What is Heaven according to Catholic teaching?
Heaven is the ultimate end and the fulfillment of the deepest human longings, the state of supreme, definitive happiness with God.
Those who die in God's grace and friendship and are perfectly purified live forever with Christ. They see God as he is, face to face—a mystery known in Catholic theology as the Beatific Vision. In this communion of love with the Blessed Trinity, the Virgin Mary, the angels and all the saints, every sorrow, tear and pain is extinguished forever.
Heaven is not an abstract, boring cloud. It is overflowing, dynamic life in God, surpassing all human comprehension. As Saint Paul writes: 'What eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor human heart conceived, what God has prepared for those who love him.'
Sources
- Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraph 1023
- Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraph 1024
- 1 Corinthians 2:9
Awaiting review by the chaplaincy. Written in our own words; the Church's own texts are the authority.