Theresa in Fresno, California, listening on the Immaculate Heart radio app, you
are on with Karlo Broussard, what's your question? Good morning, good afternoon,
thanks for taking my call. My question is, I have a friend who
doesn't have any religious background and she is concerned that
there is no one in Heaven who wants to see her.
So I don't know what to say to that, I told her, "I will be there, Jesus wants to see you, Mary
wants to see you," and will we see our loved ones in Heaven?
Oh, very good question. Yes so Theresa, I would commend you for the answer that
you gave this individual in saying that you want to see her,
if by the Grace of God you indeed make it to heaven; Jesus definitely wants
to see her, the Blessed Mother and all the saints want to see her and that is
absolutely correct. Teresa, you know when we get in Heaven the Church teaches that
we will not only experience happiness by virtue of our knowledge and communion
with God, but also our knowledge and our communion with the mystical Body of
Christ, with other members of the mystical body of Christ and we will have--
currently the Blessed in Heaven don't have their bodies yet but they have an
awareness and the knowledge given to them by God of who is present
among the Blessed in Heaven. But when we get our glorified bodies back we will
actually see the other members of the mystical Body of Christ and those
dwelling in the New Heaven and the New Earth with us, we will recognize them, we
will remember them from our relationships here in this life. So this
is something that you can continue to share with your friend and say, "There
will be knowledge of others." We will know who is there, we will communicate with
them by the graces and the power that God gives us, and we will have our
glorified bodies where we will see each other, including our Blessed Lord,
including the Blessed Mother, see each other in all of their glorified bodies
recognizing each other and from that intimate knowledge and communion with
other saints in the New Heaven and the New Earth, Teresa, we're gonna experience
happiness, the happiness flowing not only from the Beatific Vision of God, but also
the happiness flowing from this communion of this relationship with
other members of the mystical Body of Christ. Does that make sense? Yeehaw! I guess it
does make sense. Yes ma'am! Thank you so much. Thank you very much Teresa for that
call and for that question. And you mentioned the a New Heaven and a New
Earth, and we're to take that literally, that there will be a New Earth? That's
right, well, the Church teaches definitively, for example in paragraphs
1042 - 1044, the Catechism is affirming a constant teaching of the Church, which is
also found in Sacred Scripture, that there will be a New Heaven and the
New Earth. The Catechism states how the universe will be renewed, there will be a
new universe, the universe will be transformed as the Catechism states in
paragraph 1046 - 47 within that area. So the material universe will continue to
exist but it will be transfigured, you might say transformed, taking on new
characteristics akin to the new characteristics that we're going to get
in our glorified bodies, such as incorruptibility. There will be no more
decay in the material universe, so we will have physical bodies with new
qualities and properties and characteristics, by the Grace of God it's a
miracle, and even the physical universe will continue to exist with new
characteristics, new properties, according to Church teaching but also according to
Sacred Scripture as well. For example, St. Paul writes about in Romans 8:18 through
25 where the creation would no longer be subject to decay, and of course in
Revelation chapter 21 you know Christ is talking about, "Behold, I
make all things new," and St. John is talking about a New Heaven and a New
Earth.