Yes, this vile and corruptible body must be changed into an incorruptible one. It must rise like the body of Jesus Christ, who, "rising again from the dead, dies no more; death shall no more have dominion over Him."* According to the beautiful and forcible words of the Apostle: "This corruptible must put on incorruption; and this mortal must put on immortality. And when this mortal hath put on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy victory? O death, where is thy sting?"+
* Rom. 'vi. 9. + 1 Cor. xv. 53.
These, then, are some of the supernatural gifts wherewith God will clothe the bodies of the just on the last day. They are so great in themselves, that it would almost seem they should be worth working for even if there were no Beatific Vision. Yet, if taken separately, they are, so to speak, the mere external ornaments and finish of the happiness which heart of man cannot conceive. These glorious attributes of the risen body perfect and complete the happiness of man. As the soul and body reunited in glory form one human creature, so the happiness of the soul and body is one. After the resurrection, the beatitude of heaven can no longer be separated into the happiness of the soul in the Beatific Vision, and then the pleasures of the body through the glorified senses, as if there were two distinct beatitudes, or as if the soul and body were two distinct individuals. Whatever happiness comes from the union of the soul with God in the Beatific Vision, and whatever pleasures may reach the soul through the glorified senses, or from our communion with the saints, or the contemplation of the sacred humanity of Jesus Christ, the Blessed Virgin Mary, and other saints, it is all one happiness enjoyed by our human nature, which is one.
CHAPTER VIII.
SEVERAL ERRORS TO BE AVOIDED IN OUR MEDITATIONS ON HEAVEN.
Now that the soul is again clothed in her body, glorified after the likeness of Christ's body, other pleasures and joys, besides those we have already contemplated in the Beatific Vision, claim our attention. They are the pleasures of the glorified senses, which, along with the Beatific Vision, are to gratify every rational appetite and craving of our human nature. And thus the whole man, in soul and body, will enjoy the complete happiness of heaven. But, in order to form a correct idea of these additional pleasures of the glorified senses, or rather of the integral happiness of heaven, we must be on our guard against several errors into which very good and even spiritual persons may easily fall.
The first error consists in ignoring or making little of the Beatific Vision, after the resurrection, and letting our mind pass from creature to creature, gathering exquisite pleasures from each, until practically we make man's happiness in heaven come almost exclusively from creatures. This is, substantially, the view which Protestants take of heaven. They have written books on the subject, in which they speak eloquently and even learnedly on the joys involved in the mutual recognition of friends and kindred, on the delights we shall enjoy in our social intercourse with the saints and angels, in the music that shall ravish our very souls, and other things of that nature. In a word, they maintain, as well as we do, that, in heaven, man will enjoy every possible intellectual, moral, and sensible pleasure, and that nothing will be wanting to make him perfectly happy in his whole being.
Here is the Protestant view of heaven. It is certainly far from being gross or carnal. It may even, at first sight, appear not to differ from that which is taught by the Catholic Church. But, on closer examination, the difference becomes apparent. In the Protestant view of heaven, the Beatific Vision is either entirely ignored, or, if mentioned at all, it is explained so as to mean next to nothing; at hast, it does not appear to add anything to the exquisite happiness already enjoyed in creatures. In their view heaven is really nothing more than a natural beatitude, such as might leave been enjoyed even in this world, if Adam had not sinned.
We must, therefore, be on our guard against any view of heaven which would make its principal happiness come from creatures. We must ever remember that no creature, either here or hereafter, can give perfect happiness to man. Wherefore, in our meditations on heaven, we must beware of making its chief happiness consist in delightful music, social intercourse with the saints, or in the pleasures enjoyed through the glorified senses, however pure and refined we may imagine them to be. This, then, is the first error to be avoided, and with much care; not only because it is untrue, but because also it lowers the beatitude of heaven, which consists essentially in the vision, love, and enjoyment of God himself.
The second error to be avoided consists in placing the whole happiness of man so completely and exclusively in the Beatific Vision, that neither the resurrection of the body with its glorious gifts, nor the communion of saints, nor heavenly music, nor any other creature, can increase the happiness already enjoyed by the soul in the possession of God. In this extreme and exclusive view of the Beatific Vision, man is so completely absorbed in God, and so perfectly happy in Him, that the whole creation is to him as if it were not; and if he were the only man ever created, or the only one in heaven, his joys would be precisely the same as they are, now that he is surrounded with angels, saints, and other creatures of God.