Father Todd: What’s heaven like? May be time to rethink it

Time magazine’s cover story April 16 was entitled “Rethinking Heaven.” The author examines the common belief that heaven is the place you go to when you die.

Most people reject the idea that heaven is a place where we will be floating around with little wings looking like cupids playing harps for all eternity.

Younger Christians see a firm connection between heaven and earth. Heaven is understood more as God’s space on earth than as a celestial region apart from our everyday reality. What happens on earth matters. The Christian life becomes a continuation of the work of Jesus, who will one day return to set the world right.

This is not a new idea. We can find this connection in the Book of Revelations: “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘See, the home of God is among mortals. He will dwell with them as their God; they will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them.’” (Rev. 21:1-3)

If we look at ourselves as agent of heaven trying to make this world a better place to live in, then our purpose in life is not to accumulate “stuff, ” but to be of service to the poor, the sick, the enslaved, the oppressed. Heaven is not just “pie in the sky when you die” but involves acts of unselfish love that bring God’s sacred space and grace to a broken world.

Unfortunately, the article does not examine the primary factors for our beliefs in heaven. A reader reacted to the article by saying, “Your story says 85 percent of Americans believe in heaven. That’s incredible. They think of heaven as quiet and peaceful, with no need to do anything. Sounds pretty dull to me. What do you do with all of that free time? And it goes on forever and ever!” We can identify with his misunderstanding of heaven.

The worldview we have today and the worldview that people had at the time that the scriptures were written are entirety different. Remember, it was only 500 years ago that we found out that the earth was round, and that the planets, sun, moon and stars did not revolve around us.

However, for our ancestors, the earth was flat, a big Superdome in the sky housed the sun, noon and stars, and God lived in a celestial home above the dome. We used human terms and applied them to God. God sat on his throne, and looked down on the earth from this heavenly chair and sent messengers (angels) to inform earthlings how we should apply the Divine Will.

We still have some carry over from ancient times. If we asked the average person on the street where is heaven, he or she would probably point upward. We all know that God is a Spirit without a human body (of course Jesus has a body) but we still talk about God sitting and having a right hand, etc. However, we learned from our early religious education that God is everywhere.

With that in mind, heaven is not a place but a state or a dimension. If God is everywhere, heaven is not limited to a particular locality. When we look at the universe, we have just begun to explore the planets in our own solar system much less the stars and planets that God has created. We have all eternity to do this.

Heaven is far from being boring. It’s being with God and exploring the universe and different forms of life forever and ever. Amen!