To my mind there are fewer more beautiful words in the Scripture than the phrases found in St. Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians to be heard at Mass this coming Sunday. The Apostle advises his readers on the inscrutable and unfathomable fullness of God to be enjoyed by the just in the age to come. St. Paul instructs: “Eye has not seen nor ear heard nor has it entered into the heart of man what things God has prepared for those who love him” (1Cor.2:9). And indeed, the heavenly existence to be enjoyed by the redeemed in eternity is well beyond the scope of the sharpest eye or the keenest ear. The saved perceive God now “through a glass darkly,” as one antique translation records the Apostle’s words elsewhere in this Corinthian letter. “For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known” (1 Cor.13:120). Heaven will indeed be that face-to-face encounter with God, that Beatific Vision as church theologians have solemnly phrased the splendid event.
St. Paul’s memorable words to the church of Corinth are actually a quote from the equally memorable words of Isaiah (64:3): “No ear has ever heard, no eye ever seen, any God but you working such deeds for those who wait for him.” The prospect of eternal life was fairly fresh even in the beginning of the Christian era, so Isaiah’s rather broad hint that God has something favorable for those willing to “wait” is notable. The life of the believer, even in the Hebrew era as well as in the Christian era, is a life based on promises, promises about the restoration of Israel for the Jewish believer and promises about the restoration of Eden for the Christian believer.
The Garden of Eden was indeed heaven on earth for Adam and Eve. God would come down “in the breezy time of the day” and walk through the garden with our first parents. They encountered God face to face and indeed they encountered one another face to face with no shame to their nakedness. But the sin of Adam and Eve blurred their vision and dulled their hearing. They hid from themselves and they hid from God. “Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made loincloths for themselves. When they heard the sound of the LORD God walking about in the garden at the breezy time of the day, the man and his wife hid themselves from the LORD God among the trees of the garden.”
Original sin meant the loss of the ability to face God, to hear God and to enjoy the presence of God. Yes, sin alienated human from human: Adam and Eve hid from one another behind fig leaves. But more importantly, sin alienated humanity from God: the first couple crouched behind trees to keep out of God’s sight and hearing. It would take the fruit of another tree, the tree of Christ’s Cross, to restore the intimacy that the first humans had enjoyed in the presence of God.
Through Christ “and him crucified” a foretaste of heavenly bliss would be granted to the Christian believer even in this sinful world. The Spirit, shared with the believing community through the Scriptures, the sacraments and service to neighbor, would gradually deepen in the hearts of humankind an appreciation of the Divine Life to come. St. Paul writes in the same letter to Corinth that a foretaste of heaven would be “revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit scrutinizes everything, even the depths of God.” The Holy Spirit, the loving heart of God himself, is shared with the earnest believer even in this life and reveals to the faithful disciple the hidden depths of God’s love. Day by day, through prayer and good works, the devout soul comes gradually to know God, to see God and to hear God. The Christian life well lived contains a broad and gentle hint of the heavenly existence “prepared for those who love him.”
The bishops of the United States have initiated a year of promotion of the adoration of Christ Present in the Blessed Sacrament. The Divine Presence during Mass, the Divine Presence during Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament, the adoration of Christ Present in the tabernacle, the appropriate enthronement of Christ into one’s hands at Communion time, and even token gestures of respect for the sacrament like genuflections, silence in church, tipping one’s hat or signing one’s forehead while passing a church are all traditional and significant indications that the believer truly appreciates the Eucharistic Presence as spiritual nourishment for this life and as a foretaste of the heavenly bliss “prepared for those who love him.”
