I received a comment from Esa, a Muslim man, who wrote that Muslims believe that Paradise is not only for Muslims but for everyone who is faithful, good-hearted and a helper to the people. He asked what I think about it. Esa, here are my thoughts …
I absolute agree with you that those who are faithful, good-hearted, and a helper to the people are in Paradise. Being a lifelong student of theology, I can’t help explain a little bit about how the Church affirms and teaches this belief about who we might find in heaven.
The Christian tradition talks about Paradise or heaven as the dwelling place of God, the angels, and those who are blessed. It also means the final fulfillment of human existence. We live in hope that we will be fully united with God and experience the fullness of the love that Jesus exhibited and call us to. As a Catholic Church, we’ve grown in our understanding of what it means for all people (including those “outside the Church”) to be saved through the Church and live with God in heaven. We believe that God is present in grace to every human being. All people can find salvation through the Church regardless of their religious tradition because God’s grace is given to all people. The Second Vatican Council talked about this when teaching about how Christians are “linked with the Paschal Mystery and patterned on the dying Christ.” (Constitution on the Church in the Modern World #22) The Council went on to say that “All this holds true not only for Christians, but for all men [sic] of good will in whose hearts grace works in an unseen way. For, since Christ died for all men, and since the ultimate vocation of man is in fact one, and divine, we ought to believe that the Holy Spirit in a manner known only to God offers to every man the possibility of being associated with this paschal mystery.”
A final thought from Dante’s Paradisio:
Esa, I would love to hear more about the Muslim perspective of Paradise. And to all readers, what is your understanding of Paradise or heaven or the afterlife?
"She wrote the way she lived: on the fly, without retrospect, always on the way, climbing higher."
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The Catechism of the Catholic Church and the documents of the Second Vatican Council affirm that the “Church’s bond with non-Christian religions is in the first place the common origin and end of the human race” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 842) The Catechism quotes Nostra Aetate, the Vatican II document on other religions.
I trust God to worry about what will happen to me after this mortal body dies. In the meantime, I believe I have a duty to find Heaven on Earth, to help create a better world here for us all. I don’t call myself Christian per se, but I am Christian among other things. I am pantheist, believing everything is divine. But I don’t find any conflicts between my belief system and yours…just a different symbol system in use to talk about the same reality. As I see it, if we follow the example of Jesus and treat each other as he taught us to treat one another, that will be Heaven on Earth. And to turn ones back on that creates the opposite. K
I am agnostic (at best, I like to give the idea a little optimism!) and I believe that Paradise, like God, angels, and heaven is a metaphor for being in this life, now, on Earth. It’s about acknowledging, understanding, and loving who you are. It’s about acknowledging, understanding, and loving the idiosyncracies and differences in the rest of the world around you. It’s about being one with not only your community and those who will follow you but with your environment on both a micro and macro level. And lastly, it’s about understanding your personal demons and doing your best to understand them and why they’re there, avoid them whenever possible, learn from them when you can’t, and conquer them when you have finally evolved to the stage in your own existence when you can conquer them. I don’t believe in an afterlife, therefore making it imperative to understand and appreciate the metaphor every single day. Somedays I certainly don’t, but when I have time and am in the right place to think (what I consider prayer time I suppose is the analogy) then I not only reflect on these things but give thanks as well that I understand it as well as I do.
Kelly and Kristen, you both highlight an important point … that heaven has something to do with the here and now as well. Theologians talk about how the Kingdom of God (the Gospel of Matthew predominantly uses the term “Kingdom of Heaven”) is both already and not yet. That is, the Kingdom of God is here and now AND it has not yet come to fullness. One of our goals as human being is to work toward this fullness. The “kingdom” is envisioned in many different ways, but essentially it has to do with being fully united with God through love, peace, and justice. We can’t ignore injustice or violence or neglect people who are in need of peace, love, and justice …. figuring that God only means these things should take place in the hereafter. We do have a duty, as Kelly noted, to reveal heaven on earth, to bring about justice, love, and peace now and for all.
This is an excellent post, I clarifies and explains many things I have been confused about. I have a very strong belief in a Loving God and it made no sense to me that any truely good people could be regected by God. There are billions of people in this world and many may just never even been exposed to Christianity.
Beautiful post thank you for sharing.
Bill
Paradise must be union with God. When I was much younger I could not understand how artists and other people who portrayed heaven would create pictures of people praying or singing hymns constantly. While I prayed, it was done more from a sense of duty than because I liked it. I certainly did not want to spend forever doing that. I would rather have been out in a boat in great weather.
I am now almost sixty and, among other things, pray morning and evening prayer from the Office each day, and try to do a half hour of mental prayer daily. These times are probably more meaningful to me than anything else I do in life, and I know that, on rare occasions, especially in silent prayer, I am communing with God in a deep way. Only once one has experienced this can one understand it, and I am certain there are much deeper levels than I have experienced. But I have gone far enough to know that it brings the deepest kind of human satisfaction and fulfillment–that, at last, one is where he was created to be. This must be a foretaste of heaven.
I also believe heaven is here on this earth. Heaven is where God is and God is everywhere. I believe we help to create this earth into a piece of heaven when we act justly, reach out in peace and look for ways to end conflicts. Anyone regardless of their religion can do this. This is why we are here. We are co-creaters with God. Peace and justice begins with me!
Hello Sister,
I’ve forgotten just how it was I stumbled across your blog, but, as I’ve been following along with you for a few months now, I’m very glad I did.
I understand and agree with you that “the Kingdom of God is here and now AND it has not yet come to fullness,” but I was wondering if, as Kelly said, “if we follow the example of Jesus and treat each other as he taught us to treat one another, that will be Heaven on Earth,” would be an example of ‘creeping Pelagianism’, or the ‘Promethean Pelagian’? And isn’t it dangerous to put too much emphasis on the Kingdom of heaven on earth? I’m just a student (Providence College) and anything you could say on this would be helpful.
Merry Christmas!
Hi Caitie … Thanks for your comment. For those who aren’t too familiar with Pelagianism (creeping or otherwise), Pelagius was a monk in the early 5th century. He and his disciples rejected the doctrine of original sin and believed that humans were completely free and did not need God’s grace. Saint Augustine was one of the major opponents of Pelagianism. The Church condemned Pelagianism as heresy in the 5th century and again at the Council of Trent.
Regarding “heaven on earth” … If we stop after the statement that the Kingdom of Heaven is found on earth then we are missing a major part of what the Gospels mean by the Kingdom of Heaven (or Kingdom of God). It always has to be the “both/and”. Because Jesus has come to earth and become human, God’s redemption is already present and active among us. Yet we live in hope for the fullness of being in relationship with God and which we can only experience in heaven. But, if we say that redemption therefore is only found here on earth by the work of our own hands without God’s grace, then we are definitely entering a Pelagian zone. Yes, it can be a bit slippery, but our Church has the wisdom of holding the “both/and” … the “already/not yet” in a dynamic balance instead of saying it’s one way or another.
Let me know what your thinking is on this.
I believe that we will be in heaven or hell and
i believe in Purgatory too…The worst of people
can be seen on tv news everyday and God sees it
too, and though He is merciful He is just too.
I would never take the Ten Commandments casually.
I believe that God wil call you home to heaven
when you die but you must answer. Sometimes I cant
wait and then I dont want to leave home until my
husband and sons come back to the Catholic Faith.
I think I might haunt them until they do if I die
too soon…so that is my mission on earth to pray
them back in to the Church…and just one thing
more…I believe we will not have peace in IraQ
until we stop abortions for any reason..God does
not like us to try to be Him..
Yes, there is much violence in this world today. It’s difficult to watch the news on most days. I am amazed (in a disturbing way) at our human capacity for violence … not just in the major acts of violence but in the “small” acts of hostility, pettiness, slander, passive agressiveness, etc. that seep into how we relate with one another. Peace is ever elusive when we fail to act with kindness and justice in our own lives.
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