GOSPEL MATTERS: ‘Heaven is Real’
Dr Christine Wood, Director, Office of Evangelisation & Catechesis
Using data from 2021, the Australian social research company, McCrindle, reported, “Despite the move away from traditional forms of religion, Australians are still holding strong to the core beliefs.
Not only do more than one in two (58%) Australians believe in a higher power/ God, miracles (60%) and life after death (59%) but a quarter (24%) are certain that Jesus Christ, the centre of the Easter celebration, rose from the dead.”
The 2018 World Values Study provides similar data on Australians’ belief in an afterlife, heaven, and hell.
These data sets are significant as they confirm a clear foundation upon which to build when we discuss Christian belief in the afterlife with ordinary Australians.
In the Creed, Christians profess their belief in “the resurrection from the dead and life everlasting.” Ask many Catholics what they believe heaven to be like and you’ll get answers like, “perfect happiness,” “my back won’t hurt anymore,” or “St Peter guarding the pearly gates.”
More lofty expectations include “the face-to-face vision of God.” Others say, “I don’t think we know much at all about heaven.”
The Catechism says that heaven is “perfect life with the Most Holy Trinity – this communion of life and love with the Trinity, with the Virgin Mary, the angels and all the blessed.” It will be the fullness of life; death will be no more.
My former theology professor used to say we won’t be up in the ‘nose-bleed seats’ of the stadium, but down on centre-court, participating totally in the fullness of God’s life, with all the saints.
The Catechism says, “Those who die in God’s grace and friendship and are perfectly purified live for ever with Christ.
They are like God for ever, for they ‘see him as he is’, face to face.” This is a possibility for everyone if we cooperate with God’s help (his grace) and befriend him.
Every good desire we have now will be fulfilled, and more, in heaven. There will be no evil to fear, no end to bliss, we will rest from our labours.
Again, the Catechism says, “Heaven is the ultimate end and fulfillment of the deepest human longings, the state of supreme, definitive happiness.”
As we walk through life towards death, it’s worth reflecting on what God has in store for us. Scripture says, “no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man conceived, what God has prepared for those who love him” (1 Cor 2:9).
Rather than knowing nothing about the afterlife, we know it far exceeds every good thing we desire or experience in this life. Let’s set our hearts on this!