Who will be able to get into heaven?
July 29, 2019 at 12:37 p.m.
It might surprise you to know that you don’t have to be a Catholic to get into heaven. For that matter, you don’t even have to be a Christian, but you do have to detest evil. All salvation will come through the redemptive power of Jesus Christ.
Pope John Paul II, in his encyclical “Redemptoris Missio,” wrote:
“The universality of salvation means that it is granted not only to those who explicitly believe in Christ and have entered the Church. Since salvation is offered to all, it must be made concretely available to all. But it is clear that today, as in the past, many people do not have an opportunity to come to know or accept the Gospel revelation or to enter the Church. ... For such people salvation in Christ is accessible by virtue of a grace. ... This grace comes from Christ; it is the result of his sacrifice.”
Does this idea cause you to wonder who can get into heaven?
A lot of people are like the Pharisees, who condemned Jesus for allowing a common prostitute to bathe his feet with her tears. No one but God can judge someone else’s level of holiness. Remember the words of Jesus: “The last will be first, and the first will be last.”
Caryll Houselander wrote a beautiful book entitled, “The Reed of God.”
In the book he writes: “How is it that people who do not believe in any creed, who have no moral standards and who do not recognize charity as a thing necessary for salvation are often conspicuously kind, warm-hearted, and tolerant; whereas professing Christians are often notoriously hard, censorious, and exacting? How is it that a person known to be ‘religious’ is often the very last person to whom we would go with a burden of shame?”
Given these thoughts, here are some things to ponder:
1. Heaven is a place. There has to be “locus” because we are human beings; we are not pure spirits like the angels. Our bodies require a place to live and walk and be.
2. Heaven is also a state. It is a state of bliss, which comes from living intimately with God.
3. Heaven is a kingdom of justice. Like the angels and archangels, there may be different levels of holiness among heaven’s citizens. The difference may be monumental in some cases, such as between Mother Teresa and the last wicked sinner, who managed to repent in time to be saved.
As Luke reminds us: “There will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous people who have no need of repentance.”
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It might surprise you to know that you don’t have to be a Catholic to get into heaven. For that matter, you don’t even have to be a Christian, but you do have to detest evil. All salvation will come through the redemptive power of Jesus Christ.
Pope John Paul II, in his encyclical “Redemptoris Missio,” wrote:
“The universality of salvation means that it is granted not only to those who explicitly believe in Christ and have entered the Church. Since salvation is offered to all, it must be made concretely available to all. But it is clear that today, as in the past, many people do not have an opportunity to come to know or accept the Gospel revelation or to enter the Church. ... For such people salvation in Christ is accessible by virtue of a grace. ... This grace comes from Christ; it is the result of his sacrifice.”
Does this idea cause you to wonder who can get into heaven?
A lot of people are like the Pharisees, who condemned Jesus for allowing a common prostitute to bathe his feet with her tears. No one but God can judge someone else’s level of holiness. Remember the words of Jesus: “The last will be first, and the first will be last.”
Caryll Houselander wrote a beautiful book entitled, “The Reed of God.”
In the book he writes: “How is it that people who do not believe in any creed, who have no moral standards and who do not recognize charity as a thing necessary for salvation are often conspicuously kind, warm-hearted, and tolerant; whereas professing Christians are often notoriously hard, censorious, and exacting? How is it that a person known to be ‘religious’ is often the very last person to whom we would go with a burden of shame?”
Given these thoughts, here are some things to ponder:
1. Heaven is a place. There has to be “locus” because we are human beings; we are not pure spirits like the angels. Our bodies require a place to live and walk and be.
2. Heaven is also a state. It is a state of bliss, which comes from living intimately with God.
3. Heaven is a kingdom of justice. Like the angels and archangels, there may be different levels of holiness among heaven’s citizens. The difference may be monumental in some cases, such as between Mother Teresa and the last wicked sinner, who managed to repent in time to be saved.
As Luke reminds us: “There will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous people who have no need of repentance.”
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