336. The communion of saints in Heaven
336. THE COMMUNION OF SAINTS IN HEAVEN
What will we say to each other in Heaven?
Of those who see God in His essence, each one sees in His essence so much the more things according as he sees the divine essence the more clearly. And hence it is that one is able to instruct another concerning these things. Thus the knowledge of the angels and of the souls of the saints can go on increasing (S92,3).
This is why Heaven will never be boring. There is always something new, something more, in God’s infinity for our finite minds to know, love, wonder at, and be fascinated with.
C. S. Lewis says in The Problem of Pain:
“For doubtless the continually successful, yet never complete, attempt by each soul to communicate its vision to all others (and that by means whereof earthly art and philosophy are but clumsy imitations) is also among the ends for which the individual was created.”
There is a practical consequence for our present life in this distant Heavenly ideal. The more we practice this “communion of saints” now, the readier we are for Heaven and the less Purgatory we will need. This casts a new light on our primary practical commandment in this life, to love our neighbors: it is not only for their and our good in time, but also preparation for our and their eternal blessedness. And not only in terms of reward (though that too), but in terms of creating our capacity for greater understanding, appreciation, and enjoyment of God in Heaven.
For it is God Himself, and not just this “communion of saints” in Heaven by which each of the saved will instruct others about God, that is the essence of our Heavenly happiness. The communion of saints is a property of it, a consequence or overflow, so to speak. For if this is not so, if the communion of saints is our end and God our necessary means to it, that reduces God to a means and not our final end. The communion of saints will be a great part of our Heavenly happiness, but it is not necessary. Only God is necessary. If without the communion of saints we cannot possibly be happy in Heaven, then God alone is not sufficient for our happiness, then God is only a part, and not the whole, or the essence, of our happiness. In that case God is not God, but a god, something more like Zeus. This is St. Thomas’ point in the next paragraph:
The desire of the saints to know all things will be fulfilled by the mere fact of their seeing God, just as their desire to possess all good things will be fulfilled by their possessing God. For as God suffices the affections in that He has perfect goodness, and by possessing Him we possess all goods . . . so the vision of Him suffices the intellect: Lord, show us the Father and it is enough for us (Jn 14:8) (S92,3).
St. Anselm puts the point beautifully in his Proslogium:
“If particular goods are enjoyable, consider carefully how enjoyable is that good which contains the joyfulness of all goods. . . . In fact, all the goods of body and soul will be there such that ‘neither eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man conceived’ (1 Cor 2:9). Why, then, do you wander about so much, O tiny man, seeking the goods of your soul and body? Love the one good in which all good things are, and that is sufficient. Desire the simple good which contains every good, and that is enough. For what do you love, O my flesh, and what do you desire, O my soul? There it is, there it is, whatever you love, whatever you desire.”