Vigils Reading – Office for the Dead

THE HAPPINESS OF HEAVEN

From a letter by St Alphonsus Liguori

◊◊◊

While we remain on earth, it is difficult, if not impossible, to understand

or describe the happiness of heaven. One reason for this is that we think and

imagine only in terms of earthly enjoyments. If a horse were made capable of

reasoning and then were promised a rich feast from its owner, the animal would

envision a meal made up of the choicest hay and oats. Our concept of heaven is

formed under the same limitations. In heaven we will be totally enthralled with

a beauty far surpassing anything we have experienced here on earth. In heaven

we will be sure that we love God and he loves us.

What is more, this love of ours will be constantly extended by the ever

increasing knowledge that we will gain of the magnitude of God’s love for us. We

will see how God showed this love, for example, by becoming man and dying on

the cross for us and by giving us himself in the holy Eucharist.

Also, we will see how many graces God gave us in our lifetime; how he

delivered us from so may temptations; how much patience he showed by

enduring our many weaknesses and sins; how merciful he was to us in giving us

so many lights, so many chances, so much love.

In heaven we will forever enjoy a kind of happiness which, even as eternity

progresses, will always be as new as at the first moment we began to enjoy it. We

shall be always satisfied, yet always craving. We will be forever hungry, yet always

sated with infinite delights, because desires in heaven produce no pain, and

pleasure in heaven never becomes boring.