CRITICAL THINKING IMPLICATIONS FROM A WEARY TRAVELER OF LIFE’S MOVEMENTS AND COMPLEXITIES

Whenever I think about heaven, there are many scenarios that come to mind. I make the following statements based on what I have learned about what is real and what is fool’s gold. When you make a statement about the word, HEAVEN, for example, your perceptions will be informed by your assumptions and your assumptions will, in turn, be informed by your life events, the combined “pot of vegetable soup” that you have made with those life experiences that you have tested and found to be consistent with your center. Just as you and I have different centers, there is only one center, that, if we share it, allows our unique freedom to discover the purpose of life, yet remains anchored to The Christ Principle, the way, the truth, and the life. In the following example, I offer you my take on how to approach the implications of the word, HEAVEN. The only claim I make is that this critical thinking allows me to go to a profound level of complexity with each of these words. I use this technique without regard for what the Church teaches. Later on, I will return to my ideas to measure them against The Christ Principle and the teaching of the Magisterium. Another way of saying this is that, at 83, I have too much time on my hands trying to avoid sitting all day long and watching the plastic flowers grow. My greatest fear in life is that once viewing the plastic flowers, I actually see them growing.

HEAVEN

When I think of heaven and what it will be like, I know that Jesus said (John 17) that he was going to prepare a place for me and that the Father has many mansions waiting.

• Does that mean each person gets a mansion? Who pays the rent or mortgage? Or, is there more to heaven than my human experiences of what it is to live on the earth, in my timeframe?
• Do the rooms have bedrooms? Do I need to sleep in heaven, as I do on earth? Or, is there more to it I don’t realize?
• Do these mansions have toilets? Who cleans the toilets? Who provides toilet cleaners, if so? Is there a place to buy these supplies? Who runs these stores, if so? What do I use for money? How can I earn money? Will it be in US Dollars or some other currency? Or, is there more to it?
• How will I eat three meals a day in heaven? Who cooks? Are there stoves? Refrigerators? Water? Dishwashing machines? Electricity? Garbage disposals? Garbage pick up on Tuesdays? Or, is there more to it?
• Will people who died in 500 AD have the same heaven as I do? Or, is there more to it?
• Are there pets in heaven? Will they be the pets I know or some others? Are there veterinarians to help sick animals? Or, is there more to it?
• So I get sick in heaven? If so, are there physicians? Or, is there more to it?
• Are there churches in heaven with services? Which churches? All churches? Or, is there more to it?
• Will there be atheists, agnostics, apostates, and the myriad of people who just don’t care if Jesus is or is not real? If so, will the sheep be on one side and the goats on the other? Who are the goat keepers? Or, is there more to it?
• Will I see my entire life before me with both accomplishments and disappointments for all to see? Will the priests who are pedophiles, those murderers of innocent children and white slavers, those who defraud others and do not tell the truth be in heaven? If so, how can they face their victims without eternal shame and the feeling that they hurt them? Can the war criminals sit down with their victims and have tea? Who serves it? Where does the tea come from? Is there justice for all victims of sin, which is all of us? What is this justice?
• Will those who murder, rape, and torture others co-exist in the same room? How would you feel about sharing a room with someone who killed your son or daughter deliberately, with you watching? I don’t know how this happens, but I think God has figured that out.

APPROACHING AN EXPLANATION

I can only think that heaven is what I created on earth by knowing, loving, and serving others as I feel Christ loves me. Each heaven will be different, just as each human is different. Life is about discovering The Divine Equation and how to use it to pack for the journey. What we eventually pack is only one thing, what we have selected at our center throughout our struggle to be human. Can the rich get to heaven? Actually, only the rich can get to heaven, but you must make sure it is God’s riches you take and not those you wish to take with you. I struggle trying to put the round circle of what Christ told us into the square peg of what I know to be true about what it means to be human. Blessed are they who have not seen, yet believed. Preposterous? Most definitely. Consistent with the sign of the cross, the contradiction of reality of earth and heaven? Most definitely.

Thinking about heaven is fraught with possible miscues and missteps. I can only think of a heaven that corresponds to my human imagination and lived reality. I can make up what is heaven or I can try to run the gauntlet of doubtful meanings from what Christ told us. Thankfully, the Church Magisterium is there to clarify some of those foggy perceptions. For example, is heaven real like I know reality or a reality like God knows reality. If so, how can someone of human nature possibly relate to an environment in which life has not been kind enough to prepare them to exist? When Christ Ascended into heaven, and later assumed Mary, his Mother, into the same space, it seems to me that this is a separate place from divine nature and also human nature. John 17 says that Jesus is going to prepare a place for us, so I assume it is a place consistent with being fully human and the maximum potential realized. This is the glorified body, and I struggle with knowing about what it is, only content to know “what it is like.” Simili est regnum coelorum…

I don’t give up my human reasoning or ability to choose. Rather, I want to know, love, and serve others in this life as Christ taught, so I can be happy now in life and in that next incorruptible environment that will sustain that love…forever.

It is only when I realized that there is a duality about human existence, one that is physical and mental and the other that is physical, mental, and spiritual, that what makes no sense is somewhat like looking through that glass darkly, as St. Paul says. My favorite photo to explain this is the one where there is a solitary cup on a somewhat battered window sill with the background window foggy yet a faint representation of what is on the other side presents itself. I am that cup. Heaven is on the other side. The cup is in the midst of darkness with a bit of light. I love it.

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