We as a people are always asking ourselves “who, what, where, when, why and how. We are constantly digging into our minds to find the answers to the ‘Mystery of life”, and we rarely find it. As earth dwellers the question of heaven and hell, or what’s next, is a question that mankind has been asking since we’ve had the ability to ask the question. Of course the easy answer is we just don’t know what happens after we have exhausted our mortal bodies. While this is true to the extent of scientific proof, we do have some good ideas as how to perceive this question of the hereafter. Attempting to look ahead to something that is beyond the grave is a pretty daunting notion. I do not for a single moment believe that I can come to a conclusion to this question, but I do believe that the more we express our opinions and open our minds we can become more comfortable with this whole idea of death, eternal life and what it means.
God is love; and to be in the presence of God, Spirit, or Higher Power is to experience love in is totality and purity. It is to know a love that is so pure that we cannot experience it during our mortal existence. This can be considered a glimpse into the existence we call heaven, a small peak into a harmony that we really can’t grasp with our minds. I would present “love in its totality” as a mystery in and of its self. There are some things the human mind simply cannot fathom, and I believe that this purity of love is one of them. In biblical scripture it is told that we need to be like a child “... whoever does not accept the kingdom of God like a child will not enter it” (Matt, 18; 17), in order to enter the kingdom of heaven. The word “accept” here is understood as “faith”. What if we change the word “faith” to “love” and read it in this context. A child loves their parents without an exception to who these parents are; they give their love regardless of what they may have done in their pasts. Children love, as do we, because it is our nature to love, we learn to be selfish, we learn greed, and we learn to be mean to others. As we grow to adulthood we have to relearn how to love, albeit the love we give/receive is never perfect.
We see the total absence of God today, only in glimpses to be sure, but we do see them. We see this in the hearts of men and women that are featured on the “breaking news” of the day. These people usually have committed crimes against humanity we would normally consider unthinkable, or heinous in nature. Surly anyone who would commit a crime against the most innocent in our society must have rejected the love that is offered to each of us gratuitously from our God, Spirit, or Higher Power as we understand it. This would be an example of the complete absence of God as a violent expression. Now let’s extend that thought to a non-violent thought. In my paper “To be Apathetic” I convey the idea that the opposite of love is apathy. Imagine a world where nobody cares, not for a single soul. Where children are ignored to the point of starvation, not because they were actively denied food, clothing, and love, but because nobody cared to reach out with charity, which is active love. Remember the word “love” is an action word; you must follow your heart and do good things. Could this be a paradigm of Hell? On the one hand a place of senseless violence and on the other hand a culture of apathetic narcissists.
This is a surface look into an idea of what Heaven and Hell could exist in the future for any of us. Heaven could be anything you consider beyond the most majestic thought of our imaginations, and Hell could be equally atrocious, beyond evil as we might believe possible. With this in mind I will leave you with a well known piece of scripture and I hope it will bring about a new essence of appreciation to you.
(1 Corinthians 13, 13) “So faith, hope, love remain, these three; but the greatest of these is love”.
May the blessings of peace and love fill your hearts with the grace to do good things.
Scripture is from the NABRE
by David E. Gonzales
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