A Sunday Thought About Connecting with Heaven

Connecting with Heaven may not be at the forefront of our minds every day. Sure, we pray, we work for the greater glory of God. Ideally, we're charitable to our fellow man and make an effort to perform corporal and spiritual works of mercy whenever possible. We may even think that these will help us get to Heaven some day. 

But all of this, admirable and meritorious as it may be, focuses here and now on earth. Heaven remains elsewhere. And, of course, there's truth in this. Earth isn't Heaven. When we call this life a Vale of Tears, there's a reason for it. Heaven is nothing like a Vale of Tears.

Despite this obvious separation, though, we can't think of our lives here on earth and what we hope will some day be an eternal life in Heaven as divided by a kind of Berlin Wall or Great Wall of China that keeps us separate and apart.

We could overcome such a separation by thinking: Body of Christ. His Mystical Body, of which He is Head, consists of Church Triumphant (those in Heaven), Church Militant (us on earth), Church Suffering (the souls in Purgatory). As with any body, these are not separate mutually exclusive parts or components. 

The Body of Christ isn't just some intellectual concept. It's real, a real Body. We are united together in that Body. All are connected; no separation.

Here's another way we can both perceive and practice our connection: through the Liturgy.

We've been talking about the Liturgy on recent Sundays. Our thoughts aren't meant to be comprehensive. But they're meant to encourage learning about, and participating more in the beautiful Liturgy of our Holy Catholic Church. We've seen that the Liturgy consists of more than the Mass. As we saw last time, it's the Mass, the Sacraments, and all the symbols, ceremonies, exhortations, prayers, etc. that surround them. 

And while the beauty of the Liturgy may, by itself, compel us to drink deeply of it, the idea that we connect with Heaven can be even more compelling. As is true of the connection between the three parts of the Body of Christ, this connection is not some theoretical construct. It is real. To help us more clearly and assuredly appreciate this connection, we turn again to The Soul of the Apostolate. It's author, Dom Chautard, addresses Jesus in describing the mission of His Church:

"...continuing until the end of time the prayer and praise which Your Heart never ceased to send up to Your Father during Your mortal life and which It still goes on offering to Him in the Tabernacle and in the splendor of Your glory in heaven."

Yes, the Liturgy expresses this praise of Jesus Christ for the Father, begun in His mortal life on earth. It extends that praise beyond His Ascension into Heaven. We who participate in the Liturgy thus join Him in this praise for God the Father. But as we lift up our minds and hearts in praise, we can not only glimpse our eternal home, Heaven, we actually touch it here and now, on earth:

"The Church, who loves you as a Spouse, and who is full of a Mother's love for us, which comes to her from Your own Heart, has carried out this twofold task. That is how those wonderful collections were formed, which include all the riches of the Liturgy. 

Ever since the Church has been uniting  her praises to those which the angels and her own elect children have been giving to God in heaven. In this way, she already begins to do here below , what is destined to occupy her for all eternity.

United to the praises of the man-God, this praise, this prayer of the Church, becomes divine and the Liturgy of the earth becomes one with that of the celestial hierarchies in the Court of Christ, echoing that everlasting praise which springs forth from the furnace of infinite love which is the Most Holy Trinity."

Dom Chautard tells us that the Church models her Liturgy on those prayers and rituals of praise in conjunction with those offered to the Father in Heaven. These have never been merely arbitrary, purely man-made concoctions. Changing the Liturgy in any way must be undertaken with the greatest care and gravity. (That's, by the way, one of the objections some have to the changes fashioned after Vatican II - a subject for another time.) In its time-fashioned and time-honored form, the Liturgy we pray on earth becomes one with that of Heaven.

It stands to reason then that if we participate more fully in the Liturgy of the Church daily, we daily connect with Heaven. Instead of waiting for Heaven, as we might for a bus, or train, or plane, we already touch and taste that eternal reward that awaits the elect even as we remain rooted to the earth. 

The Liturgy thus becomes more than a recital of words, or physical presence at Mass. The traditional "smells and bells" don't merely titillate the sense, but they enliven the soul and help it touch the Divine. They assist us in growing closer to God  - Who is both within and in Heaven.

Dom Chautard thus begins to take us past the superficial understanding of the Liturgy to its deeper recesses. More next Sunday...