Fr. Paul D. Williams, Jr.
At the end of his book, “The Problem of Pain”, C.S. Lewis talks about heaven. He says, “We are very shy nowadays of even mentioning heaven. We are afraid of the jeer about ‘pie in the sky,’ and of being told that we are trying to ‘escape’ from the duty of making a happy world here and now into dreams of a happy world elsewhere. But either there is ‘pie in the sky’ or there is not. If there is not, then Christianity is false, for this doctrine is woven into its whole fabric. If there is, then this truth, like any other, must be faced. Again, we are afraid that heaven is a bribe, and that if we make it our goal we shall no longer be disinterested. It is not so. Heaven offers nothing that a mercenary soul can desire. It is safe to tell the pure in heart that they shall see God, for only the pure in heart want to. There are rewards that do not sully motives. [A man’s love for a woman is not mercenary because he wants to marry her, nor his love of poetry mercenary because he wants to read it, nor his love of exercise less disinterested because he wants to run and leap and walk.] Love, by definition, seeks to enjoy its object.”
On the mountain that day, our Lord gave his apostles a glimpse of heaven, a foretaste of the glory to come. He was transfigured before their eyes, and Peter, James and John were able to glimpse his divinity and hear it confirmed by the Father, “This is my beloved Son on whom my favor rests.”
No wonder Peter wanted to stay! A week earlier, he had made his famous confession, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” And now the voice of the Father in heaven had confirmed that truth. (CCC 555) And before Peter’s eyes was the goal we all seek, the object that the love planted in our hearts seeks to enjoy. And that goal was Jesus Christ in all his glory, and just as Peter desired to stay and rest with him on the mountain that day, we desire to be united with him in heaven for all eternity.
Now what will heaven be like? The catechism describes heaven as “the ultimate end and fulfillment of the deepest human longings, the state of supreme, definitive happiness.” It is “perfect life with the Most Holy Trinity - a communion of life and love with the Trinity, with the Virgin Mary, the angels and all the blessed.” (CCC 1024) To be in heaven is “to be with Christ”, to live in Christ, and to find your own true identity in him. (CCC 1025) St. Thomas says something interesting about heaven. In heaven, he says, “the blessed will be given more than they ever wanted or hoped for.” (Catechesis on the Creed - ST) Even if we see our human desires as vast and great, in fact, they are not great enough, and indeed they are nothing when compared to the infinite God. Like St. Paul said, “eye has not seen, and ear has not heard, and it has not even entered the human heart, what God has prepared for those who love him”.
No wonder Peter wanted to stay! He knew his goal, he saw a glimpse of it, and he wanted to enjoy it right then and there. But he still did not know what it would take to reach that goal. For on that day “Jesus was transfigured before their eyes. His face became as dazzling as the sun, his clothes as radiant as light.” But just a few weeks later, that same face would be streaked with blood, for his sacred head would be pierced with a crown of thorns. Those same clothes would be stripped from him and soldiers would cast lots to steal them as they drove nails into his hands and feet to hang him on the Cross.
There is one path to glory, one path to heaven, and that is through the Cross of Calvary. Jesus freely chose that Cross, which means that none of us can avoid that, as St. Paul would tell Timothy, “Bear your share of the hardship which the Gospel entails.” Tradition holds that Jesus revealed himself on that day to give his apostles courage for the coming trial, and indeed Peter would remember it his whole life. But Peter still had to learn the meaning of the Cross.
St. Augustine would write about the Transfiguration and tell Peter, “Come down, Peter: you desired to rest on the mountain; come down, preach the word, be persistent in season, out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and teaching. (2 Tim 4:2) ... The glory [you see] has been reserved for you, Peter, but for after death. For now, Jesus says to you, ‘Go down to toil on earth; to serve on earth, to be scorned and crucified on earth. [I am the] Life who goes down to be killed; [I am the] Bread who goes down to suffer hunger; [I am] the Way goes down to be exhausted on his journey; [I am the] Fountain who goes down to suffer thirst; and you refuse to suffer? Seek not your own. Have charity, preach the truth; then you shall come to eternity, where you will find your rest.’” (NPNF1, v6, p348 - CCC 556)
Some may say, like C.S. Lewis pointed out, that our hope for heaven is a mere “pie in the sky” dream, or a “cleverly concocted myth.” But that is not the case. Heaven is a reality, proven by the testimony of eyewitnesses, which is altogether reliable, and proven by Jesus’ resurrection, which is altogether irrefutable. And our striving towards heaven calls us not to complacency, but action; not to an escape, but to an embrace of the trials of this life; not to indifference to the problems of the world, but to a duty to make the world a better place.
Pope Paul VI would say this, “Haven’t we frequently felt the temptation to let Christianity be comfortable, devoid of sacrifice, of having to conform to the easy-going and worldly ways of others? But that is not how Our Lord meant it to be. Christian life cannot dispense with the Cross since it has no meaning without the hard, pressing weight of duty. If we were to attempt to remove the cross from our lives, we would be creating illusions for ourselves and weakening the Faith, since we would have transformed Sacred Tradition into a soft and complacent style of life.” (iCwG, v7, p72)
St. John Vianney, the patron saint of parish priests, understood this well and would say, “Oh my God, I prefer to die loving you than to live a single instant without loving you... I love you my divine Savior, because you were crucified for us... because you have me crucified for you.”
The prophet Isaiah said, “Though your sins be as scarlet, I will make them white as snow.” And on the Mount of the Transfiguration, we saw what that meant. For Jesus was seen there, dazzling like the sun, radiant as light - white as snow. And if we are to join him one day in glory, then we must join him on the Cross. For it is only there that our sins are forgiven, only there that we will pass onto glory, only there that we will possess the object of all our love, Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
