(The Nationalist, 7 May 2004)
Saint Augustine once wrote, ‘I know what time is; but, if you ask me to tell you what it is, I don’t know’. If you try thinking about time, you usually end up talking about duration, or something else which is just another word for time. We human beings cannot conceive of life outside of time; for us, everything is either in the past, the present or the future.
Eternity, or heaven, is outside of time. Time was created by God. God is outside of it. With God, there is neither past nor future, but an eternal present.
The catechism of our childhood spoke of heaven as a place or state of perfect happiness – more likely a state. But, in speaking of heaven, the catechism focussed on God.
The biblical book of Revelation, written by a visionary poet gives no definition of heaven, but depicts it in terms of relationships:
- Between us and God: we shall be his people, and he will be our God.
- Between human beings: no more mourning or sadness in the communion of saints, the family of all those who have died in God’s love.
- Within ourselves: Jesus said to us that ‘The Kingdom of God is within you’.
- In the whole universe: ‘The world of the past is gone… Now I am making the whole of creation new’.
Heaven is probably also, in some sense, a continuation of the present. Can we experience joy with God in heaven if we know nothing of joy and celebration here on earth? Can we be open to God in the hereafter if we have been closed to God here? If we are closed off against people on earth, can we open in heaven to God who created them?
‘Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor has it entered into the heart of the person what God has prepared in heaven for those who love him’ (1 Corinthians 2.9). Heaven, in the final analysis, is a mystery. May its vision and hope sustain us in our moments of darkness.