Q. Now. A few more questions.
Who goes to heaven? Do nice people go to heaven? Do good people go to heaven? Do ethical people go to heaven? Do moral people go to heaven? Do holy people to heaven?
Example. Say I help people. I donate clothes. Food. Money, etc. to the less fortunate. I don’t involve God in my altruism.
You do the same work. Same amount even. But you involve God in it. You help these people because it pleases God. Because God wants you to help them.
Are we both going to go to heaven? All other factors remaining constant. Basically everything and anything you do you do for God. Me I do the exact same things but for whatever reason. Maybe coz I’m a nice guy. Or a moral guy. Good guy you know. Ama coz it’s me... Whatever. Who goes to heaven? Rather. Do we both go to heaven?
A. Quite a number of questions there... Let's break them down.
So first, who goes to heaven?
Those who have the life of God in them - "grace" we call it - go to heaven.
Grace is what enables you not just to enter heaven, but to "survive"in heaven. Without grace, we literally could not stand to be in God's presence. We would like "disintegrate" for lack of a better word. We just don't have the capacity to stand in the presence of God and not like die or melt... This is why in the Scriptures for example, even in the presence of a mere angel (mere compared to God, not to humans), men and women would have two reactions. First they would fear. The sheer awesomeness (in the ancient sense of the word) of a pure spirit, would strike a cord of fear in humans - even holy ones. For which reason some of the first words that the angels would address to the people they appeared to - again even holy people - were "Do not be afraid." Second, their fear would naturally show itself in some physical reaction. Many, like St. John the Apostle - would simply prostrate themselves on the ground. Basically to "reduce" yourself as much as you can. These were all in reaction to being in the presence of a pure spirit - an angel: a matchstick flame compared to the sun - God.
This is also a sneak peek into why the devil always disguises himself when approaching anyone - sometimes even as "an angel of light" as St. Paul puts it. Because over and above his angelic awesomeness, he has evil. Any human who would be in the presence of these two would automatically flee for their life. The devil would never get anywhere near enough to be able to tempt someone.
Another analogy that has been given by theologians is the physical experience of looking at the sun directly. We humans don't have the capacity to look directly at the noon-day sun without harming ourselves, without burning or injuring our eyes. So too, we cannot look on the face of God (which is one way of describing what heaven is all about), without harming ourselves.
Our solution to looking directly at the noon-day sun is to wear sun glasses - reduce the brilliance of the sun; reduce the subjective the amount of brilliance that reaches my eyes. God's solution at us gazing on Him is to give us "super-eyes" - grace; increase the capacity of the soul.
[To be continued]
Keep dry!
18th March 2018