So my mind, held in absolute suspense,
Was staring fixed, intent, and motionless,
And by its staring grew the more inflamed.
Within that Light a person is so changed
It is impossible to give consent
Ever to turn from it to other sights
For everything the will has ever sought,
Is gathered there and there is every quest
Made perfect, which apart from it is flawed . . .
Here powers failed my high imagination:
But by now my desire and will were turned,
Like a balanced wheel rotated evenly,
By the Love that moves the sun and the other stars.
Dante was less interested in the question, "What happens when we die?" than the more pressing question, "How should we live in light of eternity?" Choices between good and evil shape human experience of life for time and eternity, and because decisions are shaped by desires, people must learn to desire God and his will.
Of course, Dante knew no more details regarding heaven and hell than you or I do. Yet his imagination was stirred as ours can be by Jesus' promise: "Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. I am going to prepare a place for you and I will come back and take you to be there with me."
Scripture displays heaven as a life of glorious transformation wherein people finally realize the epitome of their existence. Heaven is the believer's true home. It is relief from earthly suffering and reunion with loved ones as we loved them. It is the New Jerusalem and Paradise Regained, the communion of Saints and the forgiveness of sin, everlasting Easter and countless Christmases. It is the end to death's sting; a perpetual, ongoing, ever-full, ecstatic experience of relationship with Almighty God.
The apostle Paul described it as an "eternal house not made with hands" and even claimed to have gone there himself, albeit sworn to secrecy so that he provided no detailed preview. A vividly symbolic preview does appears in John's Revelation where we read of a double throne of jasper, a sea of crystal framed by a rainbow, winged beasts, saints, and angels all gathered round the throne of God. Revelation gave rise in early Christian communities to increasingly florid portrayals of heaven replete with buildings and streets of precious metals and jewels, palm trees, singing stones, harps, fountains, and ladders. Such splendorous anticipation, if only metaphorical, nonetheless would seem to make heaven imminently preferable. If, however, such anticipation proved unsuccessfully persuasive, there was the undesirable alternative. Jesus himself spoke nearly as much of the infamies of hell as often as he did the glories of heaven. He depicted hell as a place of eternal "weeping and gnashing of teeth" occupied by the damned, be they unrepentant angels or human beings.
Jesus employed an unusually harrowing parable to delineate the chasm of difference. The parable of the rich man and Lazarus was directed toward those in Christ's day who in spite of Old Testament prophetic prediction, stubbornly preferred their own way of life to that eternal way Jesus alone offered. Jesus set up the distinction as a remarkably stark choice: Believe in Christ, enjoy heaven. Refuse Christ, suffer hell. The choice is remarkably stark—though not terribly difficult. We're not talking a rock and a hard place here.
As humanity's ultimate home, heaven is designed to draw you toward itself. You're created to want it. Discontentment, loneliness, wistfulness, these are all reminders that life on earth is not all there is. Our struggles here are designed to turn our hearts heavenward. That we fail to embrace this is due to a failure of imagination (at least when it comes to imagining heaven—hell we can picture). Too often the best we can do when it comes to envisioning heaven is to envy those we assume have a heavenly life on earth already. But here's where Dante should encourage us. Taking Paul's admonition to "set our minds on things above" to its utmost literalness, Dante found that imagining heaven paid genuine earthly benefits. You not only gain perspective with which to navigate life's limitations and disappointments, but you gain a hope that far surpasses the pale, wishful thinking we usually settle for.
However, that's only part of it. Setting our minds on heaven not only gives hope to our hearts, it grants foretastes of hope's actualization. In this world there are signs of the world-to-come: the sick are healed, love is practiced, forgiveness extended, selfishness deterred, conflicts ceased, God is worshipped, the hungry fed, the mournful comforted, prayers are answered, priorities shift. In a most real way, heaven starts the moment you choose it. It shouldn't be a difficult choice to make.
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