God made man to be with Him in perfect happiness forever. This is what we call Heaven, or the Beatific Vision. The Beatific Vision is the perfection of our participation in the divine nature.6 It is eternal life. Eternal life does not mean mere perpetual existence; that in itself would be entirely unsatisfying. Eternal life means to participate in the very Life of the Eternal Triune God. It is the immediate [unmediated] knowledge of God, the intuitive face to face vision of the divine essence.7 To see God, who is all-perfect, and from whom all good thing come, entails that the deepest longing of our heart (i.e. our rational appetite) is perfectly satisfied. We cannot desire anything more than God, because there is not and cannot be any good that is not found in God.8 This is why the Beatific Vision, once possessed, cannot be lost. This is why the saints in heaven cannot sin. It is not because God binds up their will so they can no longer sin. Rather, by the greater light of divine goodness they are freed from the susceptibility to sin. Nothing can tempt them to turn away from God, because in the light of the Beatific Vision no created good even compares to God. This Beatific Vision is our final end, the purpose for which we were made.
Tuesday, May 7, 2013
Beatific Vision/ or eternal life
first quote from here: http://www.calledtocommunion.com/2009/07/the-gospel-and-the-meaning-of-life/
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