the latter will enjoy numerous delights. But at the same time, the soul will have an even greater delight, and so it should be because, of the two elements that constitute man, the soul is, beyond comparison, the nobler.
We need only consider animals – which have bodies but no souls – and man’s superiority over them to understand the extent to which the soul, spiritual and immortal, is superior to the body.
From this perspective, it is clear that the happiness of the soul must be far greater than that of the body; and not just far greater, but infinitely greater. Indeed, the soul sees God face to face, and in this communion with Him, it experiences inexpressible joy.
Intense and direct contact among souls
To form an adequate idea of the happiness of seeing God, I refer to what Cornelius a Lapide1 writes about the delight of the fellowship of souls in Celestial Paradise, the contentment a soul will have in being acquainted with another and being one with another. From this – as a remote, pale, and insufficient term of comparison – we can get a sense of what the soul’s communion with God is like.
The contact among the souls in Paradise is most intense and direct, as if each one “reads” the other like an open book
The contact of the souls in Paradise is most intense and direct. It differs from the contact between us, in which each person reflects, in some way, states of soul that we can observe when we pay attention. At times we observe hypothetically, at others with certainty – often we are unable to distinguish precisely between hypothesis and certainty – and we form a certain notion about the mentality, psychology, and the disposition of spirit of another person, how they are perceiving our conversation and our company, and how we are perceiving theirs.
This contact between souls that occurs on earth sheds some light, but above all, it projects shadows. We would like to know much more. In Heaven, however, souls know each other directly, each one “reads” the other, as it were, like an open book.
Complete harmony among all
Since the souls in Heaven are all in a state of perfection, having been purified in Purgatory of all the defects they had on earth, the consideration of any soul is highly pleasing. There are none of the shortcomings that exist in this world, where, whether a good psychologist or not, we are suddenly disturbed, due to our own or someone else’s defect, with states of spirit incompatible with our own. And with the incompatibility there arises displeasure in coexistence.
Sometimes, on the contrary, a great harmony emerges with another soul. But it is something fleeting, appearing for a few moments and then disappearing. At most, we can say: “If I knew this person more deeply, in such and such an aspect, there is a probability that we would understand each other very well. And in other aspects, how would we understand each other? Would we get along equally well? This aspect, which manifested itself so fleetingly, what depth, what substance does it have? Who really is this person?”
In Heaven, there is none of that! All states of soul are definitive. Some may appear more prominently, others less so, depending on what the soul sees in God, but everything is perfect.
And we have, then, beyond total knowledge, the knowledge of that which is utterly delightful, harmonious in itself, and harmonious with us – there is no contradiction within those souls.
In Heaven we will have joy in seeing all the others around us, as if in a perpetual celebration of knowledge, of recognition and of greater insight
Since we will be, through prayer and the help of Our Lady, in a state of perfection, we will never aggravate one another. And we will have joy in seeing all the others around us, as a perpetual celebration of knowledge, of recognition and of greater insights. And this joy – which is still not even remotely the joy of seeing God face to face – we can well imagine if we consider that we will meet in Heaven those who were our acquaintances on earth and who helped us, or whom we helped, to do good.
A fellowship in which inequalities are loved
This is true fellowship, in which envy, hatred, and dislike of inequalities do not exist; in which the greater fills the lesser with contentment and satisfaction!
Some time ago, traveling along a highway in São Paulo, I had a very fleeting idea of this reality. There is a huge eucalyptus plantation along a certain stretch, belonging to a paper company, and in a certain spot, there is a small wetland, with a stream; the land is somewhat marshy, and there is a clearing in the plantation. I pass this place quite often, and every now and then I have seen the wind blowing in a curious way, perhaps in a sort of whirlwind, which makes it seem like those trees are bowing to one another.
Seeing these eucalyptus trees, I think of the harmony that exists in Heaven between people who appreciate each other’s virtues and revere one another. Including the greatest in relation to the least, because every human being, no matter how great, must love and respect their fellow human beings, for they are made in the image and likeness of the Creator. But also, because every human being is unique in some way. And in Heaven, that which is unique about a person is known. Therefore, one has the special delight to, upon making an acquaintance, making a correlation to God, understanding what He desired to accomplish in that person.
All of this makes the soul-to-soul conviviality a delight we cannot fully comprehend in this life.
A delightful variety of spiritual flavours
One aspect of earthly relationships can help us understand this delight a little. There are people who are expressive; that is, they express what they feel. Some are pleasantly expressive. Others are unpleasantly expressive, sometimes through no fault of their own.
It is most delightful to come into contact with a person who expresses themselves well, especially when one perceives not only the clear meaning of their speech, but also the harmony, the consonance of their entire personality with what is being said.
It could be said that someone with this aptitude is – in relation to someone who expresses themselves theoretically, without any external manifestation – like one who sings in comparison to one who simply speaks.
Now, in the contact between people in Paradise – and especially with the Angels, with the Blessed Virgin Mary, and with Our Lord – we will notice this, because everything will unfold perfectly and most pleasantly; there will not, therefore, be a single contact that is not truly magnificent.
In the splendours of Heaven, if we see St. Gregory VII, for example, passing by us radiant with glory – as he was when Emperor Henry IV knelt before the gates of the castle where the Pope was staying, asking for forgiveness – we will notice all the forms of sanctity that existed within him, including the righteous anger that motivated him at that moment.
We will also be able to contemplate each saint in all of his virtues, especially those they most practised on earth
We cannot imagine, therefore, a syrupy, Heaven. Sweet, yes; syrupy, no! With a delectable variety of flavours – spiritual flavours, of course! – through which all the virtuous states of the soul, from the most attentive and reflective inquiry to rapture, from the most angelic wrath to the most diaphanous and tranquil serenity, will be felt in various souls, especially those whose virtue was most intense on earth.
There is a painting by Fra Angelico, which I like very much, that depicts St. Dominic studying. To highlight the Saint’s purity, the artist painted a grown man, yet with the innocence of a child, seated with one hand on his chin, reading a book he has on his lap. Well, in Heaven, we will be able to contemplate in St. Dominic all the virtues reflected there.
Encounter with St. Thomas Aquinas
How beautiful it would be, for example, to see St. Thomas Aquinas during his lifetime, pondering a topic deeply, with his powerful spirit searching for the truth.
We can imagine how, after raising magnificent mountain ranges of pros and cons, of thinking and saying that he could not resolve the issue, he would kneel before the tabernacle, bowing low, and with his gaze fixed on the mediation of Our Lady, he would open the tabernacle and put his head inside, to think and find the truth. How magnificent! What would his venerable brow be like?
Seeing St. Thomas pass by in Heaven, we will notice all this! And we will understand the joy that this consideration can bring. Especially if he smiles at us and says: “You were at a meeting in São Paulo, where you all spoke about me placing my head in the tabernacle, were you not? At that moment, I was praying for you from Heaven!”
How wonderful it will be to know that we were known by St. Thomas, who protected us from Heaven, when we were on earth. We can imagine those first encounters in Heaven and the joy of that kind of fellowship!
A dazzling orchestra
I should also say something about interacting with the Angels, which is another way to get closer to understanding what it means to see God face to face.
The Angels know the souls of the blessed perfectly, and the blessed know them, as well as knowing what is happening in other souls. And in this cognition, they contemplate the full perfection of each other.
An Angel, as a spiritual being, is extremely simple and has a dominant note that defines him. So, we could say that there is an Angel of purity, another of courage, another of fortitude, another of wisdom, another of temperance, and so on, and imagine the various virtues in their thousand possible varieties, and Angels reflecting them in a very accentuated manner.
Thus, considering the Angels as a whole, we would have a panorama of all the virtues. And, considering the Angels as they relate to one another, not schematically, but in relation to the movements of the happenings in Heaven, we would have a total picture of an amazing orchestra, playing an improvised score at every moment.
Thus, the various virtues intertwine, unravel, group, and regroup, but with a fullness and strength of personality and assertion that we, mere earthly creatures, absolutely cannot imagine.
A single Angel would be enough to leave us entirely dazzled. To have an idea of this, suffice it to say that if we conversed with just one Angel for a million years, we would experience the sensation that he still has something new to tell us.
Angels far outnumber human beings; we must fill the vacancies left by the damned angels when they fell into hell. So, we can glimpse what a lasting and admirable conviviality with this countless number of Angels will be like, a veritable sea of delights.
Conviviality among souls in Paradise
Suppose we could travel to distant lands. The most pleasant thing, surely, would be to visit places with diverse geographical settings and landscapes, where there would be different people with whom we would have an affinity of spirit, who were all good, but above all, demonstrating different forms of beauty and goodness, and that we could all harmonize. This combined variety of people and ambiences would be the greatest pleasure.
But imagine someone said to one of us: “You have to choose between two forms of tourism: visiting various places in the world, empty and devoid of people; or being in a place where, at every moment, people from different parts of the world appear before you, most perfect and filled with goodness, with their regional costumes, their spirit, their language, and each of them with excellent conversation.”
The fellowship of souls in Paradise is more precious and more valuable than the material delights of Empyrean Heaven
What would we prefer? To be in the empty places or to be with the people? We would choose the people, without a doubt! For, however excellent the panoramas might be, the most important part of man is the soul, and similis simili gaudet – one rejoices in his likeness –, the soul rejoices in contact with other souls. It is evident!
The fellowship of souls in Paradise is more precious and more valuable than contact with the matter of Empyrean Heaven, despite its magnificence and all its other wonders; all this pales in comparison to the unparalleled harmony of the relationship we will have in Heaven. ◊
Taken, with adaptations to written language,
from: Conference. São Paulo, 9/1/1981
Notes
1 Cf. CORNELIUS A LAPIDE. Ciel. In: Les trésors de Cornélius a Lapide. 4.ed. Paris: Poussielgue Frères, 1876, v.I, p.289-291.
