*

Heaven
A common way
of speaking of
the dwelling
place of God is
“up there”, out
of this world,
“beyond the
clouds”
 *
*Christians believe
that God is in the
world, then heaven is
already in the world
and in some way part
of our experience.

By faith in our Lord Jesus Christ we are already

taken up into him
 *So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new
creation: everything old has passed away;
see, everything has become new! 2 Cor 5:17

Thus, our
resurrection to a new
life is a reality while
we still live this one

* Blessed be the God and Father of

our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us
in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly
realms.
Ephesians 1:3
 We already experience
the spiritual blessings
that belong to heaven,
that is union with God
and personal
fulfillment.

If with Christ you died to the spiritual forces of the

world, why do you live as if you belong to this world?
Colossians 2:20
 * We are in the world but
not of it. By our baptism
we have died to sin and
risen to a new life. This
new life is a present
experience; we must not
go back to the old one.

Christian Scriptures strongly suggests that the

heaven we hope for is a present experience, not a
purely future one; it is part of the eternal life we
have already begun to live.
*Our hope is a clear experience that in heaven we
shall be reunited with our loved ones, in that
sense we already have experience that reunion,
for the dead person lives on in our memory.
* The satisfaction we experience for a job well done,
the fulfillment of our legitimate desires, the
achievement of goals we set ourselves, are all
images of the happiness of heaven.
*
*1. FACE-TO-FACE VISION
WITH GOD
*Deep and enduring
understanding of God,
an understanding that
is more than
intellectual exercises
but a full personal
experience.
 *Our experience of heaven
* 2. HEAVEN IS A will depend to a large
BANQUET. extend on how we have
carried out the
commission given us by
Jesus to change and
transform the world, to
establish the reign of
God. Our enjoyment and
vision of God is
inextricably bound up
with our relationship and
our responsibilities
towards others.
*We experience heaven here on earth.
*Heaven exist in the transformation of our Human
life.
*Human life – the whole of creation- will be
transformed, not destroyed; the seeds of that
transformation have already been sown, and now
“we wait for adoption, the redemption of our
bodies.”
 *Life is moving towards fulfillment and we
contribute to that fulfillment if we care for and
love one another.
*You have made me for yourself, O Lord, and our
heart are restless until they rest in you.
*St. Augustine