Salesian Literature

Chapter 15:  The saints in heaven will differ in their degree of union with God

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The saints in heaven owe their capacity for the beatific vision to the light of glory.  The more or less of that radiance we shall possess, the more or less clearly, and therefore blissfully, shall we see the godhead.  As each soul will see to it a different extent, so each will differ in glory.

 

The manna, every taste uniting that could bring content, of every appetite the welcome choice (Wis. 16:20-21), differed to suit the eater’s whim.  No one experienced its every flavour; it satisfied each Israelite in what he craved the most.  In heaven we shall see and enjoy the godhead; but no individual, nor all the saints together, will ever see or enjoy God.

 

God is infinite; he will ever be infinitely more perfect than we can possibly grasp.  It will make us unspeakably happy to know that – every desire satisfied, every capacity for enjoying God fulfilled – infinity still remains, infinite perfections yet to be seen, enjoyed, possessed.  Only God fully knows himself, sees and understands all his perfections.

 

Take fishes, which live in the incredible vastness of the ocean: no one fish, nor the whole host of fishes, has ever been in sight of every shore or tried to swim in every sea.  Take birds, free to make the whole air their playground: no single bird, nor all the feathered tribe, has ever flown its length and breadth or known its upper limits.

 

In heaven we shall be free to swim and soar in the godhead to our heart’s content, happy for ever in the knowledge that God is so great, so infinite, we shall never utterly encompass him, never match our satisfaction with his infinity, which must always remain infinitely beyond our reach.

 

There you have the secret of what holds the saints in heaven blissfully captive – the infinite beauty which they contemplate, also the unfathomable depths of that infinity ever waiting to be explored.  The vision which they see is marvellous, heaven knows! – but much more wonderful still, what remains hidden from their gaze.

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