Join Heaven

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Comment by J Nitty on May 19, 2009 at 4:09pm

The Roman Catholic Church bases its belief in Heaven on some main biblical passages in the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures (Old and New Testaments) and also the books of the apocrypha and collected church wisdom. Heaven is the Realm of the Blessed Trinity, the Blessed Virgin Mary (also called the Queen of Heaven), the angels[18] and the saints[19]. According to the dogma of Assumption of the Virgin Mary, the Virgin Mary "having completed the course of her earthly life, was assumed body and soul into heavenly glory", which implies that heaven must have some facility to support human bodies as well as souls or that the experience of heaven is to be understood as a spiritual (soul) experience while still on earth.

The essential joy of heaven is called the beatific vision, which is derived from the vision of God's essence. The soul rests perfectly in God, and does not, or cannot desire anything else than God. After the Last Judgment, when the soul is reunited with its body, the body participates in the happiness of the soul. It becomes incorruptible, glorious and perfect. Any physical defects the body may have laboured under are erased. Heaven is also known as paradise in some cases. The Great Gulf separates heaven from hell.

The Roman Catholic teaching regarding Heaven is found in the Catechism of the Catholic Church: "Those who die (generally understood as physical death as opposed to "body level," ego identity) in God's grace and friendship and are perfectly purified, live forever (defined as immortality of the body as opposed to eternal aliveness in the psychological sense). This perfect (divine) life with [God] (Father Deity rather than concept of "perfect goodness") is called heaven. [It] is the ultimate end and fulfilment of the deepest human longings, the state of supreme, definitive happiness, full aliveness. The Catholic Church teaches that only those baptized by water (symbol of purification/internal cleansing), blood (symbol of martyrdom), or desire (explicit or implicit desire for purification) may enter heaven and those who have died in a state of grace may enter heaven.[20]

Upon dying, each soul goes to what is called "the particular judgement" where its own afterlife is decided (i.e. Heaven after Purgatory, straight to Heaven, or Hell.) This is different from "the general judgement" also known as "the Last judgement" which will occur when Christ returns to judge all the living and the dead.

It is a common Roman Catholic belief that St. Michael the Archangel carries the soul to Heaven.[citation needed] The belief that Saint Peter meets the soul at the "Pearly Gates" is an artistic application of the belief that Christ gave Peter, believed by Catholics to be the first Pope, the keys to Heaven.

As Heaven is a place where only the pure are permitted, no person who dies in a state of sin can enter Heaven. "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." (Catechism of the Catholic Church §1023) "Those who die in God's grace and friendship imperfectly purified, although they are assured of their eternal salvation, undergo a purification after death, so as to achieve the holiness necessary to enter the joy of God." (Catechism of the Catholic Church §1054)

If one were baptized validly and then died, one would go directly to heaven (in the Roman Catholic belief, the sacrament of baptism dissolves the eternal and temporal punishment of all sins). If one never committed a mortal sin and were absolved of all his venial sins just before death, one would go directly to Heaven.

Most people who would enter Heaven do so through Purgatory (or "process of purification"). In Purgatory, a soul pays off all temporal punishment one deserved for the sins he committed in life. This does not always happen though. If one receives the Sacrament of Penance validly, as well as gains a plenary indulgence, and dies, one would directly go to heaven. There are many ways to get an indulgence, in various Papal decrees or publications[21]. To receive a plenary indulgence, one must receive the sacrament of Confession validly, do one's penance, validly receive Communion, say some specified number of Lord's Prayers, Angelic Salutations and Minor Doxologies for the intentions of the Pope, and then perform some act of gaining the indulgence. Of course, one must remain free from all sin, mortal and venial, while doing all these things.