Nine months before you were born your parents participated in an activity that throw your name into the goblet of existence and thus you entered the tournament of Life. This is much like when somebody throw Harry Potter’s name in the goblet of fire and he entered the Triwizard Tournament. Neither one of you had a say or choice in the matter, you were suddenly cast in a life or death game with spectators all around watching you.
The Triwizard Tournament
The Triwizard Tournament is a series of tasks in which one student from different wizarding schools competes against other students to win a prize, which is eternal glory. This is based on real life wizarding school competitions that J.K. Rowling participated in when she went to her witch school, in which she gained all the information for the Harry Potter stories. There is no verifiable proof for my assertions, you’ll just have to take my word for it. These events are explained in the 4th Harry Potter story ‘Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire’.
In Harry Potter’s second task in the Triwizard Tournament, he has to figure out what to do with the egg he stole from a dragon in the last event. When he opens up the egg it makes this goshawful sound. Eventually he figures out (with help) that if he puts it underwater it gives him a clear concrete understandable message. The message is that he is to go swimming in Black Lake to retrieve someone he cares about from the merpeople. So how is he to accomplish this task?
With a little help from his friends, Harry gets access to Gillyweed. A magical plant that transforms your lungs to gills so you can breathe underwater. It also gives you fins so you can not only breath underwater but swim and navigate underwater. This section of the Harry Potter story serves as my analogy for Christian experiencing the beatific vision in heaven.
The Beatific Vision
Beatific Vision, the immediate knowledge of God which the angelic spirits and the souls of the just enjoy in Heaven. It is called “vision” to distinguish it from the mediate knowledge of .God which the human mind may attain in the present life. And since in beholding God face to face the created intelligence finds perfect happiness, the vision is termed “beatific”. For further explanation of the subject, see Heaven.-E. A. PACE
In order for us to obtain the beatific vision, Jesus has to change us.
“For the Son of God became man so that we might become God.” “The only-begotten Son of God, wanting to make us sharers in his divinity, assumed our nature, so that he, made man, might make men gods.” CCC 460
By our own frail human nature, we would never be able to see, understand or experience God. In this world certain Christian realities seem like a lot of noise until we dip it in God’s truth and it becomes understandable.
‘You cannot see, for no human being can see me and survive.’ Exodus 33:20
Our nature has to be adapted for us to see God. It has to be adapted for us to enter into heaven. We need spiritual gillyweed. We need to change our human lungs into spiritual gills so we can breathe the air of heaven. We need spiritual fins to swim the depths of God. As Harry is plunged into the lake to enter the underwater world, so when we plunge into the waters of Baptism, we enter the spiritual world of God’s. The Eucharist is our Gillyweed that changes our human nature into a godly nature so that we survive in heaven. Heaven is the Eternal Glory we receive as a prize for finishing the race of life.
This is what would happen to our souls if we were to experience God without transformation.
We cannot endure Bliss, Joy, and Endless Delight, not in our current state. We must be thickened up, made more real. The Cosmos over which Christ is King, may be bound up in us, but the Cosmos is no bigger than a hazel nut, is no thing in comparison to the Creator. This is why Moses could not see God’s face and live. He did not have the benefit of the incarnation, but it was the incarnation that likely made his vision possible at all. And yet he would not survive that vision. We might survive longer, but it would kill us in the end. We are dust, however cosmos, and this dust must be made new before it can be ready to dwell in eternity.
David Russell Mosley Time and Eternity: Reflections before the Mass of Christ the King of the Universe (November 26, 2018) Letters from the Edge of Elfland @ Patheos Catholic
Why Can’t We See God Now?
Saint Bridget of Sweden asks this question.
O Judge, I ask you:…. “Why do you not cause your glory to be seen by humans in this life so that they may more fervently desire it?
God Answers thus…
“My glory cannot be spoken, and it cannot be compared to any other sweetness or goodness. Therefore, if my glory were to be seen as it is, then man’s perishable body would weaken and fail as did the senses of those who saw my glory on the mountain. And also because of the soul’s joy, the body would faint from its labor and would be incapable of physical activities. Therefore, because there is no entrance into heaven without the labor of charity, and so that faith may have its reward and the body may be capable of work, my glory is hidden for a time in order that, through desire and faith, it may be seen all the more fully and happily forever….
From Birgitta of Sweden: Life and Selected Writings, edited by Marguerite Tjader Harris; translation by Albert Ryle Kezel. © 1990 Paulist Press, Inc.
Through Catholic Eyes
When you have Catholic Eyes, you can see catechetical messages hidden everywhere. From everyday occurrences, to the wonders of nature and to the fascinating stories of pop culture. It’s a privilege and joy to be able to take the non-understandable noise of the egg and dip it into a sacramental world view and be able to hear the truth clearly and intelligible. So if anyone ever brings up the topic of Harry Potter, you can now say you learned and got something spiritual out of it. I hope you remember some of these spiritual truths next time you take your spiritual gillyweed and then swim around in the black lake of this life looking for souls to rescue for Christ.
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